a team that is clearly tanking<\/a>, it is really the only thing worth monitoring as they come out of the All-Star break \u2014 other than ping-pong balls.<\/p>\n\u201cEach one of them has gotten better with the things that we\u2019re looking for,\u201d coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez said after practice Wednesday. \u201cObviously, you want them to play as efficient as they can to help the team compete. Sometimes, that efficiency doesn\u2019t come right away \u2014 whether it\u2019s shooting, playmaking, whatever it is. But all of them have done good things in stretches. \u2026 Each one of them has a plan, each one of them understands that we have our touch points every 10 games, and they\u2019re making the right strides.\u201d<\/p>\n
Egor D\u00ebmin is at the top of the class of these five first-round picks. <\/p>\n
Egor D\u00ebmin is one of several rookies the Nets will be looking to develop more in the second half of the season. Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
There have been more mixed results for Nolan Traore, Danny Wolf, Drake Powell and Ben Saraf. And Saraf, who has bounced between the G-League and NBA this year, was sent down to the Long Island Nets on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust more games and a higher athleticism and higher physicality,\u201d Traore said of his adjustment to the NBA. \u201cIt\u2019s more demanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traore has shown some promise as the season progressed \u2014 he surpassed 20 points three times over the last nine games before the break \u2014 and Wolf seemed to hit a stride right before the break. Across the last four games before the break, Wolf averaged 14.0 points on 50.0 percent shooting from the field and 41.2 percent shooting from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I finally found where my spots were gonna be,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cI was playing with confidence. Just gotta build game after game. Before, I would have a good game, then a stretch of games where I didn\u2019t play up to my standard.<\/p>\n
Nets rookie Nolan Traore says he is still adjusting to the greater physicality in the NBA. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanna keep improving in all aspects of my game. I wanna find more consistency from 3[-point range], I wanna keep making plays for my teammates and continue not turning the ball over, which I think I\u2019ve done a pretty good job of. And then just continuing to find my spots. Find where I\u2019m gonna get my looks, learn when to attack, when not to.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing these rookies will have to deal with is a workload they aren\u2019t used to, entering the second half of a season that is longer than both college seasons and overseas professional leagues.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou don\u2019t know until you know,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cExperience is extremely important. Some of these guys that have played professionally, it\u2019s still not the same because the frequency of the games is still not the same, playing three to four games a week. Right now, I think we\u2019ve played four games a week for five straight weeks, and we\u2019re gonna go to a similar thing soon. Pretty dense schedule. Taking care of your body, working [at] a certain level \u2014 not just physically, but mentally \u2014 is something you have to adjust to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question for Fern\u00e1ndez will now be how to best aid the rookies in their development. Should he maximize their minutes on the court together, or be more selective?<\/p>\n
Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying with each other is important, but also the right combinations that are on the court that may help them develop,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cPut them in the best situation to be successful, surrounded by the right guys. It\u2019s not just about them, it\u2019s about the group competing. They\u2019re doing a good job getting to know each other, understanding their strengths and then helping each other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The only way for this all to be worth it for the Nets is if they hit on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,227,248,6,671,3027,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-610938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-egor-demin","13":"tag-jordi-fernandez","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nets","16":"tag-ny-sports-minute","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116095314826064513","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}