Besides hoping to go No. 1 overall in the 2026 NBA Draft, the Nets should focus their attention on developing at least one of their young draftees into a strong foundation for the future.
In the Nets’ 119-109 loss to the Raptors on Tuesday night, Egor Dëmin impressed with a career-high 16 points, shooting 5 of 11 from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc.
The 6-foot-1 point guard also added four rebounds and five assists in 28 minutes in what was the best game of his young career.
Overall, the Nets’ new talent is too raw to do any winning damage in another tank year, but the No. 8 pick continues to prove itself as the biggest positive through the first eleven games of the season, and the best bet to become a long-term building block in Brooklyn.
After the match, coach Jordi Fernández was apparently aware of this. He said Dëmin “belongs” in the NBA, but he knows the challenge is to “sustain” his progress.
“You obviously have to learn that he has to grow defensively and be more proactive rather than reactive,” Fernández said. “I think he can catch some drifts there, communicate better and learn the plans. He’s a smart kid. We’ll continue to challenge him to do those things. And he will. But I’m very happy where he is now and what he has shown.”
Tuesday was Dëmin’s third start of the season and third in a row in place of Cam Thomas, who is out three to four weeks with a hamstring injury.
Over the past three games, which have averaged 25.3 minutes, the 19-year-old Russian has averaged 11.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and five assists with just 1.7 turnovers while shooting 48 percent from the field and 47 percent from deep.
With the extra minutes, Dëmin has only become more comfortable in on-ball situations and reading defensive coverages in what he said is a much “bigger” and “faster” environment than his days at BYU.
“Everything comes with the representatives,” Dëmin said. “That’s a big part of my transition at this level. It’s just getting used to things that I haven’t encountered before in terms of the pick-and-roll, the physicality, looking at the different coverages. … And obviously the ball pressure. People tried to put pressure on me because they know I can lose the ball sometimes. But I definitely feel more comfortable with it.”
Dëmin also seemed more comfortable with the pick-and-roll plays the Nets have set up for him and is driving to the paint more often, which has been a big emphasis from his coaches.
In his first four games as a Net, he didn’t take a single shot inside the arc. He scored an average of 2.1 over the last six games.
He had three attempts from inside the arc against the Raptors, including a big drive to the rim on a Nic Claxton pick at the top of the key that gave the Nets a 13-6 lead in the first quarter.
“I feel more comfortable with more looks off the pick-and-roll. I have to get used to it every game. The physicality and the ability to be more aggressive,” he said.
“He missed a lot of time in the preseason with an injury, so that was kind of tough on him, missing training camp and all that. So he’s figuring it out,” Claxton said of Dëmin on Tuesday. “He is willing to attack, wants to go downhill. Of course he still has a very long way to go, but he is taking a lot of steps in the right direction, and I will keep an open dialogue with him so that we can continue to figure it out together.”
It is clear to the Nets and Claxton, who is in his seventh season with the franchise, that Dëmin is coachable. These early signs of potential from the rookie are promising and it will be crucial for the Nets to capitalize on them for the sake of the organization’s future.
#Nets #Egor #Demin #showing #belongs #faces #NBA #challenge