Brooklyn Nets rookies Egor Demin and Ben Saraf BENCHED amid STRUGGLES | A Jordi Fernandez STATEMENT?

Brooklyn Nets rookies Egor Demin and Ben Saraf BENCHED amid STRUGGLES | A Jordi Fernandez STATEMENT?

On today’s show, Jaor Gilman and Ben Saraf are benched down the stretch of the Nets’s nailbiter loss to the Hawks. I’ll tell you what went into the decision and whether it’s a sign of things to come right now. [Music] You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked Onet. Your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked On Nets 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. And today, I’m going to be recapping the Nets 11712 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday at Barclay Center. The Nets fell to 0 and5 in this game. It was the first game of the season where it didn’t necessarily feel like the Nets should have won, but it felt like they had a really good chance to win. And down the stretch, you were questioning whether or not the Nets were going to win this one. And the biggest story arguably in this game was Jordi Fernandez benching Jay Goreman and Ben Saraf, his two rookie point guards who have been in the rotation to start the year in the fourth quarter. Neither of them played. And the way that this game played out, the Nets went up 12 nothing. They looked really good out of the gate. Trey Young actually got hurt in the first quarter. He sprained his knee. So, the Hawks played the majority of this game without their point guard and lead offensive player and the Nets fell behind big after opening with that 120 lead and then they came roaring back in the second half and Jordi Fernandez faced a decision down the stretch of this game entering the fourth quarter and throughout was he going to play one of his rookies in Jaor Dilman or Ben Saraf who had struggled earlier in this game and he chose not to play either of them in the fourth quarter of this game and in a season that is about player development the storylines are obviously the rookies and the draft position itions are the main things that people are going to be monitored. That’s going to cause a stir amongst some fans who are very invested in these rookies, very invested in player development. And the Nets went with other options at point guard in this game in the fourth quarter. They don’t have any point guards on this roster outside of the rookies in Jorman, Nolan Troy, and Ben Sarra. And in the fourth quarter, they went with guys like Terrence Man, Tyrese Martin handling the ball a lot. Obviously, Cam Thomas and Michael Border Jr. taking their shares of the offense. But I think that a lot of fans are obviously going to want to see these rookies this season in a close game like this down the stretch against a Hawks team that especially without Trey Young. Even with him, is not a world beater. A lot of fans are going to want to see those rookies in the lineup and that’s have five rookies. Only two of them are in the rotation right now and neither of them were playing in this fourth quarter. And you look at what Jagor Gman and Ben Saraf did in this game. Jaor had four points, three assists, one turnover. He was one of six from the field in 16 minutes. Ben Sarafh had no points, went scoreless, one assist, three turnovers, 0 of two from the field in 12 minutes. And both of them struggled. Ben really struggled in the first quarter. He had three turnovers, I think, in the first five minutes. He didn’t end up playing that much after that. And it’s been more of the same with Jagor in terms of he’s willing to jack him up from three, but he can’t really get by anybody and he doesn’t look comfortable initiating offense. So, it was clear down the stretch of this game that if the Nets, you know, what was going to give them the best chance to win in a game where it seemed like they had a really good shot, they cut the lead to the deficit to three and they had the ball with under a minute left and Nick Claxton had pretty much a wideopen shot in the paint. He was not able to convert. That gives you a sense of how close the Nets were to winning and getting over the hump in this game. And Jordi Fernandez made the decision that he is trying obviously to win this game and he was trying to compete and he was doing things in the rotation to give the Nets the best chance to win even if it came at the expense of these rookies not getting you know some high impact or high leverage fourth quarter minutes that would benefit them. And I think that obviously that as I said is going to cause a stir amongst the fan base. But it’s not really questionable that what Jordy did was giving the Nets the best chance to win because the Nets struggled in the first half of this game. They came back and they were playing well in the third quarter and the fourth with Jorman and Ben Saraf on the bench for most of it. Those guys only combined for 28 minutes. And you look at, you know, Terrence Man and Tyrese Martin were handling expanded ball handling responsibilities in this game. Man had 11 points, six assists, two turnovers. He was five and nine from the field. Martin had 13 points on five of seven from the field. And I asked Jordy after the game what went into the decision to bench Jagor and Ben Saraf and he said that he thought that Tyrese Martin was unbelievable. And the thing that stands out was that he said he thought Tyrese was unbelievable and then he said nothing is given to anybody. I’m rewarding a player in Tyrese who had a great summer and was playing well in this game and everything is going to need to be earned. Obviously him saying you know Jagor and Ben Saraf in this game didn’t really deserve to close the game in terms of an impact factor. Now, that is going to bring us to the question of how is Jordi Fernandez going to balance, you know, what is best from the team from a developmental standpoint from what is best for the team from, you know, trying to compete on that night or any given night throughout the season. And that’s an interesting conversation because I think for a lot of fans, all they care about is, you know, the tank. All they care about is these rookies getting their minutes and improving and draft position. And all in all, like those are obviously the main focuses of this season. But a lot of fans who say that stuff and say like, “Oh, like we’ll go 0 and 82 if the if the rookies develop and we get a good draft pick, like that’s all that matters.” I understand why fans have that sentiment. But I’d also say that those fans don’t have to be in the locker room. Those fans don’t take into account how toxic a situation can get. So, while I understand it, and while I think it would be beneficial for Jaor Gilman and Ben Sarath to play minutes in the fourth quarter of a tight game like this, it’s really a slippery slope and it’s easy to lose the locker room as a head coach if you feel like if the players start to feel like you’re not doing things to win rotationally. You’re not taking some of these games seriously and it really, you know, kind of undercuts your integrity as a coach. And we already have some of that going on because the fans obviously know that this is a tanking season. But you look at the offseason moves that the Nets have made. They obviously, you know, went into the season with only rookie point guards. That was a move that was intended to bolster the tank and obviously at the same time bolster the development of these rookies. You have that. You also have an owner in Joe Sai who, you know, said entering the season that pretty much admitted that this was a tanking season. He was on that podcast in Los Angeles and he said, you know, we only have one draft pick this year, our 2026 pick. So you can imagine what kind of strategy we’re going to have this year because we want a good pick, which obviously is insinuating tanking and all, you know, everybody knows this, but when you hear the owner saying that when the front office is making moves that seem like they’re handicapping this team’s ability to compete, there are players outside of the rookies who are on this roster. There’s veterans, there are other guys obviously who care about themselves and also the team and what happens and how that affects them. So, when you start doing things, when as a as a coach, when you start doing things and players start to feel like you’re not taking winning seriously or you don’t have those things in mind and it’s just all about the development of these rookie guys, that is an easy way to start to lose the locker room and not have guys bought in. And frankly, through the first five games of the season, there have been large stretches where it already seems like guys aren’t bought in. So, you add that into the mix and you start doing that as the year progresses, things can get really dicey. And we talked to like I I talked to Michael Porter Jr. in the locker room after this game. We were talking to him about the Nets’s inability to compete for large stretches during these first five games. And the thing that he pointed to, he said, “It’s tough when you have rookie point guards. It’s tough when you have guys who are not solidified at those positions.” And obviously that was part of the Net’s calculus entering this season. But he said that it makes it diffult difficult to compete and some things might have to change rotationally for the Nets to, you know, not continue to lose all of these games. So you hear a player Michael Porter Jr. who’s the Net’s top player right now. You hear him saying that. That’s kind of a glimpse into how you can start to lose guys, how you can start to lose the locker room if you’re doing things that are pulling putting just the development of the rookies ahead of competing in these games. And would all the fans like the Nets to do that? Sure. Is that in the best interest of the Nets? I definitely think so. But it’s also in the best interest of the Nets or at least in some interest to the Nets not to have the locker room situation come completely toxic, not to have players just not caring or not bought in. Because when you start to indicate as a front office, from ownership, as a coaching staff, that winning is not a priority right now, that’s a slippery slope. When that’s when you start to lose player and the situation can get toxic, not just from those guys who aren’t happy about it, but also for the rookies who are in this situation during their first year. The rookies need mentorship from the coaches, from those veterans. And if you want to keep those veterans bought in, it’s a balancing act between, you know, wanting to play these rookies and wanting to develop guys, but also showing the rest of the guys in the team that you’re doing what you can to win or at least, you know, figning doing what you can to win during what everybody knows is a tanking and a rebuilding season. But the Nets were still close to winning this game and a lot of that had to do with the play of Michael Porter Jr., but they ultimately weren’t able to get over the hump. And I think that we’ll see a lot of games like this where they are close and they do have one of their top guys have it going, but they’re not able to get over the hump. So, what is that going to look like moving forward and how do I think it’ll play out? I’ll get into that when I continue locked on nets after a quick break. Pelaton is shaping the future of fitness with a brand new Pelaton crossraining tread plus powered by Pelaton IQ. 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And this was a Hawks team who was very beatable. I mean, the Hawks were 1 and three entering this game. Trey Young went down in the first quarter of this game with a knee sprain and did not return. So, the Nets were playing a struggling Hawks team without their top player and it was a very winning winnable game. And for a large stretch, it looked like a continuation of what we’ve seen in prior games, the Nets not competing, the Nets having breakdowns defensively, but then they got it going late and they had a chance to win. And what really kept them in the game during those stretches where the defense was not good and where they were having some other struggles, it was Michael Porter Jr. who played out of his mind to start this game. He started off this game, you know, with 25 or 27 points on 11 of 13 from the field and like four of five from three. He started off that hot. He that hot. He cooled off towards the end. He finished the game with 32 points, two assists, four turnovers, was 12 of 20 from the field. But you saw his ability to keep the Nets in this game. The Nets’s top two players are obviously MPJ and Cam Thomas offensively. And in this game, Cam Thomas really struggled. You know, MPJ had it going. Cam Thomas did not. Cam finished with 19 points, but he had three assists to two two turnovers and he was six of 20 from the field. And I said this throughout the year, like we saw this in, you know, the second game of the season in that Cavs game. The Nets, you know, MPJ and Cam Thomas both had it going, but the Nets were still not able to get over the hump. Now, in this game, you have one of the two. And I said, you know, there’s really ways there’s really only a few ways that the Nets or two ways that the Nets are going to win or compete in games this season in my opinion. And it’s Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. both getting both get it going or the Nets shoot really well from three as a team or like two out of those three happen at the same time and tonight it was an indication you saw Michael Porter Jr. really had it going but Cam Thomas did not and the Nets shot 11 of 37 from three as a team and ultimately their defensive struggles which I’m going to touch on to end this episode which aren’t going anywhere did not allow them to get over the hump. But with what I think the Nets are going to do defensively this season and just struggle on a consistent basis, they’re really going to have, if you look at those three factors I tal about, Cam Thomas, Michael Porter Jr. offensively, and the Nets three-point shooting as a whole, they’re going to need to get like big games out of two of those three. And today, it was only one of those three and they were not able to get over the hump against a Hawks team that was struggling and without Trey Young. And if you’re a fan that’s rooting for the tank, like that’s a good sign because the Nets, you know, this is not a team in the Hawks without Trey Young, that is very formidable. And the Nets even getting a really good game from Michael Porter Jr. were not able to get over the hump. And obviously, they got a really bad game from Cam Thomas. But it was a game that the Nets were trailing for the vast majority even with all of those things going their way. But I do want to talk a little bit about Michael Porter Jr. and just the shot making that he’s put on display because MPJ there was obviously a lot of questions about what he was going to do from an efficiency standpoint how he was going to acclimate to his new role with this Nets team and there have been some growing pains which I’m going to talk talk about but just the shot making that MPJ has put on display I think as Nets you know people who follow the Nets and also Nets fans maybe didn’t get to see it as much you know when he was with the Nuggets I’m sure you saw it to some extent but this guy is one of the most talented shotmakers in the NBA. He’s one of the most talented shot makers that I’ve ever seen in a Brooklyn Nets uniform. I mean, some of the shots that he’s hitting, some of the things that he’s doing, we’re talking about like Kevin Durant level of shotmaking. He’s that good as a shotmaker. He obviously has glaring limitations to his game outside of that. But MBJ has maintained his his efficiency on an expanded role early this season. And there were questions about was he going to be able to do that offensively? And I think going into this game, he was shooting 48% from the field, 40% from three. Among I think there was there were 18 players in the NBA entering this game who were averaging more than 13 field goal attempts and seven three-point attempts. And of those 18, MBJ ranks sixth in uh effective field goal percentage. So, the efficiency, he’s been able to maintain it, and it’s not like he’s maintaining that efficiency because he’s just getting all of these easy looks. Like we talked about, we talked with him about that in the locker room after the game. He said that he feels he can be doing a better job to get more open looks and that he’s really just hitting a lot of really difficult shots right now. And that has been the case in my opinion. And the his ability to maintain efficiency on that level of shot making is really just a testament to what an insane shotmaker he is. This is a guy who’s 610. He’s not like a highle ball handler, but he has some ball handling ability and he has ability to get his own shot off. And this guy can hit shots from anywhere with any level of contest. We’ve seen that in every game this season, him hitting ridiculous shots. And you know, MPJ is a guy who’s 610. I think he has the second or third highest release point in the league on his jumpers. And that really shows. And he has not been deterred by any type of contest. And we actually, you talk about that. He was on Carmelo Anony’s podcast earlier this week and he said, he made a joke like, you know, you guys think that you saw me taking top shots, tough shots before, like it might get hectic here in Brooklyn. And that’s what he said. and that’s been the case. But he has been knocking him down and he has been efficient. So that is a testament to the level of player is the talent that he is. But there are also drawbacks and they’re going to be growing pains and the things that he admitted to from an offensive perspective. And you look in this game, he cooled off in the second half and when the Nets, you know, had Jayor Dilman and Ben Saraf on the bench and they really don’t have a ton of ball handling or offensive initiation, especially with Cam Thomas struggling in this game. MPJ with the way that he had it going, you know, tried to take on a little bit more of a ball handling role doing some more things off the dribble during the second half of this game and it was a struggle. He had four turnovers, two two assists. And I asked Jordy Fernandez after the game what he thought about MPJ’s performance and he obviously said he shot well, but the main thing that he pointed to was he thinks that the the turnovers need to be cleaned up. And Jordy was not happy after this game. But you look at the Nets in this game, they had I got the sheet right there. the Nets had uh 16 turnovers and the Hawks had eight turnovers. The Nets had uh the Hawks scored 27 points off the Nets turnovers and the Nets scored seven points off turnovers. So that disparity has been an issue all season and it’s going to continue to be with the Nets rookie point guard situation, but that is something that is a weakness of Michael Porter Jr’s game and it’s something that he admitted is going to be growing pains, but it’s, you know, something that he’s going to try to gain more comfort with, but I’m not sure how within that within his skill set that is. And when you look at this Net’s team in terms of guys who can be ball handlers, shot creators, three level scorers, it is just few and far between. I mean, the Nets obviously have Cam Thomas. He is a three-level scorer. He is their best scorer, but he’s not much of a playmaker. You have MPJ who can score because of his ridicul ridiculous shotmaking ability, but he can’t really handle the ball at a high level, and he’s going to struggle with turnovers and different things in that regard. So, on this roster, there is not a complete offensive player, and that is obviously going to lead to struggles. And that was part of the Nets calculus when they went into this season entering the year with only rookie ball handlers, not bringing a veteran point guard. That was a, you know, one of the easiest ways that you could guarantee losing and guarantee that you were going to bolster your tank. And the Nets went about that, went about it that way. And in this game where you saw them bench, uh, Jorman and Benov due to their struggles, the other guys that have to pick up the slack really just aren’t equipped to do things at that level. The best one is Cam Thomas, the best equipped to do that, but he struggled. MPJ is going to struggle and then the other guys like Tyrese Martin, like um Tyrese Martin, Terrence Man, like they they’re nice players, but that’s just not the role that they’re going to fill. And that is why the Nets are going to struggle to close a lot of these games even if they’re able to keep it close. Another reason that they’re going to struggle is the defense. And this was the Net’s best defensive performance of the year, but there are still glaring struggles. And a lot of them have to do with the scheme they’re running and also their centers, Nick Claxton and Dron Sharp. How are they going about that? and how are they transitioning and acclimating to this new system. So, I’ll get into all that when I close out locked on nets after a quick break. If you’re a business owner, here’s the truth. SAS promised to make your work easier, but now the average company is buried by hundreds of apps that slow down your teams and simply don’t work together. That’s not SAS. That’s sad. 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Nets have allowed through four games they had allowed 522 points, which is 130.5 per game. That was the most in franchise history. They ranked dead last in opponent’s field goal percentage, in opponent three-point percentage. Their defensive rating was, you know, I I don’t know the number off the top of my head. It was historically bad and it was seven points is dead last and seven point gap to the 29th ranked team in the NBA. So that just gives you a sense of how far behind this Nets team has been. And a lot of that has been tied to the defensive system. You know, the Nets first of just are illquipped to play any defensive system because they have a lack of point of attack defenders. They do not have a high level point of attack defender on this team. team. They have all rookies at point guard and they have two guys in Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. in their starting lineup who, let’s say, are not known for their defensive aptitude. So, all of that is going to lend itself to defensive struggles. But then you look at the defensive system that Jordi Fernandez has been trying to implement with this, you know, blitzheavy, very aggressive scheme against the pick and roll, playing at the level, you know, sometimes trapping at half court in the post and trying to rotate on the back end. The Nets do not, it hasn’t seemed like, had the want to, the athleticism, the skill set, or the understanding of what they’re trying to do to execute any of this. And, you know, this was the Net’s best defensive performance of the season, mostly due to a fourth quarter performance where they kind of went away from that scheme and they started switching a lot more. But even with that, you know, this is a Hawks team without Trey Young. They still scored 117 points. They still shot 47% from the field and 39% from three. They were still in the 80th percentile in this game in half court offensive rating, half court efficiency per cleaning the glass. So this Nets defensive performance is the best of the year, but playing a Hawks team without Trey Young, I think that’s more of a testament to how bad it has been for the Nets before that as opposed to anything that they did. But they did hold the Hawks to in the fourth quarter of this game, they held the Hawks to 23 points, which was the reason they were that they were able to get back into it and they went away from some of what they had been doing defensively in terms of their blitz heavy scheme against the pick and roll in terms of playing at the level. They went to a switching scheme down the stretch of this game, which a lot of teams do down the stretch of close games, but they really looked better doing that than what they had done before. And a lot of that was due to Nick Claxton getting to switch onto the perimeter, getting to do some of the things that we’ve all seen him do. I mean during that 2022 23 season when Nick was in the defensive player of the year race during the season after that when he was still very effective defensively the Nets were switching one through five and that obviously has its drawback its drawbacks because you pull Nick away from the rim and you know it makes it harder to rebound and all those things but this Nets team isn’t rebounding well anyway. They rank I think 25th or 26th in defensive rebounding percentage in this blitz heavy you know play at the level scheme that the Nets are playing under Jordy Fernandez and switching Nick onto the perimeter. that was a much more effective strategy down the stretch of this game. We talked to Nick after the game. We said, you know, how did it feel, you know, playing that switch heavy scheme against something that you’ve been accustomed to doing? And he said, you know, it felt good. He said that that’s the best thing that he does. That’s his best skill is switching and guarding on the perimeter. And he even said that’s why I think I’m still here. That’s why I got paid. But he obviously offered the caveat of I have to do whatever Jordy Fernandez or whatever the Net’s coaching staff wants me to do, whether that’s blitzing, whether that’s playing at the level, whatever scheme. And he said, you know, I asked him after that, what does that look like? Has that been a challenge? And what do you think you need to do to continue to dominate at the level or play, you know, have the same level of impact when you’re not switching and doing those other things? And he just said, it’s a lot more effort. You know, it takes a lot more out of you have to do a lot more things, but I just need to do that. And that’s clear because when you’re switching, you know, that takes a lot of effort, but you’re just switching on the guys and you know what you’re doing. Whereas when you’re blitzing or you’re playing at the level, you’re really getting up, you know, far towards half court a lot of the time. Then you have to recover all the way back. You have to rotate on the back end and that’s just a much bigger burden on the Nets as a whole and especially on Nick Claxton. And they haven’t looked equipped to do that. So just switching him onto the perimeter, it’s no surprise that that looked more effective. Now, are the Nets going to continue to do that? I think they will in stretches, in spurts, maybe down the stretch of a fourth quarter have a as a lot of teams do, but I do not think that Jordy Fernandez is going to alter this defensive scheme and just go away from the blitzing or the playing at the level because we’ve asked Jordy this season about that defensive philosophy and why they’re tied to that. And he said, you know, the best teams covering the pick and roll are aggressive. He said, if you look at the finals last season, you look at the Thunder and the Pacers, those those teams were aggressive, you know, defending the pick and roll. It’s clearly something that he believes in. Now, I’ve outlined why the Nets are not equipped to do that and why it’s not going to be the defensive system that gives them the best chance to win in my opinion. And that’s because when you have guys like Nick Claxton or Don Shar blitzing or playing at the level you look at the low man that they have, you know, the low men that they have rotating into the paint a lot of the time it’s guys like Cam Thomas, like Michael Porter Jr., Tyrese Martin, Jaylen Wilson, whoever you want to say, not very, you know, athletic or sizable or guys that are known for their, you know, being defensive stalwarts in the paint. So, that is going to inhibit them from being good in that scheme and also just the understanding and the effort that it takes. They haven’t shown that up to this point. But, I think that it’s important or Jordi Fernandez probably thinks it’s important for the Nets rookies, for some of these other guys to gain comfort, to gain understanding. And if that comes at the expense of, you know, maybe some them losing some more games and not being, you know, at the level that they could be defensively, obviously that’s good for the tank. And I think that, you know, while that might be difficult for Jordy, I think that he’s remaining committed to this. But it’s really going to be the question of how committed is he to it, how much does he show other things, how much does he value people gaining comfort in doing some of those things in that system versus trying to keep things competitive, trying to keep people bought in. So, we’ll see how that plays out. But I think that this Net’s defense, while it was a better performance today, it is still going to be a huge roadblock to them competing because they really just don’t have like they don’t have a ton of plus defenders on the court. You look at the wings, they don’t really have a high level point of attack guy. They don’t have any like highle athletes outside of Drake Pal who’s not even in the rotation right now. And then you look at, you know, Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. sharing the floor together. It’s just not a recipe for his defensive success. But how much is Jordy going to stick to the system that he clearly wants to implement versus go away from that and maybe go to some switching or some drop or to other things that might help them win right now, but not, you know, necessarily implementing the vision or getting people used to the vision that he wants to long term. That’s going to be a story line to monitor. But this defense and obviously the Nets rookie point guards and a bunch of other things are huge inhibitors to them competing right now. And they have a difficult schedule coming up and we’ll see if they’re able to get a win uh at any point in the near future. But that’s all I have for today’s Locked on Nets episode. Thank you guys all for listening. If you do not already, make sure to subscribe to Locked on Nets on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple Podcast or Spotify. If you enjoy the show, take a second right now, smash that like button, leave a comment, leave a fivestar review. Anything you could do to engage is much appreciated. We got a few days off from the Nets and they’re going to be back on Sunday to play the Philadelphia 76ers here at Barlay Center. So, I have coverage of all that and more when I’m back tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater reacts to Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez’s benching of rookies Egor Demin and Ben Saraf during the team’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks. He analyzes why the head coach made the decision and how the game’s outcome foreshadows things to come.

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