Nolan Traore becomes the newest Nets rookie and gets some tough love from Jordi Fernandez

The Nets trailed for the final 28 minutes of Thursday night’s loss to the Rockets.

But that doesn’t mean those minutes were meaningless.

Coach Jordi Fernández gave rookie Nolan Traore some tough love as he came off the field after some ill-advised three-point attacks made that clear.

The French teenager is a good penetrator and downhill player, but had just two assists on two turnovers and shot just 1-for-8 overall, 1-for-5 from deep on shots he was usually lured into.

“I want him to use his superpowers and touch the paint. And it felt like he got caught shooting the underside. And a lot of times that didn’t work… because that’s what they want you to do,” Fernández said. “And if you keep shooting and missing, sometimes, if you keep doing the same thing and seeing the same results, that’s the definition of madness. And I know how good he is.”

“He can play pick-and-roll; he can touch the paint; he can reject pick-and-rolls; he can play the pass. Two assists and two turnovers is just not good enough. That’s why I wanted him to understand: that I need more. I’m fine with a pull-up 3; I don’t like it because he hasn’t shown he can make it consistently. He can shoot as many catch-and-shoot 3s as he wants, but I didn’t think he played the game the way I wanted to play the game play if he improves by 1 percent [Friday] that’s what I want to see.”

The Nets were missing three-fifths of their starting lineup.

Michael Porter Jr. was absent due to an illness, Terance Mann was absent with a contusion of the right hip and lottery pick Egor Dëmin had pain in his lower back.

“It’s been like that all game, and obviously I’ve been playing him more minutes and making sure he can keep playing. So that’s something that came up, but we think he’ll be fine soon,” Fernández said. “He will support his teammates and be ready for the next one.”

The next one is Friday in Washington.

The Nets moved to fifth in the lottery standings, percentage points ahead of the Hornets. They are 2.5 games behind the Wizards.

The Nets have played the fewest games in the league so far, but are now entering a phase where they are playing four games a week for five consecutive weeks. It remains to be seen how the team will handle Porter (and Dëmin) during that back-to-back stretch.