Feb. 12, 2026, 2:30 p.m. ET

Brooklyn Nets rookie guard Egor Demin has been playing solid basketball for the Nets ever since the calendar turned to December as he seems to have eased into what his role is. Brooklyn not only has been asking Demin to be one of the key members of the team, but he has also shared the backcourt with one of his fellow rookies in the backcourt in recent weeks.

“It’s been really cool using Nolan’s strength as of speed. It opens up everything for everybody else, tremendously, and not just me, but everybody else, as I said, just our bigs,” Demin said of his backcourt pairing with rookie guard Nolan Traore after Wednesday’s 115-110 loss to the Indiana Pacers. Demin had a solid performance against the Pacers with his 13 points, five rebounds, and five assists and it seems that he is benefitting from sharing the floor with Traore.

“His ability to spray the ball out of the paint and get into the paint before he even passes to anybody or finish. I think it’s amazing, and it helps us a lot,” Demin continued. “I think we play faster. I think that that’s going to be big.” Traore was arguably Brooklyn’s best player in Wednesday’s narrow loss to the Pacers as he finished with 20 points and eight assists, although he also had five turnovers.

While Demin has been the starting point guard for the Nets for the majority of this season, he has been relegated to more of an off-ball role with Traore as the starting point guard over the past eight games. However, it seems that both Demin and Traore are thriving in their roles as Demin is averaging 13.7 points per game while shooting 39.1% from three-point land while Traore is averaging 12.1 points and 6.0 assists per contest while shooting 50.7% from the floor and 37.5% from deep.

Demin, who was selected with the eighth overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, and Traore, taken with the 19th overall pick in the same draft, will have to help each other develop along the way. As Brooklyn is still in the early stages of its rebuild and is hoping for the reward of a top-3 draft pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, Demin and Traore should get plenty of reps together for the rest of the season to see how they fit together in the backcourt.

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