Jordi Fernández’s first major decision as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets came Friday night, when he started Nic Claxton. against the Boston Celtics and removed three-time NBA All-Star Ben Simmons from the team’s starting five.

So far, it has been Simmons starting, with Claxton coming off the bench as he continues to recover from a left hamstring issue that caused him to miss the preseason. Fernández hadn’t really needed to address this lineup question yet, as Claxton was likely preparing for the game, and the two players hadn’t coincided at full health.

For example, Claxton was inactive during the Nets’ first game against the Memphis Grizzlies, in which Simmons played. Then the former got his first start of the season in the team’s second game against Memphis. It wasn’t a complicated decision, however, as Simmons isn’t playing back-to-back nights this season right now and the Nets didn’t have Noah Clowney, Trendon Watford or Day’Ron Sharpe available.

Ultimately, however, this article had to be resolved, and Brooklyn’s game against Boston marked Claxton’s first start of the campaign with Simmons active. This, in turn, has changed the Nets’ rotation – likely for the foreseeable future.

Simons said After the game, in comments picked up by ClutchPoints, he was aware of the roster change before the announcement: “For the flow of the team – whatever the team needs from me, whether it’s coming out from the bench or starting. , I have to do it. This is what Coach wants right now. That’s how it is.”

Brooklyn started Claxton with Dennis Schröder, Cam Thomas, Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith. This was Fernández’s alignment with Simmons, but the fit is much more natural with Claxton inserted instead. Among other things, this means Finney-Smith doesn’t have to defend and compete against other teams’ bigs.

Simmons arrived for the first time with 6:08 left in the first quarter. He came on alongside Ziaire Williams in a substitution that took out Claxton and Finney-Smith. Then the quarter ended — and the second quarter then began — with Simmons surrounded by length and shooting. This seems indicative of how Fernández believes the Australian playmaker, still a non-shooter for all intents and purposes, will thrive.

A very interesting incident occurred 6:30 minutes into the second quarter. Fernández replaced Claxton with Simmons already on the field. The 41-year-old Spaniard had previously mentioned that he was not against playing the two together.

“If you go back two years ago, when Ben and Nic were playing together, their minutes together were very good,” Fernández said before the season. “Last year the sample size was very small. They only played ten games together out of the 15 (Simmons) played, so you can’t use those numbers.

The sequence with Claxton and Simmons together lasted just over two minutes. During this period, the Nets’ offense and defense statistically slowed down. That said, in an extremely small sample size of just 10 minutes of play together this season, the Claxton-Simmons duo has a surprising net rating of +50.24 so far, by PBP statistics.

Simmons left the game with about seven minutes left in the final period, and he did not return afterward. Fernández briefly went to Finney-Smith at center before replacing Claxton and ending the game, throughout overtime, with the former Georgia Bulldog as the man in the middle.

Looking ahead, Simmons doesn’t have any particular expectations for his role – “I try not to expect anything in the NBA,” he said – but this roster move seems like the most logical solution for the Nets (now 4-5). The game is Saturday night against the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers (10-0), although Simmons is not expected to play since it is the rematch of a back-to-back.

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