{"id":15839,"date":"2025-06-26T08:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T08:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/15839\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T08:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T08:45:08","slug":"nets-reach-for-pair-of-international-guards-among-five-first-round-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/15839\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets reach for pair of international guards among five first-round picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nets made an NBA-record five first-round picks Wednesday night in the NBA draft<\/a>, a risky draft gamble they hope will be the foundation of their rebuild.<\/p>\n

If it pays off, it\u2019s going to be because of passing, playmaking and processing. <\/p>\n

Brooklyn took three international point guards \u2014 led by lottery pick Egor Demin \u2014 in the biggest first-round class in league history.<\/p>\n

The Nets picked slick-passing Russian Egor Demin of BYU with the eighth-overall selection \u2014 their first lottery pick in 15 years \u2014 and followed that by tabbing athletic Frenchman Nolan Traor\u00e9 of Saint-Quentin at No. 19.<\/p>\n

Then came uber-athletic UNC wing Drake Powell 22nd, Israeli guard Ben Saraf 26th, and Michigan big man Danny Wolf, who played on Israel\u2019s U-20 team, one pick later. <\/p>\n

The common thread was the way they move the ball and read the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat goes hand in hand with IQ and how they play the game,\u201d Nets GM Sean Marks said. \u201cWhere we\u2019re going with this is we\u2019re trying to find a brand of basketball that not only translates to a competitive brand out there and it\u2019s going to fit with the Brooklyn community, but it\u2019s also where the NBA is going: guys who can play multiple positions, guard positions and make it hard on the defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some may see Demin as a reach, mocked to go 18th by Tankathon and ironically to the Nets by The Post and The Ringer \u2014 but at 19th overall. Traore had been mocked to the Nets 27th by Tankathon. <\/p>\n

But both had been highly regarded, with Traor\u00e9 a top-five prospect a year ago and Demin a projected top-10 pick earlier this season.<\/p>\n

Now, they will share a backcourt in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

\"EgorEgor Demin stands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as the No. 8 overall pick by the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI was playing all my life as a point guard, so I see myself as a point guard,\u201d Demin said. \u201cBut I\u2019m also willing to do whatever it takes for me to bring success to the team and impact the game in a good way. So if coach wants me to be a center, I\u2019ll be a center, no problem with that. I just know I\u2019m a playmaker, and no matter what position I\u2019m playing or what spot I\u2019m on the floor, I\u2019m going to make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demin is the biggest point guard in the class at 6-foot-9 and its best passer. <\/p>\n

But his poor shooting is going to be the swing skill that determines his NBA future. <\/p>\n

\"AdamAdam Silver poses with Nolan Traor\u00e9 after he was drafted as the No. 19 overall pick by the Nets during the 2025 NBA Draft. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He was averaging 13.3 points on .385 from deep before suffering a knee contusion and missing a month. <\/p>\n

He hit just .235 after returning.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the passing is something I was always doing, and this is who I am, is what I\u2019m trying to be. I believe in the game of basketball as a creative place where it\u2019s like an art for me. And I want to play beautiful. I want to play pretty. I want to play patient,\u201d Demin said. \u201cFor me, I have no doubt I\u2019m going to be a solid shooter. And I see myself as a really good shooter in the future just because I know how much I put into this, how much I put in the work to become one for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s coverage of the 2025 NBA Draft<\/p>\n

Traor\u00e9 saw his stock fall this season but is an electric pick-and-roll attacker.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know [Demin] as a player, and I know he\u2019s a really good player. He has a lot of potential, is big. He\u2019s skilled,\u201d Traor\u00e9 said. \u201cNew York City is maybe the best city in the world. So, that\u2019s really great. And the Brooklyn Nets is a really famous organization. We have a great coach, great front office. So, it\u2019s a great place to grow, really great place to build something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell is one of the more athletic players in the class, and Wolf is a gifted passer for a big man, capable of playmaking out of the high post.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in the green room, I didn\u2019t know how long I\u2019d have been sitting there for. I don\u2019t know if I would\u2019ve said this long, but it\u2019s what happened, and it\u2019s out of my control,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cAnd I ended up in a [good place]. I\u2019m just going to use that as a chip on my shoulder, as a motivating factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nets draft 36th in the second round Thursday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nets made an NBA-record five first-round picks Wednesday night in the NBA draft, a risky draft gamble…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3124,1260,2629,2630,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-15839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-brooklyn-nets","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-draft","11":"tag-nba-draft-2025","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}