The Brooklyn Nets make a MASSIVE bet on Egor Demin during HISTORIC draft | Will Sean Marks be right?

The Brooklyn Nets make a MASSIVE bet on Egor Demin during HISTORIC draft | Will Sean Marks be right?

coming up a historic first round of the 2025 NBA draft is in the book for the Nets i’ll break down Brooklyn’s shocking night after this [Music] you are locked on Nets your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast part of the Locked On Network your team every day welcome in to the Lockdown Nets podcast right here on the Lockdown 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 on today’s show I’ll be ra reacting to a historic draft during which the Nets made an NBA record five first round picks including a fairly shocking selection with their first choice at eighth overall i’m joined now by Lucas Kaplan of Nets Daily and Lucas we’re fresh off the first round of the NBA draft it’s about 2:16 in the morning the Brooklyn Nets made five first round picks an NBA record a lot of surprises a lot of fans seem like they’re losing their minds um initial reaction just to this Net’s draft um off the cuff just what do you got for me no matter where you fall on the draft it was certainly an unbelievable draft in that I could not really believe it as it was happening um you know they were linked to Jaor Jaor Demine and if you’ve been a Nets fan for long enough it was not I guess totally surprising that they took him um but then going Trayor on top of it who I think is objectively a fine pick at 19 I think it’s understandable to see how you know you might be high on a guy like that at 19 uh if we did this draft 10 months ago he would have gone top 10 but with Jaor it’s a little odd um and then you go Sarafh which is where I think our brains started to break fully if they weren’t already broken um and it you sit back and reflect and it’s it’s really just an unbelievable night um to to kickstart maybe not to kickstart this rebuild but to lay the real first foundational pieces I would say yeah my brain started to break when they picked her off and they made their fourth first round pick holy I was like holy crap they made four first round picks and then I was like holy crap they have a fifth first round pick right now that they’re also gonna make um you know when they acquired they already had four nobody has nobody thought that they were actually going to make four first round picks and they acquired the fifth um in the salary dump with the Hawks yesterday and at that point you’re like all right like Sean gearing up yeah to trade up either further into the top 10 which I know that they tried to do i reported earlier today that they inquired with the Spurs the 76ers the Hornets they were talking to all those teams about potential moves up none of that came to fruition you thought maybe they could move up in the late lottery they don’t do anything they don’t trade out of any of the picks they stick there and they pick with all of them so that was the first major surprise um the next major surprise I think would be them taking Jagor Deen with the eighth pick which drew a strong reaction from the fan base i think you and I both have similar opinions on it so when you heard those words come out of Adam Silver’s mouth what was the first thing that you thought uh I thought “Wow they really did it.” Um they really did it you know they you knew they liked Jagor I think based on you know you could trust enough of the pre-draft reporting the Nets have typically kept things close to the vest but when you hear something consistently from trusted sources you think okay this has some merit i think they liked Fierce you know i believe that still so Ace is off the board Trey’s off the board Jeremiah’s off the board at this point you’re thinking okay if you weren’t big on those guys I I personally wasn’t i was like okay Malawatcha um but it’s just it’s a ve it it’s it’s hard to make the case for him as a top 10 prospect profile just based on what he did at BYU and even his you know professional career prior to that um I I as we get further away from the draft you can see I’m at a loss for words as we get further away from the draft we’ll maybe be able to assume more of what they thought going into this but um it’s a shocking pick i mean it could work out i’m not an expert you know even experts in the draft get things wrong all the time but I think the one thing that is clear it is a shocking pick to draft Jay Gordamine with that profile at number eight it’s it’s really shocking yeah i mean you look at the projections and you know these aren’t guys who work in front offices but they’re guys who have been doing it for a long time they follow the draft a lot of people had uh Demond I think most consistently you’d say he was probably in the late lottery mid- teens but there were some guys who had him you know like in the mid20s of big boards yeah um some pe a lot of people had him as a target for the Nets with at 19 yeah and they end up picking him at eight and I think it shocks everybody um while you as you said there were ties to him and I knew that the Nets liked him I didn’t really think that they would pull the trigger there because I thought potentially they could maybe try to trade up and get him in the late lottery but let’s uh let’s get into him just like as a player a little bit to set the stage because yeah while some people are crushing this pick um analysts and fans alike I’ve said to you I said to you while we were at Barclays like there is it doesn’t you don’t have to squint too hard to see the vision of what they could be looking at like this is a guy who was viewed as a top prospect top 10 pick maybe some people even said potentially like top five six seven entering the college season he’s a 6’8 ball handler 6’10 wingspan best passer in the draft he has some athletic limitations but it really seems like a lot of what he does is going to hinge on the three-point shot and whe whether he can develop that draft people I’ve talked to have said that is the swing skill for him because even though he is not great you know athletically he’s not great at creating separation from defenders and isolation he can’t really get downhill on his own too well but if he’s just his pick and roll ball handling and his pick and roll facilitating if he can shoot the three consistently and unlock that and you know let his playmaking gift shine you have a 6’8 ball handler who’s an elite passer with elite vision and if he can shoot it seems like he can unlock unlock all of that so there’s something they’re betting on upside here so I I don’t have to squint too hard to see that but it does seem like there’s some bust potential with this pick which is what makes it an interesting pick at eight especially when there was a guy sitting there Kaman Malawatch who I think most would agree was an extremely safe pick yeah or Colin Murray Boils is a fairly safe pick just as an extremely projectable defender and high field guy um the Nets went I mean we’ll talk about their draft as a whole but the Nets went high field what they perceive as you know high field here that’s pretty undeniable um and if you are a highlight scouter if you’re a fan um who you know looks up these guys best plays of the year Jagger is the number eight pick and it’s fine like you see a 6-9 guy 68 and a quarter without shoes who throws some ridiculous passes um who hits deep pull-up threes like to be clear he shot 27% from three this year but he took like nine attempts per 100 possessions so you can find any number of clips of him walking into 25-footers and he looks like an NBA player in those moments um and he I think we can say that all the noise about him having great workouts and great interviews played into the Nets taking him here uh I heard as you probably did too he just would not have been there at 19 so I don’t think the Nets were the only team that liked him in let’s say the back half of the lottery range um but you kind of this is going to sound very mean you kind of have to ignore the season that he had at BYU in terms of the production i wrote about this for Nets Daily in 27 games against top 150 NCAA teams which was sort of every game after a very soft non-conference schedule for BYU he had 67 made baskets and 58 turnovers he grabbed three offensive rebounds in 20 conference games there were plenty of times for a lot of the season honestly in which he just did not look like an NBA athlete much less a Big 12 athlete uh and that is I’m rooting for him obviously he’s a great he’s a cool kid to talk to i think you and I both learned that tonight it’s tough to see a guy who struggles that much against good NCAA competition and not just because the three ball didn’t go in as a number eight pick i agree with you the three ball is going to be a big swing skill that is not my even main concern with him you know uh I don’t know if you’d feel that strongly it’s a concern for sure but that’s not it you know that’s not the only thing his NBA career hinges on i’m not saying you implied that but just No no I understand what you’re saying and I mean I I’m trying to I’m trying to see the vision for the Nets here and if I’m talking myself into the pick if I’m the Nets and and what are you betting on i think you have a guy as I said who has incredible size um as a ball handler you have a guy who’s extremely high feel he’s extremely unselfish he can pass the ball at a really high level in the pick and roll and you know if he can shoot threes and he can do some of those things maybe you know the self-creation you know the the ball handling the um you know lack of burst and downhill stuff maybe that stuff isn’t as glaring and you know then defensively they seem to think that he’s not going to be you know a negative defensively and they think that with his size maybe he can grow into that body he has some upside there so at the end of the day like the way that I think I would look at it for them is they seem to think that I would think they think his three-point shot’s going to come along if you know that that seems like it has to otherwise you know this pick is just I think going to seem terrible if that doesn’t come along because then that limits what he can do positionally in other spots as well you can’t play him you can’t play him off the ball in that case um exactly i agree i I totally agree with your cell though you know tall guys you can never have too many highlevel passers and ball handlers and shooters you just can’t so I get it from that perspective so yeah if they’re if they’re not assuming but if they’re very hopeful that the three-point shot can come around apparently he shot it really well in workouts however much stock you put into uncontested you know workout or proday jumpers but if they think the shot can come around and and they think that he can be a decent defender based on what Shawn Marks told us today and a guy who’s 6’8 if he can shoot he’s a gifted passer he can handle in the pick and roll maybe they believe there’s some ways that they can unlock the self-creation aspect of his game like there are tools there and that’s what Sean said you know we asked I asked him about what attracted to them he said there’s a lot of attributes there and he named a lot of that stuff so I think that’s what they’re talking themselves into but you know there’s another there’s There’s another side of this where there are concerns and some aspects of the concerns and you know the lack of a floor is what surprised me about the pick we’ll get into that after a quick break but before that want to tell you about our friends over at Wayfair there’s nothing like stepping into your own outdoor space and feeling like you’ve escaped to a personal oasis if you’re wanting to update your patio this season Wayfair has made it so easy to turn it into a space that feels like yours comfortable stylish and ready for summer wayfair has everything you need to level up your outdoor space 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games into his career um but yeah Jagor Deon we talked about the upside like I talked about you know this is an upside swing i feel like for the Nets if the three-point shot can come around I outlined you know how I feel like they think he could be a jumbo playmaking guard who can do all these things might not be you know could be a decent defender like all that versatility all those different ways that they could look to unlock his game what surprises me about it is that this is not at all a safe pick i feel like this is an upside swing but this is the first lottery pick the Nets have made since 2010 and look you know a lot of the fans maybe like fans are seem outraged by this pick a lot of them maybe I’m not seeing like the scope of the whole fan base but a lot of them seem really mad and to the ones who seem like outraged about it I’m like “Hey maybe you guys don’t know what you really want.” Because all I heard about throughout the draft was the pre-draft process was upside upside upside like we got to go for upside they went for upside maybe some people don’t agree with that i feel like this is an upside swing and sometimes you know what I said throughout it was with everybody’s obsession with upside is sometimes when you go for upside so much the floor can fall out from underneath you and I feel like there’s some potential for that with uh this Demon pick so do you agree with my assessment that this is an upside swing and that there does seem to be a fair bit of a fair amount of bus potential here it is an interesting question because with Ace Bailey who the Nets were linked to I probably would have said I would have disagreed with that premise because I didn’t think he could maybe create space and therefore read the whole floor to the degree you would want a highlevel you know offensive engine to be and Jaor has it’s it’s obviously a way different prospect but you know potentially similar downfall he can’t really create space or get by people however the three-point shot comes along he’s hitting pull-ups you know he’s he’s forcing people to guard him up the floor uh I agree that there’s serious bus potential um I don’t always think that means necessarily he also has a high upside but I could I could certainly talk myself into that you know that sort of disposition on Jagor just as a tall posi a guy who can handle the ball who can be off the ball who will keep your offense moving who will you know just always make the players around him better um that is the cell and if a guy can do that then he has a pretty high ceiling um and of course you know it can’t go unstated the Nets love Jaor the kid the person the worker you know you’ve heard about this from them you’ve heard about this you know when you talk to people around the league he’s a great kid who like loves breathes basketball is going to work really hard um so maybe they also view that as an upside swing you know this guy’s going to get everything he has out of himself yeah which can’t go underrated i mean I think we know that that’s extremely important to Shawn Mars in this Nets’s front office it’s something they prioritize and I heard throughout the pre-draft like I talked to uh Jaor at the combine he seemed extremely well read extremely like a very good kid there i talked to some people at the combine and asked him about it and they were like “Oh yeah like he crushed it in his interviews.” Like all the teams that have spoken to him like love what he had to say they love his disposition they think he’s a hard worker he’s a team first guy all that stuff and I think that’s obviously reflected in the way that he plays the game so that goes without saying but um you know we talked about the upside like just now like you touched on it I touched on it and now just talking about the floor because the there is a real like there’s a very real possibility that that three-point shot doesn’t come along i think he shot like 69.7% from the free throw line this year i think like the shot mechanics aren’t bad but you just never know like that three-point shot doesn’t come along then you have this guy who is a very talented passer but doesn’t have necessarily like a great handle can’t create advantages on his own don’t know if he’s going to be able to play through contact if he is able to get downhill because he’s got a pretty slight frame and then where is he then because he’s not going to be a lead ball handler if he can’t shoot at all you can’t really play him off the ball either too well it’s like what what is the floor there like that’s that’s kind of my worry with this man he’s in Europe he’s in Europe he’s out of the league yeah and that’s like for a guy that you take with the number eight pick and your first um your first lottery selection since 2010 like how much anticipation was there for this pick amongst the Nets fan base like we’ve literally like since that male Bridges trade um got made and the Nets reacquired these picks from the Houston Rockets it’s been a full year just thinking about this one moment and now it’s a guy who you know like does that almost make you feel make you feel better about it cuz like this is the kind of pick that I maybe Shawn Marx just had you’re like no it does not actually none of what you just said makes me feel like this is all making me feel worse about it makes me feel a lot worse but go ahead but like Shawn Marks maybe Shawn Marks just has like infinite job security but this is the kind of pick like if this if he completely whiffs on this pick and it’s a pick that a lot of people consider a reach and he whiffs on it it like this is a kind of pick that can get someone fired so like that he must have a lot of conviction in this guy in order to take him in this spot or Jordy Fernandez has a lot of conviction in him or was this the most important day in Nets history since game seven against the Bucks singular day oh yeah for sure without a doubt i mean I I I wrote an article about it um last week i did a podcast episode about it also just outlining the Nets draft history and why these two drafts are the most important in Nets draft history i forgot what the exact number was but it was something like the Nets had made I think it was 28 28 or 30 something lottery selections in their franchise’s history and out of those guys they’ve all combined for seven all-star appearances with the Nets so that’s like pretty abysmal right there like they we all know like they’ve never had a homegrown star player ever in the franchise’s history and that’s why everybody was so juiced for this draft and there was so much anticipation for this pick so like yeah I mean I guess my thought process with it is you know for them to go out on a limb and draft this guy some people would say it’s a reach but there was so much anticipation for this pick that I just feel like Shawn has to have a decent amount of conviction in this guy you know that he’s gonna be able to get a lot and they must really like what they see because like it’s just there is some bus potential here so I just think that did you did you see the war room they went crazy they were like surprised that they that Jayor was available you would think it’s it’s funny cuz Yeah all right so Lucas and I for all of you Lucas and I like were watching the broadcast we’re in the work room in Barclay Center and we didn’t know what the pick was yet and the war room on the broadcast the pick’s in and they’re all going nuts so we’re like okay it’s probably Maluatch because that was the guy that perceivably like conceivably fell and they got who they maybe didn’t expect to be able to get so they’re like in that situation if you get a guy that you thought you weren’t going to get you’re like freaking out so we’re like “Oh it’s probably Malawatch because they’re so happy about it.” And then it’s Demond and it’s like “Shouldn’t you have known that you were going to get Demon there?” Like did you really think anybody was going to take him ahead of eight so that what was confusing about it the optics of just the entire NBA being shocked and going crazy kind of at the Nets draft throughout the night with consistent ESPN cuts to just the most jubilant war room you’ve ever seen was very funny and I hope that you can show this clip to me in five years when Jagor is on the AllNBA team like a fool but man that was shocking And it will be hard for anybody to make the case to me that he was one of the 10 best prospects 15 even best prospects in this class um as I told you he’s going to have the lowest true shooting of any NCAA prospect selected in the first round against top 150 competition he’s gonna have the lowest box plus minus i mean he just wasn’t that productive at BYU um I’ll say I don’t I don’t think he had a great supporting cast there at BYU necessarily i mean I watched him play against Alabama in the Sweet 16 I went to that game at Credential Center and I was not at all impressed with the guys that they had around him at least from an offensive standpoint and that made some of his assist numbers more impressive to me because like there weren’t there wasn’t a like some of the guys who were playing there were just like I was like that that guy would not like should not be playing on a good like highle D1 team and they were they were better with him on the court to be fair like in fact as many turnovers as he had their overall turnover percentage was down with him on the court because he absorbed so much ball handling responsibility um he created more shots at the rim when he was on the court than they had when they were off the court so I do have to give him that and um hey man he’s going to he’s going to love Brighton Beach he’s already talked about going at some Russian restaurants and a great quote and a cool kid and uh in a in a vacuum it’s cool that he’s a net uh number eight is a bit wild definitely a bit wild but I think that you know we’ll see i mean at the end of the day like the draft’s often a crapshoot we don’t know and I think I gave the case early on for how you could at least like talk yourself into it and um you know the Nets have have really put a lot into the scouting process like we’ve seen they got these picks back i said the anticipation of this pick like they’ve been preparing for this for like a full year just they’re doing the scout series they have all these resources going into it they’ve gone you know through every angle you could you know perceivably uh go through about these guys and they came out and they felt that Jaor was their guy so we’ll see but they also made four other first round picks uh some of which were also surprising and there was a constant theme among a lot of them so going to take a quick break and then we’ll round out this episode talking about the Nets remaining first round picks but first want to tell you about our friends over at Skiims when I found out Ski was making underwear for men I was intrigued i’ve heard so much 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obviously the big one then they take Nolan Troy at 19 uh they take Drake Pal at 22 they take um Ben Sarra at 26 and they take um I’m like half asleep here and then they take who is that 27 um Wolf danny Wolf at 27 um of those guys which which would you say you like the most and then we’ll get into maybe what you like the least powell I think you know I think there are a lot of reasons to buy the shot and he might be the one of the most athletic guys in the class you know Marks on the post draft Zoom called him perhaps the most athletic guy in the class so right there you see upside um Brooklyn might be a bad fit for him at the moment because they don’t have a lot of advantage creators that he can play off of but in a vacuum decent pick wolf at 27 you know there are people that were like I would rather have him over Queen as weirdly skilled weird as a compliment you know this crazy array of skills as a big guy that may struggle to defend and Queen you know was 14 spots higher than him uh those are the guys I can get behind and I mean in a vacuum Sarafh is 67 with a tough handle you know I think that’s not a reach um but it’s more so the accumulation of guys that was a bit a bit surprising but if you’re just asking me for one favorite pick um and Troy ain’t no problem with that at 19 in a vacuum I like Powell at 22 yeah I think Pal is definitely the safest pick it’s like the Nets made all of these other picks that seemed like somewhat they were like somewhat swings and they were like we need to get at least one guy who we feel like has like a safe you know maybe higher floor like projectable skill set and you look at Pal he’s like super athletic doesn’t really do much offensively outside of shoot like he’s not a guy who’s putting the ball on the floor and doing a lot of that stuff but shot it well was close to like 38% from three somewhat low volume but can shoot super athletic they might think there’s some other things they can unlock about his game so Drake Pal like not the flashiest pick but that’s a guy I think you could there’s a clear runway and a clear like archetype of what he can be in the NBA talking about the other guys I mean we talked about Jagor Demon very talented point guard has you know a lot of playmaking a lot of different skills like things he can do on the ball struggles shooting nolan Troer another guy really talented on the ball in a little bit of a different way than Deon has like a pretty lightning quick first step can turn the corner pretty much just about you know just as good as anybody in the draft has some of those offensive skills not can pass you know there’s some turnover struggles and things like that struggles shooting the three ben Saraf guy you know um talented ball handler doesn’t really seem like there’s a pass that the guy can’t make struggles shooting the three so we got three ball handlers who all have somewhat different things but all can do things on the ball that they’re really talented with but they all struggle shooting the three so maybe the philosophy with Shawn Marks and Jordy Fernandez was like we’ll get three ball handlers who are all like very talented somewhat different ways but all have like a lot of things that they can do and maybe we’ll just hope that like one of them can hit three somewhere down the line throw some darts i’m I’m somewhat joking but like not really no I mean the probability that one of them one of them turns into a good shooter got to be decent right yeah like that’s part of the reason maybe why they made all um five picks like anytime you make five picks in the first round it’s never happened but like any quantity of first round picks over two you’re throwing darts at a board as you said you’re hoping that one of them hits and in this case it seems like they identified some traits that they liked in ball handlers they liked high IQ high feel unselfish guys um who could pass and do some different things i think Saraf and Demond a little bit more similar in that way and I think uh Troyer has a little bit more like athletic like quickness and on ball juice but they got all those guys who I think fit that like unselfish like ball handle point guard mold and yeah like they’re hoping maybe like one of them can develop the outside shot and then they can develop like some other parts of their bag and um some other ways that they can score the basketball so is that a terrible process i don’t think so i mean not necessarily let me give you a stat um that Gary Angleman tweeted um who is the creator of ESPN’s Real Plus minus there were three prospects in this class that averaged at least six assists per 36 minutes mhm they all went to the Nets that does not include Danny Wolf who had the in what he says the second highest ever NCAA assist rate for a guy listed at 7 feet i think they had a clear philosophy um in a heavy ball screen DHO offense under Jordy Fernandez that really really emphasized side to side you know delay actions dribble handoffs um pick and rolls we’re getting guys that want to get into the lane and pass the rock and so a lot of people thought oh maybe we need the big you know to initiate that to be you know he went it seems like this new direction of the Nets under Jordie Fernandez whether it was his opinion or whether it was Shawn Marks being influenced you know by the way the team played this year or whatever this new direction of the Nets had a lot of input on the way they went in the draft and so they as someone said perhaps watched the Pacers make a finals run by playing high field basketball moving the ball around and ODed on that sentiment um I hope they didn’t OD but it certainly feels that way right now yeah and I mean I I can’t say I hate the process like getting a bunch of unselfish guys like we’ve all you know a lot of people it’s it’s also funny because you know when you look at like to bring it back to Igor Deon you look at the way the board shook out a lot of people wanted Ace Bailey probably a lot of Nets fans a lot of people wanted Jeremiah Fears a lot of got people probably would have been happy with Trey Johnson but then those guys were all off the board and you know I tweeted out like come on Malawatch top prospect left on the And immediately I already knew the sentiment beforehand but then a lot of people were like gh like so boring like Maluatch like we don’t want a center we want a ball handler it’s like at that point once those other guys were off the court like what were like Yakonis was that the other ball handler that you wanted like there it’s like that’s why when I I talked about this with um Derek Parker who’s a good draft analyst and we did an episode about this and I was talking about who are like the conceivable upside swings who could be available for the Nets at eight and Jaor Demond was one of the guys like he was at he was at the back of it but we talked about you know fears we talked about uh I think Trey Johnson We talked about Yakonis we talked about Asen and um Demond was in that group so like if you’re looking for upside if you’re looking for ball handlers right like come on maluatch was the other guy that was available if you’re a Nets fan who wanted a ball handler and you thought Malu watch was boring you got Deen like you know and then Yakon slipped to 20 so you know they seemed like we just outlined everything they seemed like they were going after high feel high character team first guys who can pass guys who have other like scalable traits i think that all those guys have that in some regard um you know whether it’s Deon with his size 6’8 6’10pan Trayaore with um his speed you know the way that he can selfcorreate a little bit i think maybe that could help him defensively some of that athleticism uh Saraf you know some of the passing and the other stuff that he can do so you know they took a swing on a few different ball handlers they got one wing prospect and pal who I think they think you know should have somewhat of a floor then the last guy is Danny Wolf and we’ll talk a little about Danny Wolf and then we’ll round it out and um you know I wrote about Wolf earlier today because he told me he worked out for Brooklyn i thought that he was a possibility for the Nets given Jordy Fernandez’s history um and you know some of the things that he said about being interested in having a hub big man and he’s a guy that you know a lot of people really liked him i think he was one of the more polarizing guys in the draft and a lot of people uh thought that maybe he could be in like the mid- teens even the late lottery and then he falls all the way to the nets at 27 and at this point at 27 I think it’d be kind of tough to be mad at this pick do you agree right i at 27 for sure um before Jagor set the tone for the whole night and he didn’t really have to uh if they take Colin Murray Boils or Malawatch at queen the the narrative around their night is just entirely different but it’s Trayor and Sarafh on top of the big swing because the big swing the the most important one was at eight and then they got guys that maybe don’t fit with him that set the tone for everything in terms of Wolf it’s it’s an absolutely fine bet at number 27 to go get the sevenfooter who has uncommon hand eye coordination who again we know the Nets index you know shooting workouts there was somebody today who said like he shot the ball incredibly well in workouts um and showed real like stretch five he could play the four you know I mean if he’s really spacing the floor you could put him next to another big guy you could put him next to Nick Claxton or Dron Sharp who the Nets have right now um divorcing it from the rest of their draft you I I kind of like the Wolf pick and apparently you know Shawn Marks which raised eyebrows in the Zoom press conference at least for me said a few of these guys thought they were going to go higher and then Danny Wolf gets on the podium and said “Yeah I thought I was going higher.” So yeah he was he was crying at the at the table right before the Nets picked him he wasn’t crying because he got picked from the Nets he didn’t know yet he was crying because he fell to 27 and I think that he was one of the last green room prospects there and he was upset about it so you know a few I mean if you look uh compared to like consensus big boards I don’t think a lot of people thought that these guys were going to go higher than where they did but some of them must have thought that but yeah I mean talking about Wolfe he’s definitely going to be a fun guy to watch like if we’re talking about what the Nets are going to be next year like he’ll definitely be fun um he’s a guy 6′ 11 can handle the ball like played almost point guard for a lot uh of the time at Michigan um I think the shooting will you know be a big thing for him at the next level because in order for him to be you know like there’s not a lot of backup big men who you’re going to maybe he could be a starter maybe I I shouldn’t pigeon hole him in to be a backup but there isn’t a lot of you know back backup big men who are going to come in and just get the ball and just cook all the time like it’s not really an archetype you see so much so and he’s not a rim protector defensively obviously so if he can space the floor um I think that that would help a lot he’s got a good shooting motion like I think that’s definitely a possibility it’s hard that that’s all true and I love the high field in terms of like wanting to pass um as a response to these NBA playoffs but aside from Powell and I suppose Trayor to an extent as a smaller guard it’s hard to watch the NBA right now and draft and and index so many guys that will have trouble playing like with physical force um we saw the Thunder and really what changed the Pacers season um and really a lot of the nuggets around Jokic like guys that play with strength in a lot of different areas of the court um and it’s tough to say the Nets really walked away with a lot of that in this draft um despite them going for you know I think a very clear direction with a lot of their prospects um it’s been a I think feel like it’s been a criticism of the Shawn Marx regime is they like a lot of these finesse guys mhm look at the first pick they made in this draft diego Demond might be the definition of finesse like you know you talk to him in the interview and he says “I basketball’s like art and I want to play beautifully and all that.” And like not to like say anything wrong with that it was awesome i loved it i thought it was a great quote but like if you’re talking about like guys who you know are just going to go into someone’s chest that’s definitely not something that Jor Demond was known for you know driving to the basket I think he was a guy that avoided contact a lot more so yeah like from that regard you know that’s tough uh running out of time here i think one other thing that I wanted to touch on if you’re looking for a silver lining for this draft and it might not be the silver lining that Nets fans were hoping for but the Nets are going to suck next year are you I was wondering if you were going to go there the Nets are going to be terrible next year and that kind I feel like that’s what a lot of people I mean obviously there’s there we’re going to not going to get into a little tank versus non-tank debate but there’s definitely a group of people who wanted that and if you’re looking at got one pick next year and it’s theirs yeah I mean they Yeah they could get more but if you’re looking at this group a silver lining there’s three guy like I think it’s fair to say that they didn’t execute the tank you know they didn’t optimize the tank this year i don’t think there’s any debate about that they have the six best odds that limits your floor obviously your floor isn’t you know four five six it’s eight or uh or it’s whatever it is you know they fell to eight so now next year they might be like one of the worst teams in the league legitimately and if they’re one of the worst teams in the league legitimately they’ll have a really good chance you know we’ve seen nothing’s guaranteed but if you have the worst record your floor is five second worst at six like they’ll have a really good shot at potentially falling in the top three of a draft that there’s three like really highly regarded prospects i know we don’t want to go like fans might not want me to hear me talk about next draft already listen we we just did a year what’s another year i mean look at like I mean you I mean I feel like you have to agree with me right like they’re gonna stay next year for sure and they haven’t even traded anybody yet and they might they haven’t even traded any veterans yeah and I mean like if they if like Jagor Demon’s a bus like that’ll be really tough but we’ll see like he’s going to we’re going to need a few years before we could even see what he is but you know if we get to this point next year and Jaor Demond the juryy’s still out but they got Jayor Demon next to you know AJ Demansa or Darren Peterson that I feel like that would uh quell quell the concerns of the fan base a little bit and that kind of goes back to my point about the whole draft came down to Jagger that set the tone for the whole night it’s about the biggest swing you take um and about the top blue chip talent that they need so that is a positive if they’re in a position to get it next year and uh they certainly know that um pretty shocking pretty shocking and last thing I want to leave you with like we we just talked about um all these picks that they made and the consistent theme and Jordy Fernandez probably playing a large role in it of all these guys being you know a lot of pass first guy a lot of high field guys a lot of unselfish guys that clearly being the way that they want to play in the direction they’re going uh what does that mean for Cam Thomas gonna get a lot of shot opportunities next year um sort of might be the Cam Thomas Ben Simmons backcourt on steroids yeah we’ll see um we’ll see it’ll it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out i’m going to have so much more draft content on here um we’re pushing like 3:00 a.m i think both of us are probably getting a little loopy but Lucas definitely have you back on to kind of maybe take some deeper dives individually into what these guys do but for sure uh definitely an interesting night to say the least and uh I think we’ll leave it at that so appreciate you taking the time man that does it for today’s episode of Locked on Nets hope you guys enjoyed the talk with Lucas and our reaction to what just was a crazy and a historic Brooklyn Nets draft if you don’t already make sure to subscribe to this show on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast whether Apple Podcast or Spotify if you enjoy this content hit the like button leave a comment only takes a second really helps me to build this channel anything you can do to engage there is much appreciated but I’ll be back tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball

Erik Slater and Lucas Kaplan break down a historic Brooklyn Nets 2025 NBA Draft. They dive into the Nets’ shocking selection of Egor Demin at No. 8 before analyzing the rest of Brooklyn’s NBA-record five first-round picks.

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