Egor Demin Ranks in Top 10 of NBA 2K26 Rookie Ratings

The Brooklyn Nets could be a popular choice among NBA2K26 users familiar with the infamous "2K cheese." Upon the annual basketball video game's release, players love finding exploits within the game, often running non-point guards at the one spot to claim a size advantage.

Brooklyn's point guard and top draft choice at the 2025 NBA Draft, Egor Demin, had his initial rookie rating revealed in a post by the official NBA2K X account on Tuesday.

Demin, a 72 overall, cracked the top 10 in rookie ratings, trailing Cooper Flagg (82 OVR), Dylan Harper (78 OVR), Ace Bailey (77 OVR), V.J. Edgecomb (76 OVR), Kon Knueppel (75 OVR), Tre Johnson (75 OVR), Khaman Maluach (74 OVR) and Jeremiah Fears (73 OVR). Demin was tied with Collin Murray-Boyles (72 OVR) to round out the top 10.

While individual ratings do matter in-game, oftentimes, 2K is dominated by the players with the best signature animations (also known as "sigs"). Depending on the "sigs" the company decides to give Demin, he could be one of the most annoying current players to match up against due to his size and facilitating. Demin is 6-foot-9 with top-tier playmaking skills for a player of his age.

If 2K gives Demin a 3-point rating somewhere in the high-70s to low-80s with a decent jumpshot animation, he could be a real problem in competitive settings, especially as the season progresses and his ratings presumably improve.

And considering that the Nets have been basically unusable gameplay-wise, they do serve as a great franchise to use in the "MyNBA" mode—since Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden were in the building, it's an exciting time to be a fan of Brooklyn and 2K, or so it would seem.

What fans likely don't know is a franchise legend—Kenyon Martin—actually holds the record for being the highest-rated rookie of all time upon launch for an NBA2K game. In NBA2K1, Martin was rated an 86 overall, a feat that hasn't been replicated since. When considering the kind of talent that's come into the league since Martin's rookie year (LeBron James, Zion Williamson, Victor Wembanyama, Cooper Flagg) that's quite an impressive accomplishment.

Don't expect for Demin to command that kind of virtual respect purely based on his summer league display, but depending on how his rookie season pans out, he could see a rating somewhere in the 80s at the conclusion of the 2025-26 campaign.