{"id":70154,"date":"2025-12-14T05:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T05:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/70154\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T05:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T05:13:10","slug":"nets-rookies-egor-demin-drake-powell-taking-their-lumps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/70154\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets rookies Egor Demin, Drake Powell taking their lumps"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the Nets are busy tanking to land their next young foundation piece, Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez is busy trying to develop the record rookie crop he already has in the fold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That means a healthy supply of tough love from the head coach, who had to dole out some to first-round draft picks Egor D\u00ebmin and Drake Powell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both underwhelmed in Friday\u2019s loss at Dallas<\/a>, seeing their playing time curtailed \u2014 along with not-so-subtle warnings that they could lose even more, starting Sunday against the Bucks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

D\u00ebmin, the Nets\u2019 first lottery pick in 15 years, has been a fixture at point guard. <\/p>\n

But he struggled through his worst performance since entering the starting lineup with just three points in an error-prone 18:10.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"EgorEgor Demin of the Brooklyn Nets dribbles the ball during the game against the Dallas Mavericks on December 12, 2025 at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Russian teenager shot 1-for-7 overall and 1-for-4 from deep, with just one assist, one rebound and two turnovers. <\/p>\n

D\u00ebmin has been prodded to drive more, but clearly he tried to force things Friday and made ill-advised gaffes.<\/p>\n

He got blocked trying to go into traffic \u2014 seemingly looking for a foul call \u2014 and later threw the ball away on a behind-the-back pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The result was getting pulled and limited to just 2:14 in the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n

It was his first negative game score in the NBA, per Basketball Reference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was trying to fix mistakes by trying to make things happen, and this is not how you want to do things,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said of D\u00ebmin. \u201cI need him to play with better readiness and better physicality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the way that the team needs him to play. So he\u2019s got to be better. Otherwise, the minutes are going to go down, and somebody else will take advantage of that. So I know that he cares. He\u2019s always responded and punched back. So, he\u2019s way better than what he performed [Friday].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

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The rookie had averaged 9.9 points, 4.2 assists and 3.4 rebounds as a starter on 39.4\/36.3\/90.0 percent shooting splits. <\/p>\n

More to the point, he\u2019d been even-keeled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just his consistency as a person,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cHe listens, he asks questions. You know he\u2019s going to go out there and try to do his best. His verticality, his deflections, that, to me, stands out. He took a huge charge the other day and playing team defense and being on point with those things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then offensively, he is a really good playmaker, especially finding the 3-point line for others. His shot looks great. We want him to be aggressive and taking the proper space, where he has to touch the paint and then make decisions. So, [we\u2019re] very happy with the production. We\u2019re extremely happy with the person.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BrooklynBrooklyn Nets guard Drake Powell (4) brings the ball up court against the Charlotte Hornets during the third quarter at Barclays Center. Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Powell was not afforded the opportunity to play through quite as many mistakes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since joining the rotation on Nov. 7 he\u2019d averaged 21.1 minutes, and logged at least 13:22 in every appearance. <\/p>\n

That is, until Friday when he was limited to just 2:41 \u2014 all in a sloppy first quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Part of that was fellow rookie Nolan Traore getting called up from the G-League and the French teenager being handed 8:48, minutes that normally would have gone to Powell. <\/p>\n

But part of it was gameplay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCorrect. Yeah, it was just the readiness to play,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez admitted. \u201cThese young guys need to understand how important every minute you play is. And not that you\u2019ve got to play worried about not making mistakes, [but] you cannot make three in a row for readiness and for concentration. If the intentions are there, then I\u2019m completely fine. But if the mistakes are for just easing into the game, that\u2019s not how we do it here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s not just him; that goes for everybody. So, happy that I saw Nolan. I know that Drake, when the opportunity comes back to him, he\u2019ll be 200 percent and ready and paying attention to everything. And Nolan played with confidence. He did good things. So meaningful minutes there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the Nets are busy tanking to land their next young foundation piece, Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez is busy trying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[355,5235,4570,21,9,11,10,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-70154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-brooklyn-nets","9":"tag-egor-demin","10":"tag-jordi-fernandez","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70154","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=70154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}