The Brooklyn Nets are heading into a season that could swing in a lot of directions, and the biggest reason is sitting right in the backcourt.
Brooklyn’s rebuild has been defined by the chase for high draft position, but that path never quite broke the way the team wanted. Some first-round picks ended up elsewhere, and when the Nets did keep their selections, the lottery breaks weren’t exactly kind. Even so, they’ve come out of the last two seasons with Mikel Brown Jr. and Egor Demin, and now those two sit at the center of the next phase.
Demin, coming off his rookie year, already looks like the kind of player who can tilt a game in more than one way. He flashed a dependable outside stroke and gave Brooklyn steady all-around production, finishing last season with averages of 10.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists. If he takes another step, he could become a real difference-maker for a team trying to climb.
The bigger buzz, though, is around Brown. Brooklyn used the sixth pick in this year’s draft on the former Louisville guard, and his arrival gives the Nets a fresh piece to build around. In his lone college season, Brown put up 18.2 points and 4.7 assists, numbers that put him in the conversation as a Rookie of the Year dark horse if he can carry that scoring and playmaking into the NBA.
That kind of upside comes with a catch. Starting two young guards together can be a fast track to growth, but it can also bring plenty of rough edges, especially for a team that still has to balance development with a push toward the postseason. Mistakes from a rookie and a sophomore can pile up quickly, and Brooklyn could pay for them if the learning curve gets steep.
The depth behind them doesn’t change the age profile much, either. Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf are expected to lead the guard rotation when Brown and Demin sit, which means the Nets will keep leaning on youth in the backcourt no matter how the minutes are split. There’s enough talent there to make the group functional, maybe even dangerous on the right night, but the volatility is obvious.
Brooklyn has reason to be excited. It also has reason to brace for the growing pains that should come with a backcourt this young.
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Smiths stint with the Nets gave him a modest but useful sample, with 8.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists across 15 games last season. In Toronto, the deal appears to give him a real preseason path to fight for a roster spot, which is exactly the kind of opening players in his position are chasing at this stage of the calendar. [Read more 🡒]
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Around the league, though, the forecast is a lot less ambitious. Pundits and sportsbooks have been circling the Nets closer to the low-to-mid 20s, which is a much more cautious read on how quickly the roster can come together. The gap leaves Brooklyn in an interesting spot: fans are betting on a bigger jump, and if the team can get to 30 wins or more, the season starts to look very different. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Rebuild May Come Down To One Huge Young Guard Debate
The summer league always invites a little overreaction, but it also gives a first real look at how a rebuild might take shape, and for Brooklyn that conversation is already drifting toward the backcourt. Bleacher Reports Grant Hughes recently put Egor Demin on a fast track toward becoming the best player on the Nets roster by 2029, a prediction that says as much about the organizations direction as it does about the rookie himself.
Hughes framed Demin alongside Mikel Brown Jr., another young guard who flashed enough in draft and summer league settings to make the comparison worth watching. Both have given Brooklyn reason to think the future could be driven by young perimeter talent, and the real intrigue is which one ultimately becomes the player the Nets build around as the roster takes shape over the next few years. [Read more 🡒]