INSIDER: Why Brooklyn Nets’ CONTROVERSIAL Egor Demin pick could be a HOME RUN | NBA Draft Analysis

INSIDER: Why Brooklyn Nets’ CONTROVERSIAL Egor Demin pick could be a HOME RUN | NBA Draft Analysis

Coming up, was the NBA community wrong about the Jaor Dyman pick? And could he be the piece to jumpstart the Nets’s rebuild? I’ll tell you why that could be the case after this. [Music] You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked Onets podcast. right here on the Locked On podcast network. It’s your team, the Brooklyn Nets, every single day. I’m Eric Slater, Brooklyn Nets beat reporter for clutchpoints.com. Thank you for making me your first listen of the day. The show is 100% free on all those great platforms. On today’s show, I’m going to be joined by an NBA draft analyst to outline why the draft community may have been wrong in their judgment of the Nets Jagorman pick. We’ll dive into why fans comb into the upside case with Yman and the rest of Brooklyn’s draft class. And we have a very special guest now joining the show. It is Corey Tulliba of No Ceilings and No Ceilings just joined Locked On. So, we have an NBA draft show coming for the foreseeable future and I’m sure Nets fans will be excited to tune into that. Bakori, we are here to talk about the Net’s historic 2025 draft class and we’re going to dig into a lot of it, but we’re focusing in the show on Jory, the Net’s uh number eight pick, the first lottery pick in 15 years. Obviously, a controversial pick amongst the Nets fan base, the NBA draft community, some NBA executives that I’ve spoken to. So, the question that I’ve been getting from a lot of Nets fans is what is his ceiling? And we heard from the Nets in their scout series that they put up on on YouTube that they are believers in the upside there. When you get a pick like this that you know there’s a lot of anticipation for first pick I said in 15 years lottery pick a lot of questions are going in that direction. So when you look at your evaluation of Dman are you a believer in the ceiling there and that he could potentially be a player who could have you know all-star upside down the line? Yeah, you probably found the uh draft analyst who was highest on Jagor throughout the process. I ended up with him fifth on my personal draft board at at No Ceilings. Collectively, we ended up with him a little bit lower, but personally, I was a big fan, you know, from Jump Street. And it’s really like the cell isn’t hard, right? You know, here’s a guy who’s 69, 610ish, you know, depending on what shoes he’s wearing with insanely creative and manipulative passing skills. um and a jumper that maybe you can buy in the long run, like just by uh the aesthetics of it rather than the percentages at BYU. Um but I’m a I’m a big fan. You know, I was lucky enough I got to spend a little bit of time with him in the pre-draft process. We watched film. I got to see him work out. um you know, he’s massive in person and uh you know, I I saw the things he was working on that really made me kind of believe that he could potentially reach his ceiling. Um, and I just think, you know, you look at the trajectory of and the the kind of trends of the league where these big versatile kind of multitude ball handlers who maybe aren’t exactly tied down to a position but can swing up and down a lineup, I think they’re really valuable and for me, I think it’s easy to see an outcome where Jaor returns really high upside value. And so I’m I’m buying into that um over some of the guys that I thought had more questions uh within the draft world. And uh you know, we we actually predicted Jaor to Brooklyn because I had a lot of intel that they were fans. So on draft night, you know, that’s where we had him mocked. We were not shocked at all by that whereas a lot of analysts were. But um I I honestly don’t think that this is a overdraft or a misuse of capital. I think that they took a very calculated risk on a player that makes a lot of sense in the modern NBA and I think there was a lot of outrage. I don’t want that might be a little bit strong but a lot of um you know qualms amongst the Nets fan base because of the expectations entering the draft. Obviously there were when they traded back for their picks they kind of went into the tank. The expectations the hopes were Cooper Flag, Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey BJ Edgecom like that level of player and then they dropped to eight. And I understand the shock among some people with the pick, but I’ve said if you look at the available options and if you go under the presumption that they wanted to go ball handler, they wanted to go upside, there weren’t a ton of players behind Jaor that necessaril necessarily you were like this would be a home run pick over him for the Nets. And you just said you’re a believer in the upside and part of that was based on the things that you saw him working on and that you know obviously swayed you a little bit in that direction. And what were some of those things that you saw that you felt, you know, could lend himself to having success in the NBA? Yeah, it was different ways that he was going to handle, you know, help defenses rotating over or different ways that he was going to avoid um defenders reaching in with high pickups. You know, a guy like him, you look at and you go, “All right, maybe he’s watching Josh Giddy or Luca or LeBron, like these big playmakers.” But uh Jagor and his trainer Zack Gonzalez, they were watching guys like Donovan Mitchell, Dejonte Murray, John Morant, and you know, different pickups coming into the lane, different kind of footwork, finishing around the basket, and then obviously um you know, the big question mark is the shooting and you know, from what I saw up close, both what he was working on in the versatility of his shot diet as far as movement, catch and shoot off the bounce, um at the elbows behind the three-point line, and just the aesthetics of it all. I was like, that looks clean, man. And if he’s willing to work in the way that I see him working behind the scenes, and I was also a big fan of his tape because I just think his passing is special and at the top of the draft, I think a lot of times you swing for special. Um, sometimes you might strike out or you might foul out or or whatever, but he has a special skill and you couldn’t necessarily say that about every single prospect in the draft. Like his passing is legitimately special. his vision, um what he can do out of ball screens where most guys are his age are just reacting to defenses, he’s manipulating the defense. So, in combination of his film throughout the year that I thought the one constant was his special playmaking, uh and then what I saw behind the scenes as far as him working on a lot of that stuff and you know, he shot well in the tournament. Um you know, he he shot well in summerly. I think he’s on an upward trajectory with the shot and if the shot is there like this is a kid who can finish at the rim. He can make plays like he’s an infectious um personality and you know a good teammate like I I just I think he has a real chance to be a foundational piece and I think you take that in the top 10. Yeah. And you you said that the cell you know it’s not difficult to see like the vision with him. And that was something I said even though I was a little surprised by the pick, it was something I said about him. You know, my draft night reaction pot is this is a guy who’s a 6’9 ball handler. He’s regarded as the best passer in the draft. The Nets seem to think I spoke to some people in the organization who think that he has defensive upside and defensive versatility. A big question was obviously the outside shot because he shot poorly while on very high volume at BYU. But everything I heard throughout the pre-draft process was that he shot the cover off the ball in workouts. The Nets said the same thing. They said that they have no worries about what he’s going to do as a shooter. And then he shot well at summer league. Another concern that I have outside of that was the ball handling, the ability to handle pressure against NBA level defenders and the ability to be, you know, a little bit more of an offscript self-creator, you know, off the dribble outside of whether it’s, you know, just high pick and rolls or zoom actions or whatever you want to say. And his ability to create separation from NBA level athletes. Is that something that concerns you or do you think it’s something where the skills that he has as a passer, if the jump shot comes along, those things might not be as glaring because either they’ll develop or the Nets will be able to put him in positions where that’s not as much of a concern? I mean, it’s definitely a concern. I mean, even you saw in summer league, there were times when guys were getting into his shirt that, you know, he’d have to turn his back and or move off the ball. So, as especially out of isolation, I I’m not really concerned about it like coming off of a zoom action or or a ball, you know, a ball screen. um you know 14 flat something like that and you know one of the the marks against him was that he was so reliant on ball screens and it’s like okay well he’s an awesome ball screen operator so why am I going to ask him to be in a position to do things that he’s not great at when he is great at this other thing um the NBA plays a lot of ball screens like if you’re going to put him in the you know in a corner and have him coming off a handoff and allow him to get downhill great you know like I think that he’s really good at stuff like that so as far as those kind of actions. No, I don’t have any concerns as far as one-on-one creation. Yeah, I do have that concern, but that’s why he’s not Luca Donsuch. That’s why he is was a questionable, you know, pick at eight. It’s because, you know, these are the things that he does have to work on. Um, but again, when you’re 6’8, 69, 610, wherever he ends up at, like you have a little more wiggle room than a guard who is 6’3, 6’4 and struggles with their handle. Um, and so I think the Nets can be creative in ways in which they’re going to get him into his spots. Especially you look at their strategy with all the other guys they drafted, these are all guys who outside of Drake Powell can play with the ball in their hands. Um, and are used to playing with the ball in their hands. So these guys are all going to have to learn how to not play with the ball in their hands, right? And I think Jaor is going to have a pretty easy translation in doing that because I do think he’s good out of those zooms and and whatnot off the ball as well as I think if that shot develops obviously that makes him much harder to guard and help off of and now you got to chase over and that allows him to put pressure in the cat and mouse you know coming off those those ball screens. So, you know, it’s definitely a concern as far as what he can do one-on-one, but again, this is what he was working on in these workouts, you know, like especially the one-on-one workouts. Like, he’s working on freestyle dribbling, creativity, um managing to get 50 to 80 um strong, intentional dribbles before you get to half court. So, like, you know, in order to do that, especially when you have big strides like that, you have to be tightening that handle, getting low, staying low, and doing the things that you’re going to have to work on. It’s not going to happen right away. I don’t think I think he’s going to struggle especially with the speed, the physicality and all that. But I think as his body develops, in which I think it will because I think he’s got a good frame. Um I think he’s going to get there even if it’s you know a couple years down the line which is exactly I think what the Nets are hoping for because there’s no way they want to be good next year, right? So um I think it’s all good stuff for whatever the plan seems to be. um that that I’m kind of reading out of that that franchise and the skill set, you know, it’s interesting because you see a guy with his size who the Nets presume is going is going to be a good shooter and showed, you know, movement shooting, you know, off the dribble shooting, just stationary catch and shoot shooting, all of that at summer league. You think that that, you know, and also someone who I said struggles as a ball handler somewhat. There is a question of what position is he going to be at long term because he is a guy who could play on and off the ball if that three-point shot stays consistent. And it also, you know, the the rest of the Nets draft, you know, kind of fueled those questions because they took two other international ball handlers and also who were presumed as point guards and also Danny Wolf who’s a big man but a guy whose best skill was pick and roll ball handling at Michigan. I’ve asked some people, some people have told me they think he’ll be on the wing mostly. Some people have said they think that he’ll be a primary ball handler. What’s your read on the best position for him to have success at the NBA long term or do you think it’s a situation where he could split time evenly and it could be a versatility, you know, as a strength type of deal? Yeah, I think it’s going to be he’s splitting time like ideally. I mean, look, if the shot comes around and the ball handling comes around, then yeah, just let him rock out with the ball in his hands full-time, you know, like if both of those things come together in a real way, you definitely just let him be the the primary guy. But ultimately I think that the vision is he can do that but then he can also slide off the ball and offer that kind of versatility as a really quick decision maker 0.5 decision maker where if the ball does swing his way he’s going to make the one more he is going to quickly rip and go and then be able to see the entire weak side and make any of those reads. Um, and I I think if you look at their plan, like I think that’s their plan for all of these guys. Like they’re I if you think that Nolan Trayori has to play with the ball in his hands and and just the ball in his hands, then why are you drafting, you know, Jaor? Why are you drafting Danny? Um, why are you drafting drafting Ben? Like all of these guys are going to have to synergize off the ball and on the ball. Like they have to if it’s going to work. And and part of the bet and is just like volume shooting, right? They they took four of these guys hoping that one, two, three work out and if one doesn’t, okay, well, we got these other guys who can do all this stuff and kind of play the the kind of game the Celtics, the the Thunder are are playing, right? So, I think in an ideal world, basically every player that you draft is able to play on the ball, off the ball, even SGA, right? Like he’s sharing time um off the ball with Jaylen Williams and Case Wallace and like the best players will will figure out how to do it both ways. Yeah, and I’ve spoken to Jordy Fernandez since the draft and while he’s admitted like they, you know, teams do have a primary ball handler, a primary big man, they do see, you know, those one through three, one through four positions as interchangeable as the NBA trends, you know, more towards positionless basketball. And Jaor obviously the reaction to the draft was interesting. There’s a lot more that we need to dig in with him there. And then also, we got to get into the rest of the next draft class, who the fans should be most excited about, who may give you pause. So, we’ll dig in all that. We continue locked on nets after a quick break. But before that, want to tell you about our friends over at Five Hour Energy. Whether you’re on the golf course or just need a little extra push to power through your day, 5Hour Energy Transfusion delivers the clubhouse flavor you love without ever touching the green. Guys, you get up early for work, maybe you’re tired, aren’t able to get through your day. Have a few 5-hour energy transfusions. You’ll be chugging along in no time. Maybe you got an early tea time. The weather’s still nice out. You want to get up, but you’re tired. Drink a few of those and before you know it, you’ll be on the greens hitting putts and having a great time. Guys, golf is all about good times with good people and good flavors. 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Like if that doesn’t come around, is he really going to have a role in the NBA? But then he comes out and the three-point shot looks really uh good at summer league. You know, the Nets are raving about it. So that gives you confidence that if he has the shot along with, you know, the ball handling, the size, the passing ability, potential defensive versatility, higher floor there. But the ceiling, I’ve had some concerns, you know, about the lack of self-creation, the lack of ability to create separation, being a ceiling limiter. How much do you worry about that, you know, him reaching that next level of being a potential like all-star level player? How much does that stuff give you pause, you know, of him trying to get to that next level player in the NBA? Honestly, I think that that kind of pause and concern is something that every prospect outside of Cooper Flag is going to have. You know, even Dylan Harper, I think there is pause and concern for reaching some kind of all-star ceiling. I I buy it with Dylan. I love Dylan as a prospect. Um, but I think that all of these players outside of Coupe have those concerns. Like, what if Khan Canipple is too slow to get by guys and, you know, his overwhelming strength at the college level hampers his finishing because he’s not, you know, bullying smaller guys. Uh what if Ace Bailey also can’t dribble and he doesn’t make shots efficiently? What if Derek Queen, you know, never really slims down and uh is can’t play defense? All these guys have some kind of concern within their games that make you go, “All right, can they be an all-star? This is how it doesn’t work out.” If it does work out, I think he can reach an all-star level for sure, but at the same time, that bar is so high now. the the league is so talented. It’s so so talented. Um and so I don’t think it’s a failure if Jaor doesn’t make an All-Star game. It doesn’t mean that he’s not giving like that kind of impact. It’s just there are limited spots for a league that is absolutely loaded um at every position. And you know, like who knows when KD retires. Seems like LeBron might be hinting he’s retiring next year. Maybe not. Maybe he plays another eight years. I don’t know what’s possible, you know, in this day and age. So, like the forward positions are loaded with Jason Tatum and, you know, Jaylen Brown and all these other guys, the guard positions loaded with a million guys, and then you have the older generation still hanging on. I mean, it just it’s going to be a hard uphill battle either way. You hope that seven years from now when you know the Nets land next year in the draft and AJ Darren Peterson Camboozer potentially that this is kind of your number two potentially number three guy to complement your star and things get harder. You know if the same kind of thing happens where the Nets drop a little bit next year and you got to really hope that you hit if you want a star outcome and then you you shuffle around you go all right maybe we got to focus on free agency if we’re really looking for that top tippy top tier superstar. But yes, it’s a concern that if the ball handling, the shooting doesn’t come around, Jagor is not going to reach his perceived ceiling, but it every single guy that that the Nets had available to them have concerns of their own to prevent them as well. And you said, you know, last thing on Diego, you said you had him uh number six or whatever you had him on your big board and that you mocked him to the Nets at this spot. And you know, when you go back and re-evaluate, I you know, I’m not all that surprised looking back on who was available that they went with Jaor here. But at the draft, there was that shock factor. There was a lot of people who were almost making fun of the Nets for making this pick. So to you, how surprising was that to you? And why do you think it was that this pick had such a visceral reaction amongst NBA draft community and the Nets fan base? I mean, I’m not surprised that the community were were laughing at the Nets draft. And I think it was the totality of their draft, too. It was just like, oh, they drafted Gagore. All right, that’s a little weird and definitely a reach in their opinion, but let’s see what they do. And then, you know, they draft another ball handler and another ball handler. And it’s like, so I think that was a lot of why the Nets, you know, got crap for for their draft. But, um, I mean, I don’t know. I think a lot of people just kind of anchor to bias and and they don’t under like they’re afraid to move off of it. Um, you know, there’s a lot of just like shared opinions in the draft space. Um, or if it’s an unshared opinion, it’s like either anchored so hard to statistics um or so hard to upside and like it’s hard to find people who are just like this is my middle of the road opinion. I totally see what the Nets are doing. I disagree, but I get it. It’s like, you know, especially people who are creating content, it’s like, well, I’m only going to say it sucks because that’ll make a cool breakout clip or, you know, I’m going to overreact. So, I I don’t know. I I think there’s like certainly uh some kind of middle ground that most people could just be like, hey, even if I don’t agree with it, I kind of see what their vision is based on the direction of the league. And um but it doesn’t shock me that anybody overreacts ever to to things that happen on the internet and the Nets were an easy target just because of their strategy. And we have we had a historic like I was just so busy on draft night. They made they got to through their fourth pick and I was like they’re actually going to keep this and they’re going to make five and I couldn’t believe it. And that’s just, you know, given us obviously a lot of tape that we’ve had to sift through with these guys and I’ve gotten a feel for all of them talking to them at summer league watching the film. But based on, you know, what your rankings were and what you had looked at the tape pre-draft of the Nets next four picks with Nolan Chore, Drake Pal, Ben Saraf, Danny Wolf, which of those guys are you the most excited about and which of those guys based on where the Nets took them do you feel was the best value at where they were? you know, on your consensus. Um, for person personally, I had um Danny Wolf and and Ben Sarif backtoback um at 21 and 22. They pretty much could have been uh interchangeable in in that regard. Uh Drake Powell I’m the lowest on. I you know, I’ve been tracking him since high school. I’ve just kind of never seen it. If you want to feel really bad about that pick, you can go watch his high school state championship game um and be like, “Oh no, what did we do?” Um, but I I I really like um Danny Wolf because I think he’s interesting, you know, I think he’s unique and I think that his trajectory is super interesting because I saw him a couple years ago at Yale and you know, um, an NBA front office guy was like, “Oh, who do you think’s interesting in this game?” And there were a couple other guys who were getting buzz and I was like, “I think Danny Wolf’s kind of interesting.” And then he proceeded to have just a terrible game. He was like one for eight, like a bunch of turnovers, but like that’s how it goes, right? You say something like that offense person, but he was this back to the basket guy who was like, “Oh, like maybe he does like the Shangoon like passing out of the post and then he goes to Michigan and all of a sudden he’s playing he’s running four or five pick and rolls like you know, and he’s this completely different guy shooting off the balance Penny Hardway threes. Um, and he’s young for his class. So I’m really interested in what he looks like. Ben Sarif, I’m also super high on his upside as maybe like uh kind of like a dragic kind of outcome for him except he’s like he actually measured bigger than I thought he was going to. Like I I was surprised when I saw him at summer league like I was like all of these guys like I mean even Troy is a little bit slighter but like good height for a point guard. Like the Nets had a clear vision and Shawn Mark said this when he was looking at the two things he said were 0.5 second basketball guys who move the ball and then also sizable multi-positional players who can make things tough on defense. So they clearly that was a priority for them with this but but go on. No that it’s a it’s a great point and it’s and it’s true and it’s I mean if you look at the direction most of the teams that are playing deep into the playoffs and I know that you know a big thing within that scouting series was 16 game players. Not exactly sure that they took um five 16 game players, but those guys for that reason are really interesting and and Sarif can get into the pain at will. He’s a good finisher, very left-hand dominant. um shot definitely questionable, but this kid destroyed the FIA you I don’t remember if it was the 18 or 19s um two summers ago to where it was like oh my god like this kid is going to be a lottery pick you know and and that could have been an outcome for him um easily in my opinion you know like I kind of liked him better as a prospect than his teammate Noah Sen who you know ultimately did end up going in the lottery um you know Nolan I’m a little bit I go back and forth on because you know I got to see him for a week at the Nike Hoop Summit um before last season in 2024 and he was a standout player there. He was terrific. VJ Edgecom said he was the best point guard he’d ever played with um in that setting. You know, he he knocked down shots. Uh you know, it was like everything that go should go right did go right. And then I thought he had a really tough year and a lot of the nuance that I saw him display in the Nike Hoops Summit setting was kind of lost and he just was playing fast. Um, so I’m a little wait and see with him. You know, he’s probably fourth on my list of guys that the Nets drafted, but I totally get the outcome because this is a guy who had top three buzz coming into the draft cycle over the summer because he was that good in that setting, basketball without borders, and then um going into um the the off. He just had a solid summer with the FIA play, too. And so, you know, I get the upside swing on that because sometimes you don’t want to like weigh too much an up and down season, especially when it’s international in a pro setting and, you know, the context is going to look a little different than it might in the NBA is and you’re playing against higher level competition a lot of times than, you know, some of these college guys are. So, I I don’t hate that pick, but I’m I’m definitely more wait and see. But, I do think the Danny pick and the the Ben pick are really interesting. But all in all, again, like you said, the strategy, big plus positional size, solid playmakers. Um, and then I guess, you know, when you take four of them, you got to take a guy who can’t put the ball on the floor at all and Drake Powell and, you know, you hope that he cuts and knocks down open threes and just plays solid defense. And he’s an excellent defender. So, you know, that I can’t take away from him. He’s he’s a ve a really really good defensive player. Um, he’s just very very far away from an offensive perspective. Yeah, we’ll dig more into um Wolf and Sar who you see him higher on when we close it out. But Anor like you see you the skill for him like the speed, the ability to touch the paint like he was just able to do that at will. He did that at summer league obviously has some passing feel, the jump shot somewhat questionable, but like you understand those like those aspects of his game, what he can do in transition, what he can do turning the corner in the half court. like the a core principle of the Nets offense is touching the paint, getting the ball into rotation, creating catch and shoot threes. I think I heard them say on the scout series they think he’ll be even better at that with NBA spacing. And like you said, he was a guy who had past pedigree. Some people saw him as like a top five, top 10 pick in the draft, you know, this time last year. What do you think changed this past season that gave, you know, that led him to like slide down the board? And when you look at this film, what are some of the things that led to those struggles and, you know, gave you pause about him? I just thought he played too fast. He played sped up and it felt like guys he was letting guys speed him up, you know, instead of like where, you know, the first setting I saw him in, he was kind of dictating the pace. It felt like he was playing catch-up a lot of times. Um, and so, you know, like he was flying, he was basically playing, you know, at at 100 miles an hour where he’d come off a ball screen and he’d be like, “All right, I’m just going to try to beat the guy to the paint and get that paint touch.” Whereas a lot of times it’s like, “All right, well, if you do that every time, then we know we could just meet you there and you’re going to kind of be a little bit out of control and we’re going to get in your way and now you got to try to improvise in areas where you’re uncomfortable. Whereas like you have to learn to mix up your speeds. So when you could when you can think the game fast, you can kind of play it slow. And as a point guard or a ball handler, like you have to play the game slow and then use your speed as a weapon instead of like the only thing that you have in your arsenal. And he just became too predictable. He could he’d never come off a screen tight because he would just try to round around like go really fast around it and guys could just kind of slide through and kind of catch up instead of like all right I’m going to come off tight I’m going to get a guy on his my hip and then as he slows down now I’m going to hit the gas and just explode you know 0 to 60 he just wasn’t doing stuff like that and when you then throw in a questionable jumper now all of a sudden it’s like all right so this could be a disaster offensively like if the game is just too fast for you in a lot of ways. It’s a tough name to to bring up around for NBA fans. U probably tougher for Detroit fans, but he got, you know, he’s he’s been in the net system is like it’s a lot of Killian Hayes kind of stuff. And um you know, he’s not like this super bouncy finishing at the rim, above the rim kind of athlete. It’s a lot of below the rim stuff. So there’s just a lot of questions where it’s like really easy to see an outcome where it doesn’t work out and he doesn’t have that super plus size that a guy like Jaor does that kind of it’s like all right well we could just put him off the ball and hope that he shoots and then use like a lot of the second side stuff. It’s like what are you going to do if the on ball stuff doesn’t work with Nolan? He’s not he’s also not a good enough shooter to put him off the ball and no one’s really going to respect it. And then it’s just it it becomes really hard at that size to to not get the nuance of the point guard position right. Yeah, that’s that’s you know what I took from that was when you have the questionable jump shot, you have while he’s not small like he does have a little bit of a lack of size there. You need to have a really high feel for the game and the Nets seem to be believers in that and we’ll see if that comes to fruition. But you said you were a little bit higher on Ben Sarof and Danny Wolf. I want to dive into them a little bit quickly and we close out Locked on Nets after a quick break. Coming back from the break, closing out today’s Locked on Nets episode talking with Corey Tulliba of No Ceilings and now the locked on NBA draft show. And Corey, you seem to be very high on Danny Wolf. And it’s an interesting prospect that I’ve had to talk about because it seems like the opinions have been all over the place on him. When you look at him, I just think that, you know, we know what’s enticing about him. He’s a 6’11 guy who can handle the ball, has great passing ability, the jumper people seem to think can come around. What, you know, how do you see him fitting into the NBA though on both sides of the floor? Because it’s an interesting question of is he a center? Is he a jumbosized wing? Can he hang defensively in either of those scenarios? Is the shooting going to be a big be good enough offensively? And then also like the skill that he had, the best skill being picking, you know, handling the ball in the pick and roll. he’s like a backup guy. Is he going to be a guy who’s coming in with second units and warranting having that kind of role and usage? Just there’s a lot of questions. How do you see him fitting in ideally? Yeah, I can see him all of the above. I mean, honestly, I think because he lacks like true rim protection, I don’t think he can be like your full-time starting center, you know, like and not even like, oh, he isn’t a guy who blocks a ton of shots. He’s just a guy who people aren’t going to be intimidated intimidated by when he gets vertical near the rim. Um, I think he can play that position in spurts, but I think he’s going to swing between the four and the five. As far as like, well, what if he’s just like coming off the bench and doing this cool stuff? Well, it’s like, all right, well, Nas Reed does that, and it rocks when he does that. So, if Danny Wolf can do a Nas Reed impression, which I think that he can, that’s still a really effective player that’s going to make a lot of money and be impactful. Um, there might even be like some Kelly Oolen, some shades of that, and is a guy who has hung around the league forever. Uh, but ultimately I think like you kind of want him to be your four next to a more mobile um center who can also maybe be a little bouncier and protect the rim and uh you know I think he actually moves laterally pretty well like better than you would think defensively. So that’s why I kind of think he could be somebody who guards the perimeter a little bit more often than he is guarding the paint. Um, you know, not to say you want to have him switching on super twitchy or guards or like Trey Young or anything like that all the time. Obviously, the way the NBA game is played, he’s going to have to do it sometimes and he’s going to have to prove that he can survive. But, I think he can move his feet. Um, and he’s an intelligent guy. So, I I don’t think his defense is as much as a worry long term because it’s going to be bad next year. Every one of these guys are going to be terrible defensively next year. Um, including Drake Powell who was a good defender in high school and college. like it just takes a while to learn the speed of the game, the coverages, the adjustments, and the difference between the either international or college game to the pro game and the rules. Um, but I think he can I think he’ll survive on that end and I think offensively he’s got a lot of fun tools. I think the jumper will be respectable enough. Um, and I think he’s whether he’s a starter or a bench player, he’s going to bring value because, um, he has a lot of the skills that are important to winning basketball in 2025, 26, 27, 28 beyond. Yeah. And, you know, if the jumper comes around for him and he’s able to be a guy who could, you know, space off the off the floor, I’m just very intrigued by him because I think that he’s a guy who could obviously be a ball handler and do some things in that settings. And if there are like short spurts where he’s playing center, you have a guy who could be an inverted pick and roll ball handler. You have a guy who could be like a short roll hub playmaker, DHO guy, which is something that Jordi Fernandez wants. You know, he’s obviously coached guys like Damonte Sabonis and Joic. So, I think he’s interesting in that regard. We have like a minute or two left here. You said you’re high on Ben Sarof. Just give me your sell on him. Like, what really entices you about him? And, you know, how do you see him potentially fitting in at the next level? you know, really great positional size. Um, his measurements lead you to believe at like six, seven inches that he can actually play on the wing and not just in the back court, which is really important. Uh, constant threat for rim pressure, finish at the rim, uh, kick out, capable of making really high level reads. Um, the only question is just how consistent of a shooter can he be, which is the theme for basically every player that they took. Um, and you know, I think that I can see an outcome where he becomes a decent enough shooter and I can see an outcome where it doesn’t work. Um, but the fact that he does have the positional size and the playmaking tools to at least play a few different positions, I think gives him a better chance of making it uh versus a guy like Nolan who is kind of stuck in that back court. I think you know Ben kind of go one through three and that gives him a little more flexibility and um I think on the Nets in their situation he’s going to get a chance a real shot to you know show what he’s got. Yeah. And there’s questions obviously about him about the jump shot about you know little left hand dominant. how does he fit in? But they took him with the 26 pick and I have been a fan of the pick because of some of the things I’ve seen him do offensively, you know, as a self-creator, as a driver, as a guy who can touch the paint and all that. So, I was happy with the pick and I’m excited to see what he can do. But that’s all we have. Competitor, too, by the way. Definitely a competitor. Definitely, as a lot of these guys are. I think between the ears, a lot of them have it, which is obviously a big priority for the Nets in their past drafts. That’s all the time we have. Corey, I appreciate you. I think Nets fans, you guys should all be tuning in to Corey and No Ceiling stuff moving forward because we’re going to be talking about the 2026 draft. We’re going to be re-evaluating these Nets draft picks and I hope to have you back on the show because there’s a very clear hunger for draft content within the Nets community. Yeah, looking forward to it. Thank you for having me. Uh, excited to be part of the team. That does it for today’s episode of Locked on Nets. Hope you guys really enjoyed the talk with Corey hitting on Dorman and everything to do with the Nets draft class. If you do not already, make sure to subscribe to Lockdown Nets on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple Podcast or Spotify. If you enjoy the content, smash that like button, leave a comment. Only takes a second. Really helps for engagement. We got more talk about the Nets roster. We got more potential moves coming. We got a lot more draft class breakdowns going on. So, we’ll have all that and more when I’m back tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater and NBA Draft analyst Corey Tulaba outline why the Brooklyn Nets’ controversial Egor Demin pick could turn out to be a home run. They analyze Demin’s skill set and upside at the next level before diving into the rest of Brooklyn’s draft class.

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