The Nets’ Rebuild Begins with the Tallest Guard in Combine History

Among their five first-round picks in the 2025 NBA Draft, the Brooklyn Nets landed a few rare prospects. While four of the five are backcourt players, each brings an intriguing skill set to the table.

Brooklyn’s biggest unicorn is likely Egor Demin, their first pick of the draft. Listed at 6-foot-9, Demin's height isn't just unusual for a guard, it's unprecedented.

After a successful freshman season at BYU, where he earned Big 12 All-Freshman Team honors by averaging 10.6 points, 5.5 assists, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game, his most impressive showing may have actually come at the NBA Combine.

First reported by Swish Theory’s Avinash Chauhan, Demin is the tallest guard measured at the NBA Combine since the league began publishing measurements in 2000.

In his pre-draft scouting report, Kevin O’Connor explained that Demin uses his height to his advantage as a highly effective distributor.

"Demin is a fluid ball-handler for his size with the height to see over defenders and the vision to make any pass," O'Connor said. "He puts velocity on his passes and delivers them with accuracy. It’s a natural skill for him, the way he works to manipulate defenders and then seamlessly fires creative passes off the dribble."

Although Demin was BYU’s leading distributor last season, he took on the role of a shooting guard throughout much of his time in the Las Vegas Summer League, where he averaged 11.3 p oints, 4.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists and one steal per game while shooting 40.7% from the field and 43.5% from beyond the arc.

While this may have been a change of pace for Demin, who spent much of his college career with the ball in his hands, Nets' NBA Summer League head coach Steve Hetzel explained that it was mainly a product of Brooklyn’s fluid system of positionless basketball

“I think he’s doing a good job of handling everything that we give him. I wouldn't necessarily call it an experiment for him to be on the ball or off the ball. We don't really have a point guard," said Hetzel. "We have positions on the floor, and we try to get to them."

Whether he is running the point, or playing as an off-ball guard, Demin’s freakish length and coordination as a backcourt player likely played a significant part in why the Nets identified him as a crucial piece to move forward with during their rebuild.