BOSTON — A year after the Nets’ much-scrutinized first-round draft class — an NBA-record five in all — Egor Dëmin has been its biggest saving grace.
One of those sophomores (Nolan Traore), who made his first start on Tuesday night, had been coming off the bench, another (Danny Wolf) is out of the rotation and two more (Drake Powell and Ben Saraf) were in the G-League on Tuesday as the Nets took on the Celtics.
Dëmin, 20, is carrying the huge class. But so far this season, he’s having a hard time even pulling his own weight.
Back at point guard with Mikel Brown Jr. still on a minutes limit, Dëmin has been wildly inconsistent, alternating between good and bad, with more of the latter.
“It’s going to be one of the most important parts for me,” said Dëmin.
“For me personally, I’m trying to figure it out. I’m a different type of player as I had been last year, so I’m just trying to figure out how to play within these players now, and everybody else is trying to play with me. That’s what teams go through. So, I’m not panicking. I’m excited for what’s coming next for us.”
Entering Tuesday, Dëmin was averaging 9.7 points, three assists and 2.7 rebounds on 30.8 percent shooting overall and 31.6 percent from behind the arc.
Every one of those stats was down from his rookie campaign.
Dëmin has been inconsistent, mustering just four points in the opener on 2-for-10 shooting and missing all five looks from 3-point range.
The young Russian bounced back in Cleveland, with 22 points on 5-for-10 from deep.
But Dëmin backslid the next night, managing just three points on 1-for-6 shooting to finish minus-20 in just over 19 minutes.
The greatest concern is Dëmin’s driving. After a rookie season that saw him get turned at the point of attack, he’s touching the paint more now. But he’s been ineffective once he gets downhill, going just 1-for-4 at the rim and missing his only dunk attempt.
That’s the next step for Dëmin.
“Yeah, effectiveness is important in the NBA in everything you do. You touch the paint, obviously you can spray it for your teammate to shoot a good shot, or you finish at the rim, dump off and so forth,” Nets coach Jordi Fernández said. “One of the conversations I’ve had with him is, last year I felt like everything went 1,000 mph. And right now, one year in, more games under your belt, now it feels like he has more control of what we can see or what he sees or doesn’t see. So again, we’re going to keep working with him and encourage him to keep doing the things that he does very well, but also keep improving in all those areas.”
Dëmin agreed that was the biggest area of improvement.
“One hundred percent,” he said. “That’s the ultimate goal for me, to be able to not just get there to get there but to get there to be efficient and score. And not just score, but create for others. That’s going to be the next step for me as a playmaker, being able to choose between finishing and finding someone else.”
The struggles aren’t limited to Dëmin.
The Nets dragged a winless mark into Boston, and looked disoriented on defense.
“Everybody was very excited for this season, and there’s certain expectations and goals. That’s [making] us a little too excited about it, a little anxious…which is not necessarily bad. We’ve just got to convert it into effort and into energy,” Dëmin said.
“I wouldn’t say pressure. … For us, it could be an inner pressure, just being able to be the best versions of ourselves. And how do you [improve]? Just by sticking together. That’s going to help us get on a deeper level of communication and understanding of each other. We just talked about it, being able to trust each other no matter what’s going on, what the game looks like. That’s gonna be the key.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
