Nets’ Egor Demin showing he belongs but needs to ‘sustain’ progress

Outside of hoping to get the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, the Nets need to turn their attention to developing at least one of their young draftees into a strong foundational piece 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-9 point guard also added four rebounds and five assists across 28 minutes in what was the best game of his young career.

As a whole, the Nets’ new talent is too raw to do any winning damage in another tanking year, but the No. 8 pick continues to prove himself as the biggest positive development over the first 11 games of the season, and the best bet toward being a long-term building block in Brooklyn.

Following the game, coach Jordi Fernández was seemingly aware of that. He said Dëmin “belongs” in the NBA, but he knows the challenge is to “sustain” his progress.

“Obviously, you need to learn, he needs to grow on the defensive end be more react proactive instead of reactive,” Fernández said. “I think right there is where he can catch some of the drives and communicate better and learn the schemes. He’s a smart kid. We’re going to keep challenging him to do those things. And he will. But I’m very happy where he’s at right now and what he’s shown.”

Tuesday was Dëmin’s third start of the season and third in a row in place of Cam Thomas, who is out for 3-4 weeks with a hamstring injury.

In the past three contests over an average 25.3 minutes, the 19-year-old Russian averaged 11.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and five assists with only 1.7 turnovers while shooting 48 percent from the field and 47 percent from deep.

With the added minutes, Dëmin has only grown 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 reps,” Dëmin said. “That’s a big part of my transition on this level, is just get used to those things that I haven’t met before on the pick-and-roll, the physicality, looking at the different coverages. … And obviously, the ball pressure. People were trying to press me because they know I can lose the ball sometimes. But I get more comfortable with it, for sure.”

Dëmin has also looked more comfortable with the pick-and-roll plays the Nets have drawn 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. In the last six games, he has averaged 2.1.

He had three attempts inside the arc against the Raptors, including a big drive to the rim off of a pick from Nic Claxton at the top of the key that gave the Nets a 13-6 lead in the first quarter.

“I get more comfortable with more looks from the pick-and-roll. Just getting used to it with every game. The physicality and being able to be more aggressive,” he said.

“He missed a lot of time in the preseason with injury, so that was kind of tough for him, missing training camp and everything. So he’s figuring it out,”Claxton said of Dëmin on Tuesday. “He’s willing to attack, wanting to get down hill. Of course, he still has a really long way to go, but he’s taking a lot of strides in the right direction, and I’ll keep an open dialogue with him so we can just keep figuring it out together.”

It’s been 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 key for the Nets to capitalize on them for the sake of the organization’s future.