Egor Dëmin
Egor Dëmin is the Nets' starting point guard through the first three games of 2026-27, with a workload of roughly 26 to 31 minutes and shaky shooting efficiency.
Role
He started the opener against Charlotte on Oct. 21 and played 27 minutes (Rotowire, Oct. 22). He then started Saturday's 125-121 loss at Cleveland and played 31 minutes (Rotowire, Oct. 25). Lineups.com lists the same starting five in recent games: Dëmin, Keon Ellis, Michael Porter Jr., Julius Randle and Day'Ron Sharpe (page checked Oct. 26 and indexed about 16 days ago, so treat it as partly stale). Underdog NBA lineup alerts, relayed by hottakes.com, show that group starting Saturday and Sunday. A Heavy report says Ben Saraf, Drake Powell and Danny Wolf were out of the rotation for a second straight game, and that Nolan Traore is the only other 2025 first-rounder getting minutes. Mikel Brown Jr. is a rookie guard who competes for backcourt time. Preseason coverage had Dëmin starting beside Ellis, not Brown (Rotowire, Oct. 15). A roundtable.io preseason projection had Brown at 20 minutes. I did not find a usage rate or any back-to-back rest plan.
He is a young starter whom the coaching staff keeps trusting through bad shooting nights. Heavy quotes Jordi Fernandez on "a lot of threats" when Dëmin and Brown share the floor. After an opener where he shot 2-10 and went 0-5 from three, he scored 22 points at Cleveland on 5-10 from three and 7-7 at the line, in 31 minutes with six assists. Rotowire's preseason notes show he can get hot from deep. The Nets' top scoring options are Randle and Porter, so the case is that he gets steady starter minutes and floor time without needing high usage.
Two games is a small sample, and the opener was inefficient with little playmaking (four points and two assists). Rotowire says his limited scoring and peripheral production could make him hard to trust in standard formats unless his efficiency and assists improve. Randle and Porter are expected to take the main offensive load (hottakes.com), which caps his usage. Brown is a younger rival for guard minutes. The Yahoo report on last season's second half shows Fernandez has pulled him in late-game situations before, so his minutes could be volatile in close games.
Where analysts split
The open question is whether he keeps both the starting job and a late-game role, or ends up in a development-minutes role once Brown's workload grows. Preseason projections split on his minutes: 30 from roundtable.io and 31 from CraftedNBA, against the 26 and 27 he has played so far. I found no analyst disagreement on his starting status right now.
Injury: Out: assessed real
Right leg bone bruise, out until at least Nov. 7
He's out with a bone bruise and re-evaluation is set for about a week out, which will cost him multiple games; the report cited is about a contract option, not an injury update, so treat the designation itself as the operative fact.
What would change this: Results of the re-evaluation around Nov. 7
Research confidence: reported. Outlooks are grounded in web search over current reporting and refreshed through the season.
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