The Brooklyn Nets are heading into next season with tempered expectations, though the chemistry of Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle could help the team shock the world.

It'll be up to Nets coach Jordi Fernandez to draw up the right plays and rotations to optimize the team for success, but there's another element that could help the Nets get over the top.

Former NBA All-Star and New Jersey Nets guard Devin Harris worked with Fernandez during their time with the Denver Nuggets, singing nothing but his praises in an interview with YES Network's Sarah Kustok.

"With Jordi, he's always shown head-coaching abilities and I think with him, the way he relates to his players was big for me," Harris said. "Anytime a player gets moved mid-season, there's always an adjustment period. I attached to him in Denver; it's a totally different system, player-wise, how we expect to play defensive things. And it took me a while to be able to adjust to how they played. And I leaned on Jordi a lot with communication. Obviously, I wasn't there with my family, so he would take me to brunch and lunch and just to kind of make me feel comfortable, but the on-court stuff - being able to show me, go to him like, okay, this is what I see. What do you see? What's the coach expecting during this? That two-week period where I really struggled, he was huge in just kind of directing me to things that I needed to do and what was expected of me.

The on-court performance is what ultimately gets judged, but it's also important to manage things that happen behind the scenes, such as player and team morale.

"There's one word I would use to describe (him) - he's a connector," Harris said. "That's what you want out of a head coach, especially with a young team that is struggling, that's learning how to win. I've been part of those terminal seasons. I've been a part of a season (when) we only won 12 games. That's tough as a team to kind of go through. But to be able to keep those guys connected, keep them excited, to keep them mentally strong throughout their season while they're learning how to win is huge. When you got a coach that's a connector, that's constantly connecting different guys and seeing the big picture, I think is the best type of coach in that kind of situation."