Egor Demin entered the season looking like a rookie still learning the rhythms of the NBA game. The timing, the pace, the physicality and nonstop reads that come at you faster than the film ever suggests.<\/p>\n
Months later, the Nets see a point guard who\u2019s begun to stitch those pieces together. The confidence is louder. The decisions are quicker. And the moments where he tilts the floor in his team\u2019s favor are happening more often and with more intention.<\/p>\n
Head coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez has seen that shift from the very beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s more comfortable,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cI think he always played like he belongs, and that\u2019s been great. I remember since that preseason game in Toronto. He played and showed right away why we were so high on him and how he handled himself. It\u2019s not just about the shot making but also seeing the floor and his ability to get deflections and rebounds and all those things. We\u2019ve seen how much better he\u2019s gotten from Day 1\u2026 We still want to see more and better. And that goes not just for him, but everybody else on the roster.\u201d<\/p>\n
That preseason game in Toronto on Oct. 17 mattered because it offered the first real look at a teenager who didn\u2019t appear rattled by NBA physicality or the moment. His handle stayed tight under pressure, though he did have two turnovers. His decision-making looked poised. He consistently put the ball where it needed to be. And he finished with 14 points on 2-for-3 shooting from deep, added five rebounds and left no doubt that the stage wasn\u2019t too big for him.<\/p>\n
The foundation was there. What\u2019s followed since has been steady, visible growth.<\/p>\n
Demin\u2019s assist-to-turnover ratio hovering around 2-to-1 is the clearest indicator. For a rookie guard, it\u2019s often the line between simply staying afloat and actually running an offense. Fern\u00e1ndez believes Demin\u2019s not only meeting that bar but capable of clearing a higher one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s doing a great job,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cYou said it, 2-to-1 is very good. The next step is can he get to 3-to-1. And I think he can because he\u2019s one of the best at finding the 3-point line in the NBA. The numbers say so, but now he has to mix it in with when he touches the paint, when teams are in drop, when he creates a 2-on-1, how he throws the lob.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now, Demin\u2019s reads lean toward the perimeter, where his height and vision let him deliver passes over the top of defenders. Brooklyn loves that part of his game, but the staff wants him to broaden what he sees. That means locating cutters, dropping in lobs, manipulating defenders with his eyes and recognizing when to keep his dribble alive instead of settling for the first available kick-out.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve seen progress. Early in the third quarter of Brooklyn\u2019s 113-103 win over the Chicago Bulls on Dec. 3, Demin found Noah Clowney for two left-corner 3s on consecutive trips, both arriving perfectly in rhythm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose were simple passes, but those passes were right in the pocket, and for guys like Noah, those are layups,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said<\/p>\n
For the Nets, this is exactly the growth curve they hoped to see. And Fern\u00e1ndez plans to keep pushing him. In his mind, Demin\u2019s already shown he can handle whatever comes next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Egor Demin entered the season looking like a rookie still learning the rhythms of the NBA game. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,5235,4570,4475,9,24,63,40218],"class_list":["post-81518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-egor-demin","tag-jordi-fernandez","tag-nets","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-rookie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81518","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=81518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}