The next era of Brooklyn Nets basketball has a face.
With the #8 overall pick in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft, the Nets selected Egor Demin, a 6’9” freshman out of Brigham Young University.
The pick was a surprise with among others Khaman Maluach, Noah Essengue and Collin Murry-Boyles on the board.
Michael Scotto was first with the news.
Born in Moscow, he played for Real Madrid before joining BYU. Seen as the best passer in the Draft, Demin averaged 10.6 points, 5.3 assists and 3.9.
Here’s how our Lucas Kaplan described him,
The Sell: NBA teams run plenty of pick-and-rolls. NBA teams set plenty of off-ball screens. Cam Johnson isn’t exactly toasting guys off the dribble, and Jordi Fernández built a half-court offense around Johnson that, through mid-January, was in the top half of the league. Demin doesn’t have CJ’s scoring chops yet, but he is a great floor-reader. Hell, at 6’8”, he may be a truly special passer in both transition and the half-court. Whether he’s the nominal point guard or on the wing, his skills will play, especially because he’s gonna shoot the rock at a high clip. Just look at some of these makes. He’ll survive guarding bigger, slower players, and the Nets will become a better passing team overnight. Maybe a little rich at #8, but a home run at #19.
The Short: It’s just tough to watch these NBA Playoffs and then take the least athletic guy in the class. Forget whether he’s bringing the ball up or not. Zoom out for a second. You draft Egor Demin because there are not many 6’8” guys who can shoot and pass — like, really pass. Additive offensive players no matter the role, right? And yet, in the vast majority of his games at BYU, he was an inefficient shooter who turned it over a lot. Demin isn’t going to draw help defenders in the NBA; his guy is going to be able to stay in front of him, so the defense won’t collapse, so his playmaking instincts become less valuable. And we don’t even know if he can shoot it!