NEW YORK -- Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez is heading into his third season in the NBA and one of the goals for the team is finding the next playmaker of the future. Brooklyn has invested heavily in the guard position over the past couple of seasons and one of those guards is looking like the kind of guy that Fernandez can trust heading into the future.
"He was comfortable getting into the paint, that's number one. You can see how confident he looks and it's through a summer of great work," Fernandez said of Demin prior to Thursday's preseason game against the Philadelphia 76ers. Demin was the starting point guard for Tuesday's 124-90 win over the Charlotte Hornets with rookie Mikel Brown Jr. unavailable due to a left ankle sprain and Fernandez liked
what he saw from Demin.
"He's aggressive. He tries to get there [in the paint]. Last year, it looked like [when] he touched the paint, he had no plan for it. He worked and he put his mind into it and also handling pressure," Fernandez continued on Demin. "He's just like a new player and we believe that he could do all those things. There's no doubt that he can shoot the ball. He proved it last year, but also this summer he's been very aggressive also coming off the screen and that's what I want him to do because every time he shoots a three, I think it's going in."
Demin, 20, put up six points and five assists in 18 minutes on the floor against the Hornets and that was with him handling the ball the majority of the time against Charlotte's defensive pressure. Demin is coming off a 2025-26 season in which he averaged 10.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game while shooting 39.9% from the field and 38.5% from behind the three-point line in 52 games played as a rookie.
Time will tell if Demin will be the starting point guard when Brown and the rest of the team is healthy, but for now, he looks like he can handle the role if Fernandez asks him to do so. Demin will have another test on Thursday against LeBron James and the visiting Philadelphia 76ers, but it seems like Fernandez believes in his second-year guard enough to trust him with the ball in his hands.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets' Jordi Fernandez lauds Egor Demin's playmaking ability
