This was the aggressiveness Nets coach Jordi Fernández wanted to see from freshman point guard Egor Dëmin, who set a franchise record for rookies Monday night against the Warriors with seven made 3-pointers on 14 attempts.
Yet the 19-year-old lottery pick also registered just three assists in 32 minutes and recorded two key turnovers in the fourth quarter as the rebuild of Brooklyn’s first three-game winning streak of the season came to an end.
“The lessons come every day, especially against a good defensive team,” Fernández said of Dëmin after the match. “The three-point line looked good, but his decisiveness and ability to touch the paint and create assists could have been better. And now he’s going to watch film, and he’s always very good at that.”
“He has high expectations for himself and I’m going to say the same thing. I want that three-point shooting percentage and the same aggressiveness, but I want better lineups. I want more paint accents. I want more assists. I want more physicality on both ends. He’s going to try to do his best. That’s a good thing from our young guys. They have high expectations for themselves and they show up the next day and work.”
Dëmin, the first of the Nets’ record five first-round picks this year at No. 8 out of BYU, said after the game that it was “an honor to be on the court at the same time” as future Hall of Fame point guard Steph Curry.
He more than held his own to match the highest scoring performance of his career with 23 points, while also tying Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel for the most three-pointers made by an NBA rookie this season.
“It was a big confidence builder for him,” teammate Nic Claxton said of Dëmin. “He has made some really big shots for us. Obviously there are still a lot of mistakes he can learn from. But the sky is the limit for him and he will continue to get better.”
The 6-foot-2 Dëmin averaged 11.8 points, 3.3 assists and 2.2 turnovers while shooting 38.7 percent from long range during the Nets’ 7-4 stretch in December entering Thursday’s home game against the Rockets.
“Definitely much more comfortable,” Dëmin said. “I think progress looks something like this, I guess, not just for myself, but for everyone. With time, [it will] It becomes easier for me to be on the field, both physically and mentally.
“Well, mentally I understand the game better, right? And I just have to adapt to the game, grow in the right way. I think it’s an honor to be able to spend as much time on the field as Jordi gives me. And I want to be efficient, as I said before the season started, I want to be everywhere and I want to influence the game in many different ways.”
Three other rookies – Nolan Traore, Danny Wolf and Drake Powell – also each played at least 15 minutes against the Warriors, with Traore contributing a career-high nine points on three conversions from beyond the three-point arc.
“That is a good team with a lot of experience between Draymond [Green]Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry, so I was proud of the young guys that went out and competed. They’re getting better and better,” said leading scorer Michael Porter Jr. “Nolan hit some really big shots, and Egor obviously played really well with seven threes.
“So they’re going to get better and better and they’re going to gain more and more experience, and it’s going to become easier and easier for us to compete against really high-level teams. We’re maturing very quickly.”
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