Jordi Fernández often says some variation of “it’s not just about the rookies, it’s about the whole group.”
He went back to the well after the Brooklyn Nets fell to 2-12 by losing a home game to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night, in which Egor Dëmin played just eight second-half minutes (five before garbage time). Dëmin shot 4-of-4 from deep in 15 first-half minutes, but opened up the third quarter with a couple sloppy turnovers 70 feet from the basket, and at that point, his night was just about
over.
Here’s the thing: It really is about the rookies, at least for us. Jordi Fernández does care about the whole group, of course, so when 26-year-old Tyrese Martin ascends from career G League player to potential NBA rotation piece under Fernández’s direction, that’s a big win for both parties.
But it’s probably more truthful than crude to say it doesn’t really matter, at least not relative to the chances of the Nets getting from also-ran to contender. At the very least, reducing the #8 overall pick’s minutes in order to chase a 3-11 record seems short-sighted, no?
“I didn’t just sub him out. I subbed the whole first unit out, and then we made a run. So sometimes, it’s just coaching,” said Fernández about Dëmin’s third-quarter substitution on Tuesday.
This is untrue. Terance Mann exited the game soon after Dëmin, but the other three starters played the next four minutes. I’ve called off the minutes police so far and I do admire going all-out to beat the wretched Celtics at home, but this one seemed a bit odd. I don’t want to be this pedantic with a minutes count for each of the next 68 games, but, well, this season is about the rookies.
Egor Dëmin
Season stats: 13 GP, 20.7 MPG, 7.4/3.0/3.4 slash line, 38/38/89 shooting splits. 1.7 TO + 1.7 PF + 1.0 stock (stl+blk) per game.
Stats this week: 3 GP, 20.4 MPG, 8.3/2.3/3.7 slash line. 8-of-24 from field, 6-of-15 from deep, 3-of-3 FT. Six TO + four PF + two stocks total.
It’s tough to remember a young player exactly like Egor Dëmin. There’s the weight of this rebuild on his shoulders as the franchise’s first lottery pick in 15 years; after every game reporters want to talk to him and ask his head coach about his minutes. He is a 6’9” guard who hopes to grow into the type of passer and shooter who can lead a 3-point heavy offense to 130 points a night. All this stuff isn’t too unprecedented, but for now, his worst moments make him look out of place on an NBA court…
I’m not talking about his long-term potential right now; near every young player talent has flaws that could render him a non-contributor at the NBA level.
It’s just odd to place this kind of hope on a young point guard who can look stuck in the mud on defense or trip over his own feet bringing the ball up the court. Are these negative plays so much worse than a missed defensive rotation or a pass that isn’t made? How bad is a good player allowed to look? How often? Dëmin challenges us (me, at least) to distinguish aesthetic observations from value propositions.
Likewise, not all of his best plays pop off the screen. This first pass, a sharp extra find supporting the notion Dëmin’s passing/processing will add value all over the court, does, but the second one, a simple read of a 4-on-3 break, doesn’t…
Fans and coaches urge Dëmin to put more pressure on the rim, but the Nets often benefit from his habit of giving the ball up as soon as a defender gets in his way. It may just be his best quality right now, other than the 38.1% 3-point shooting. Anecdotally, it sure feels like the ball is going in when he gets an open look, and judging by their closeouts, defenses feel the same way. For a player that shot under 30% from deep in his sole NCAA season, that’s nothing to scoff at.
Drake Powell
Season stats: 8 GP, 18.6 MPG, 5.8/2.1/1.9 slash line, 49/38.5/100 shooting splits (three FTs). 1.4 TO + 2.1 PF + 1.0 stock (stl+blk) per game.
Stats this week: 3 GP, 21.9 MPG, 5.0/2.7/2.0 slash line. 7-of-16 from field, 0-of-3 from deep, 1-of-1 FT. Three TO + six PF + three stocks total.
I love watching Drake Powell defend. He’s been late on some rotations to the rim, and we haven’t seen him come up with any high-flying blocks just yet, but his jitterbug athleticism clearly plays. Watch him cover ground and slide his feet here…
The last Net I remember consistently playing that sort of defense, with that lateral mobility, was David Nwaba. Brooklyn’s tight loss to the Orlando Magic last Friday featured Powell’s strongest defense of the season, especially his ball-pressure at the point-of-attack. For that reason, I don’t think he’s in danger of falling out of Fernández’s rotation anytime soon…
He also played strong defense on Tuesday against the Celtics, where he most frequently guarded Payton Pritchard. Pritchard is one of the better offensive players that Powell actually has a size advantage on, but that doesn’t make it an easy matchup given how well the Celtics guard uses fakes and physicality on his drives.
Pritchard got Powell with one head-fake on a drive, forcing a foul, but the #22 overall pick otherwise stayed on his feet and trusted his length to contest shots. Postgame, when asked what his main defensive focus is coming into games this early in his career, he said, “being the second person to jump off the floor, and I think just continuing to be physical.”
Powell’s athleticism pops, but he brings real defensive technique too.
Offensively, Powell hasn’t had a repeat performance of his 15-point game against the New York Knicks, when he shot 3-of-3 from deep. That’s fine, but I’d imagine Nets coaches want him to be more aggressive in catch-and-shoot situations. We haven’t really seen him shoot over strong contests yet nor have we seen him shoot moving to his right much; those are minor things to watch for moving forward.
Danny Wolf
Season stats (G League): 4 GP, 32.9 MPG, 22/10/2 slash line, 48/38.5/80 shooting splits. 3.0 TO + 3.5 PF + 2.1 stock (stl+blk) per game.
Stats this week (G League): 2 GP, 33.5 MPG, 24/8.5/2.5 slash line. 18-of-32 from field, 7-of-14 from deep, 3-of-4 FT. Four TO + five PF + two stocks total.
Danny Wolf, #27 overall pick, shot well from three over a weekend mini-series against the Maine Red Claws. His seven 3-point makes came off pick-and-pops and spot-up opportunities, many of which were well beyond the arc and/or had a bit of movement to them.
Nets fans skimming G League box scores are wondering why the 21-year-old is still a G League regular, only playing NBA garbage time when he gets called up to Brooklyn. Regardless of his G League play, I agree Wolf should be seeing real NBA pretty soon. However, his play in Long Island is a bit less impressive than the numbers indicate, and that might be why he’s stuck in Nassau County.
Long Island is just 1-3, so it’s too early to draw any major conclusions from on/off splits and the like, but it is worth noting that despite Wolf’s big box scores, the team has been largely better when he’s off the court. This is mainly due to his defense. Wolf’s best defensive moments have come in switching situations, doing well to keep pace with quicker ball-handlers, but everything else has been a mixed bag, whether off the ball or in pick-and-roll coverage…
On draft day, Wolf was lumped in with the rest of Brooklyn’s picks as it seemed like the front office heavily indexed players with a high-assist rate, players eager to move the ball. General Manager Sean Marks referenced “0.5 basketball,” repeatedly in the coming weeks (the concept of making a shoot/pass/attack decision within 0.5 seconds of catching the rock.)
Though four G League games, Wolf has dropped a couple quick-decision dimes, either in the short-roll or while parked in the middle of a zone defense. Otherwise, he’s been a bit of a ball-pounder, not a huge surprise if you watched him at the University of Michigan. He’s never going to be one to explode to the rim, rather he’ll plod and herky-jerk his way downhill, but I imagine the Nets would like to see fewer possessions like these…
Wolf was a high-turnover prospect, and as a seven-footer, he’s going to have to contend with smaller players poking at his dribble. Loitering in the middle of the floor, as he does above, only gives them more time to attack.
I’m not saying Danny Wolf has been bad in the G League, nor that he hasn’t shown flashes. You don’t average over 20 points a night by only making negative plays. But if it seems weird that the Brooklyn Nets aren’t playing their 21-year-old rookie who is absolutely tearing up lesser competition, well, that’s not really the case.
Nolan Traore
Season stats (G League): 4 GP, 24.3 MPG, 14/1/4 slash line, 38.5/19/80 shooting splits. 4.5 TO + 4.0 PF + 0.5 stocks (stl+blk) per game.
Stats this week (G League): 2 GP, 23 MPG, 15/1/4.5 slash line. 12-of-25 from field, 2-of-8 from deep, 3-of-4 FT. Ten TO + five PF + two stocks total.
Nolan Traore is not going to be graded on the same scale as the other four rookies, to be clear. This was probably clear after our last rookie report, when Traore got his first real run of the season in the G League. Traore played better this week, but there not be any sense in giving him real NBA minutes this season. At the very least, he needs to showcase a bona fide G League skill before leveling up in competition, whether it’s scoring, playmaking, or defense.
Traore is facing a mountain to climb in terms of athleticism; he has straight-line speed, but he’s not particularly flexible or strong or vertically gifted. He desperately needs a couple years of NBA weight/agility training, not that it will change his athletic profile completely, but he needs every advantage he can get. Right now, the Frenchman simply needs to build confidence. There are times when his shoulders are slumped, his face expressionless, and you project a sense of despair onto Traore, the can’t-miss prospect in 2024 who in 2025 is in a foreign land playing in empty stadiums for half the money he once thought he’d be making.
But enough doom and gloom. He’s four games into this whole thing, and it was nice to see him hit a tough corner three up in Maine and swagger back down the court while looking at fans in the front row…
It was also nice to see Traore get back to some of the basics against the Red Claws. Like many LNB Élite teams last season, Maine showed Traore two defenders on some screens despite his lack of outside-shooting prowess, and he read these situations pretty well…
Including shots on which he is fouled, Nolan is shooting the ball nearly 15 times a game despite averaging under 25 minutes. Long Island, like many G League teams, plays at a break-neck pace, but this probably isn’t the ideal balance for the 19-year-old. This isn’t how coaching works, but I wish Head Coach Mfon Udofia would tell Traore “try to get ten assists tonight,” or “more assists than shot attempts tonight,” or something like that.
You don’t want to damage Traore’s confidence by telling him not to shoot — especially spot-up threes — but making a bunch of steady passes might be more encouraging than consistently turning it over and/or getting his shot blocked.
Ben Saraf
Season stats: N/A
Stats this week: 2 GP, 21.5 MPG, 10.5/3.5/4 slash line. 8-of-17 from field, 4-of-11 from deep, 1-of-1 FT. Eight TO + two PF + two stocks total.
Ben Saraf sprained his ankle midway through Long Island’s second game of the week, hence the lower minute total despite being moved into the starting lineup ahead of Traore. (I assume he was originally coming off the bench because he was with the big-league squad while Traore was practicing with Long Island). Brooklyn announced that he will be re-evaluated right around Thanksgiving.
Before the injury though, he had some bright moments and some struggles up in Maine. The 4-of-11 from three was a good sign, and he is not shy to take those shots whether or not they’re going in.
In terms of his ball-handling, I think the NBA’s strict “no early-clock mid-range shots unless you are Kevin Durant” zeitgeist is a major adjustment for him. When Saraf handled the pick-and-roll for Ratiopharm Ulm, those middies were a big source of his scoring, and he relied on them as a counter. At 6’6” with sharp footwork and handles, he was pretty good about finding these shots, but he only made them at an average clip. Any NBA team would encourage him to get all the way to the rim instead of taking some of these shots.
Now it’s about getting to the rim effectively, a process Saraf is still figuring out…
When Saraf returns from injury, I’ll be locked in on his finishing/footwork around the rim. He’s not quite able to challenge rim-protectors directly, but then again, most guards are not.
Though Ben Saraf is now injured, we’ll still have four rookies on next week’s edition of the Rookie Report. If we get real lucky, three of them might even be getting NBA minutes, though I wouldn’t count on it. Jordi Fernández’s next chance to get annoyed at repetitive reporters will come on Friday night in NBA Cup action, as the Brooklyn Nets travel to take on the Boston Celtics at 7:30 p.m. ET.
