{"id":5440,"date":"2025-10-16T20:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T20:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/5440\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T20:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T20:35:10","slug":"egor-demin-set-for-nets-preseason-debut-with-competition-in-full-swing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/5440\/","title":{"rendered":"Egor Demin set for Nets preseason debut with competition in full swing"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Egor Demin, the Nets\u2019 first lottery pick in 15 years, will get his first taste of NBA competition Friday in Toronto.<\/p>\n

The eighth overall pick, who has been sidelined due to a plantar fascia tear, makes his delayed debut in the preseason finale against the Raptors.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he\u2019s been practicing based on the program that we\u2019ve had for him. As you guys know, it\u2019s been a ramp up and he\u2019s been able to play five-on-five, and now he\u2019s ready to see the floor,\u201d Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said Thursday. \u201cSo, good news is (Friday) he\u2019ll have some minutes. And that\u2019s exciting. I\u2019m excited for him. He\u2019s done a great job and now we\u2019re ready to take the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demin, a 19-year-old point guard from BYU, suffered the plantar fascia tear<\/a> in July around the end of Las Vegas Summer League. <\/p>\n

The 6-foot-9 Russian missed the first three games of the preseason before getting cleared for full contact practice while the Nets were in Macao<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now Demin \u2014 the 11th-youngest player in the league, and the Nets\u2019 first lottery pick since Derrick Favors in 2010 \u2014 is set for his debut against Toronto.<\/p>\n

\"BrooklynNets guard Egor Demin (8) at Media Day. Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

But Fernandez doesn\u2019t want to heap too much pressure on his lithe shoulders.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah I don\u2019t have too much (expectation) for him as far as he doesn\u2019t need to feel much pressure or anything. I want him to enjoy his first minutes,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n

\"EgorEgor Demin #8 of the Brooklyn Nets dribbles the ball during the game against the Orlando Magic during the 2025 NBA Summer League. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I\u2019m going to ask him things like I ask everybody else as far as doing certain things with purpose, and play really hard and use his superpowers. That\u2019s his passing and shooting and his size. But don\u2019t overthink it. I don\u2019t want him to try to analyze everything, and just go out there and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nets took a record five players in the first round in June, including two other first-round point guards in Nolan Traore at No. 19 and Ben Saraf at No. 26, both taken with selections Brooklyn got in the Mikal Bridges trade with the Knicks.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

While Saraf had 11 assists in last weekend\u2019s preseason win over Phoenix and Traore has started two of their three preseason contests, Demin now gives them three healthy rookie point guards. <\/p>\n

It leads to the obvious questions of how the trio will coexist and split minutes<\/a>, and how much time any of them will spend off the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I don\u2019t have a crystal ball, so I don\u2019t know if I can answer the question,\u201d Fernandez demurred. \u201cWhat I\u2019m very excited about is seeing how that process is going to go. They\u2019re all going to fight for some of the same minutes. They\u2019re all going to fight for some of the wing minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut right now for sure the starting point guard and backup point guard, those three are fighting for those minutes. And that\u2019s great because we\u2019re going to see a lot of the young talent we drafted playing real NBA minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Egor Demin, the Nets\u2019 first lottery pick in 15 years, will get his first taste of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,5235,21,9,24,63,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-5440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-egor-demin","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}