Nets are already confronted with the ugly development of players, the reality of tanking

This is how to refuel.

After getting off to a surprisingly strong start last season under head coach Jordi Fernández, when the Nets were 5-6 in their first eleven games, they enter this season’s eleventh game with a 1-9 mark and a pair of lopsided losses.

Their defense is terrible, and so far their draft of five first-rounders is far too raw to have any positive impact this year.

As the Mavericks are discovering, even landing the clear top player in the draft doesn’t guarantee an immediate turnaround given Cooper Flagg’s slow start to his NBA career for a Dallas team that is in shambles.

But with the Nets positioning themselves for a high lottery pick after falling to eighth in June’s draft, they are looking for some development from their inexperienced players, with their next test coming Tuesday against Toronto at Barclays Center.

At the top of the list is Egor Dëmin, the first of the team’s five picks at No. 8 overall.

He started the previous two games because Cam Thomas was absent with an injury.

Fernández called it “the right time” to put Dëmin in the starting line-up.

The 19-year-old rookie has shot well from the outside, but the BYU product has not shown the ability to pass defenders.

Fernández and the staff have designed more pick-and-rolls for Dëmin, but the results are not yet there in that facet of his game.

As for Ben Saraf, another Nets freshman point guard who was selected with the 26th pick in the draft, he started the first five games of the season before being sent to the team’s Long Island G-League affiliate.

He was joined there on Sunday by fellow rookies Danny Wolf and Nolan Traore.

The 7-foot-2 Wolf, the 27th overall selection, has put up good numbers on Long Island but appeared in just one game for Brooklyn and could have a role on the team if injuries continue to pile up for the Nets.

With fifth-year veteran Day’Ron Sharpe listed as questionable on Tuesday with the same left hamstring tightness that forced him out of Sunday’s loss, it’s possible Wolf could see more action.

Traore, also a 19-year-old point guard, is even further away from contributing at the NBA level, while shooting guard Drake Powell has shown flashes in his four NBA appearances, including 15 points in Sunday’s loss to the Knicks — mostly in garbage time.

In July, Fernández said that “player development will be important” with so many new faces on the roster and little chance of immediate success.

But now the Nets are faced with the ugly reality of what that looks like on a game-by-game basis.

Perhaps one or more of their current rookies will benefit from a loss in the NBA or take advantage of additional playing time in the G-League.

As Fernández noted after Sunday’s loss about the way the minutes are distributed among the first-year players: “We have a good connection with how we want to do things. I want to challenge and develop these guys. There’s not just one path. There are different ways we can do that.”