3-Point Hesitation Haunts Nets Rookies Again in Summer League Loss to Knicks

The Brooklyn Nets remain winless at the NBA2K26 Summer League festivities in Las Vegas.

After losing to the New York Knicks last night, Brooklyn dropped to 0-3, and its rookie class is at the forefront of the struggles.

That doesn't mean Egor Demin, Nolan Traore, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf have been completely uninspiring—all four have had their moments. But collectively, the 3-point shooting has been poor at best.

The Nets shot 5-of-25 from beyond the arc in the loss, but what bothered summer league head coach Steve Hetzel more than the misses were the attempts that never were.

“I think a little too much hesitation,” Hetzel said via Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “Our philosophy is let it fly. We come out here, we want to shoot 40-plus in a 40-minute game, and we’re not getting to that number (Tuesday). I thought (Sunday) we did. The bottom line for us, it’s not whether it goes in or we miss, it’s the attempt. And we did hesitate too much.”

Throughout the 2024-25 campaign, Brooklyn hoisted the 14th-most threes of any team in the league, marking a clear emphasis from the coaching staff to, in Hetzel's words, "let it fly."

However, the results aren't due to a lack of effort from the Nets' sideline leaders, according to Saraf.

“What the coaches have told us, try to get as many 3-pointers as we can. The most important thing for us is to get [3s] after a paint touch or out of transition, wide open. But yeah, we want to shoot a lot of 3s, and we can do it better. It’s, as I said, part of the process,” Saraf said. “We need to make adjustments, me and all the other guys. And we will do it.”

This recent development becomes the second 3-point "controversy" Brooklyn has experienced this offseason, coming just days after the whole "Egor Demin can't shoot" fiasco.

The latter was ultimately proved to be false, and for the sake of the Nets' fanbase, hopefully Hetzel can squash this new narrative before too many social media basketball analysts run away with it.