Jordi Fernandez wasn’t in Denver for the coronation, but he helped steer the Nuggets toward the throne.

During his six years on Michael Malone’s staff, en route to his own head coaching job in Brooklyn, he left an indelible imprint on players. “No good memories,” Michael Porter Jr. said, straight-faced. “Not a single one.”

Kidding.

“He was here when I first got here. He was a defensive coach at the time. He really paid attention to me and kind of saw my potential,” Porter told The Denver Post. “Even when I was coming in with an injury, he believed in me, and I was one of his guys that he wanted to really help. … He was intentional about developing the relationship with players.”

Fernandez returned to Colorado as a head coach for the first time on Friday night, leading an injury-depleted Nets squad firmly in rebuild mode. His former players and colleagues caught up with him before and after the game in the hallways underneath Ball Arena, a series of reunions that included one with Nikola Jokic, who beamed when the topic turned to Fernandez’s family. “His daughter turned 7, I think, today,” Jokic said after the Nuggets’ 124-105 win.

“I think he’s doing a good job. I think guys are listening. Guys are playing hard for him. I think that’s really important for a coach. … They are trying to do the right thing. They are trying to do what he is probably telling them. So they have some kind of system, and it’s really cool to see. They’re in the beginning of the process, of course. Hopefully, they can grow.”

Fernandez, 42, first got to know Malone in 2009 when he joined the Cavaliers as a player development coach on Mike Brown’s staff. Malone was an assistant coach in Cleveland at the time, and he was struck by Fernandez’s “enthusiasm for the game; his passion for the game.” Fernandez went on to coach the G League’s Canton Charge; Malone had a cup of coffee as Sacramento’s head coach before ending up in Denver. He hired Fernandez in 2016, one season into his Nuggets tenure.

“Every year that I was here helped prepare me for this job,” Fernandez said Friday. “Michael Malone, the organization, the coaching staff, ownership, front office. Every experience here. It was one of the reasons I’m in the position that I’m in right now. I was able to experience a young team that the majority of the guys were drafted, that we built into a playoff team, made it to the conference finals and then won a championship. So the process really helped me to understand how things work. It’s never going to be the same (in every situation), and it’s never going to be perfect. But going through it here and being part of it I think was a great experience for me as a coach.”