{"id":13178,"date":"2025-07-16T03:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T03:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/13178\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T03:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T03:05:07","slug":"byus-egor-demin-is-adapting-to-the-nba-game-and-the-nba-life-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/13178\/","title":{"rendered":"BYU\u2019s Egor Demin is adapting to the NBA game \u2014 and the NBA life \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 Egor Demin<\/a> texted Kevin Young to tell him he was mad at him for not coming to Las Vegas to see him make his Summer League debut with his new NBA team.<\/p>\n

Of course, it was all in jest. Demin isn\u2019t actually mad. He understands that Young is busy recruiting and preparing for next season, and Demin is busy too.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that he\u2019s intimidated by the bright lights that await him in New York. When he thinks about transitioning from the quiet and the mountains that surrounded him in Provo while playing for BYU, to the fast-paced world of the NBA and playing for the Brooklyn Nets, he\u2019s more than ready.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Special Collector’s Issue: “1984: The Year BYU was Second to None”<\/p>\n

Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football’s 1984 National Championship season.<\/p>\n

After all, he\u2019s from Moscow and was recruited to play in Madrid when he was just 15. Big cities and adapting to new surroundings is something that he\u2019s proven he can handle, and handle with success.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the transition from collegiate basketball to the NBA that is at the forefront of Demin\u2019s mind. He\u2019s going to have to adapt to a type of physicality and speed that he\u2019s never faced, and he\u2019ll have to do it while also earning the trust of his teammates and learning a new system during an 82-game season that is unforgiving.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same as when I was coming to the NCAA for the first time, playing in Big 12 and I was like, \u2018Whoa, that\u2019s different level,\u2019\u201d Demin said. \u201cI need some time to get used to that here. And it took some time for me (before). But at the end of the day, I felt comfortable playing Big 12 and playing in March Madness.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s going to rely heavily on the fact that even though he struggled at times during his season at BYU, that the decision-makers with the Nets saw his potential and trusted in it so much that they selected him eighth overall in the 2025 NBA draft.<\/p>\n

The Nets saw that even when Demin was facing tougher competition and sometimes struggling to keep up his efficiency on offense that he was learning how to be an effective leader and teammate through it all. <\/p>\n

\"\"BYU Cougars guard Egor Demin (3) pulls up for a shot while guarded by Wisconsin Badgers guard Max Klesmit (11) during a second-round college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament held at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News <\/p>\n

Additionally, they saw all of the right mechanics and that Demin is able read the game at a high level and make his teammates better despite any individual struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of questions about my shooting at the end of the NCAA season,\u201d Demin said. \u201cIt\u2019s good for me that Brooklyn trusted me. They believe in me as a good shooter in the future. This is where I take confidence from. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, when coaches are telling me \u2018shoot the ball,\u2019 that\u2019s what I\u2019m gonna do, right? I\u2019m gonna be confident in myself, knowing how many reps I put into this.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, in Summer League, Demin is making Brooklyn\u2019s choice look like a good one. He\u2019s shooting 40% from 3-point range and showing improvement in his understanding of the NBA game everyday.<\/p>\n

Of course, he misses Utah, but there\u2019s not a lot of time that he can spend on missing the last chapter of his life. He\u2019s just turning the first pages of the new chapter of his life and there is a lot to take in.<\/p>\n

\"\"Oklahoma City Thunder guard Chris Youngblood (40) handles the ball against Brooklyn Nets guard Egor D\u00ebmin (8) during the first half of an NBA summer league basketball game Thursday, July 10, 2025, in Las Vegas. | AP <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Egor Demin texted Kevin Young to tell him he was mad at him for not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,3125,99],"class_list":["post-13178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-news-feed-local","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}