I don’t necessarily disagree with Zach and Howard here, but it’s still early. I always thought it was odd that the Nets essentially took Ben Saraf and Nolan Traore out of the rotation. Drake Powell and Danny Wolf have been hurt so I give that a pass. Egor Demin has looked fine. https://t.co/10TE4u143d
— Sharif Phillips-Keaton (@SharifKeaton) November 7, 2025
The Brooklyn Nets (1-7) are eight games into their 2025-26 NBA season and as of this writing, there hasn’t been many positives to glean from this campaign. Since last summer when Brooklyn traded Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks in exchange for draft capital, the Nets have been focused on rebuilding through the draft and 2025 was the first time that the franchise drafted in bulk.
The Nets came out of the 2025 NBA Draft with guard Egor Demin, guard Nolan Traore, forward Drake Powell, guard Ben Saraf, and forward Danny Wolf within the first 27 picks. Despite the fact that Brooklyn has been fielding a lineup with guard Cam Thomas, forward Terance Mann, forward Michael Porter Jr., and center, Nic Claxton, some Nets fans have been feeling uneasy about the lack of playing time for the rookies.
According to Basketball Reference, Demin, Saraf, and Traore rank within the top 20 among their draft class in minutes played per game, but it’s understandable to want to see more of the rookies. Powell and Wolf have been hurt for the majority of the season so they haven’t been available for head coach Jordi Fernandez allocate minutes for, but the panic for some Nets fans could come from how some of the rookies have looked to this point.
Demin, the eighth overall pick, is averaging 5.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game while shooting 33.3% from the field and 32.3% from three-point land. In terms of how that compares to the rest of the draft class, Demin’s stat line doesn’t look impressive and certainly doesn’t look like someone that should have been taken with the eighth pick, but it’s important to note that it’s still very early in the season.
Part of sports writing and sports media is making statements about where situations lie even before there is enough information to accurately decide one way or the other. In a recent episode of “The Zach Lowe Show” discussing the Nets, Zach Lowe and Howard Beck didn’t seem too encouraged by how Brooklyn’s rebuild has gone so far this season.
“It’s disconcerting to simultaneously tank and not even play your young players, your rookies. They’re playing young players, but not the five guys you just drafted,” Lowe said. To Lowe’s point, there are seven players on the roster that have averaged more minutes played per game with Demin averaging the eighth-most minutes on the team amid his recovery from his left plantar fascia injury.
“I asked multiple people over the course of a couple of nights of home games at Barclays… who’s the best prospect they got? If you’re just looking up and down the roster… five rookies, bunch of young guys over the last couple years like who’s the best prospect here and I just got these like long pauses and deep stairs off into the distance but they’re all raw,” Beck explained.
The Nets came into this season with some pundits believing that they made a mistake with the way that they went about the 2025 Draft so it’s possible that the way this season has gone could be a reflection of those poor decisions. However, Brooklyn still has plenty of time to see what it has out of its rookies, but all of this talk could be an indication of the fanbase getting uneasy with the slow progress.