This season is all about development and Brooklyn’s five first-round picks. But as Jordi Fernández tried to rally his Nets, he sat rookies Egor Dëmin and Ben Saraf for the entire fourth quarter of their 117-112 loss to the Hawks on Wednesday before veterans Tyrese Martin and Terance Mann.
“Tyrese was great,” Fernández said. “So it’s about us, and whoever helps to help the team fight. Here, nothing is given to anyone. So I’m just rewarding a player who has had a great summer and is playing well. It’s very simple.”
Martin had 13 points and five rebounds, including eight points and four boards playing every second of the fourth quarter. Mann finished with a team-high 11 points and a team-high six assists, handling the ball while Dëmin struggled.
“Terance has a good feel for the game overall. He does a little bit of everything, and I like it when he’s aggressive and he gets assists when he gets to the rim and sprays the ball,” Fernández said. “So that’s the energy I wanted to play with. Let it fly. So those six assists are great. It’s good to see.”
Neither Dëmin nor Saraf played in the fourth. The former had four points on 1-for-6 shooting to finish minus-18, and still hasn’t made a shot inside the arc this season.
“Yes, he has to figure it out. Obviously I want him to touch the paint,” Fernández admitted. “All of us, everyone, are going to find out that he’s a threat from the three-point line, but he can’t play just behind the three-point line.
“So, touching the paint, spraying the ball, I’m fine with him finishing with a lot of threes and a lot of assists, but at some point can you be more aggressive when they’re in the bonus? And can you play on two feet, and all that stuff? These are the right steps. I’m not that worried.”
Michael Porter Jr. acknowledged that the Nets will struggle until Dëmin, Saraf and Nolan Traore settle down.
“It starts with the point guard spot. It’s really hard to win in the NBA… we have a lot of rookie point guards that are going to be great in this league for a long time, but they’re still rookies,” Porter said. “The point guard position is perhaps the toughest position in the game, and we have young guys playing that position. It’s really hard to win when that point guard spot isn’t solidified.”
Day’Ron Sharpe grabbed his 500th career offensive rebound, joining Jerome Lane and Moses Malone as the only players in NBA history to do so before logging their 3,000th minute (since tracking offensive/defensive boards in 1973-74).
Porter had his second 30-point game for Brooklyn (he scored 32) in just five games as a Net. He scored his second 30-point game in his 51st game for Denver last season.
Atlanta’s Trae Young had to leave the game with 1:52 left in the first quarter with a sprained right knee. He was standing under the basket on an inbounds play when Nic Claxton shoved Mouhamed Gueye in the chest and the Hawk fell backward into the side of Young’s leg.
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