The Brooklyn Nets officially locked in all five players from their 2025 draft class, exercising third-year team options on Egor Dëmin, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf, Nolan Traore, Danny Wolf. The moves which were expected, were announced Thursday afternoon.
Brooklyn made NBA history in June 2025 by becoming the first franchise ever to select five players in the first round. It was a clear commitment to long-term talent development: Dëmin, Traore, and Saraf are currently 20 years old, Powell is 21, and Wolf
is 22.
Under the collective bargaining agreement, securing homegrown talent on rookie scale contracts is crucial. Combined, all five options total roughly $21.72 million for 2027–28 — taking up a littel more than 12% of the projected $176 million salary cap for one-third of the active roster:
- Egor Dëmin (No.8): $7.58M
- Nolan Traore (No. 19): $4.19M
- Drake Powell (No. 22): $3.71M
- Ben Saraf (No. 26): $3.17M
- Danny Wolf (No. 27): $3.08M
Speaking in August 2025, Nets GM Sean Marks emphasized why homegrown players are crucial in the current CBA landscape:
“I do think it is important to have guys under contract that you control the contracts, so to speak. You drafted them, you developed them, and they got to their second contract under your watch. It’s difficult when you’re trying to acquire max-level talent on max contracts. Those days are probably gone of going and getting 2-3 max free agents and so forth. Those are gonna be more difficult to do, but I think it’s important to have some value contracts on your roster.”
Egor Dëmin: The 8th overall pick out of BYU started 45 of 52 games in his debut year, averaging 10.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.3 assists while setting Nets rookie records for single-game three-pointers (7 vs. Golden State) and overall three-point percentage (38.5%). Dëmin is currently sidelined with a bone bruise and will be reevaluated next week.
Nolan Traore: The 19th pick out of France posted 8.9 points and a team-high 3.8 assists across 56 games as a rookie. The quick combo guard logged his first start of the 2026–27 campaign on Wednesday, dropping 15 points in a steady floor-general performance.
Drake Powell, Ben Saraf, & Danny Wolf: The three have appeared in one game this year, with Wolf logging the most minutes out of the three (15). Otherwise, they haven’t sniffed the big-league rotation much. They’re currently going back-and-forth between Long Island and Brooklyn — a familiar tactic the Nets have used with young players.
Of course, long-term potential only goes so far. We’ve seen promising flashes, but it’s still way too early to make a call on what this 2025 class is and becomes. Last year, four of the five picks were among the 20 youngest players in the NBA: Traore, 6th; Saraf 7th, Demin 11th and Powell 19th.
What we do know is that Brooklyn retains control over its 2025 core for 12% of the cap, keeping financial flexibility while they try to pull off improbable ways of winning and developing in one.
