Nets Summer League HC Steve Hetzel Discusses Roster

Steve Hetzel, the Brooklyn Nets’ head coach for Summer League and an assistant coach for regular HC Jordi Fernández, shared some thoughts on his team’s stint so far in Las Vegas.

“We always have the mindset to get 1% better, so the continued improvement will be watching film tomorrow, see where we could have done things better execution-wise, defensively, and then we'll try to apply it,” Hetzel said after game two of Summer League. The Nets will play their fourth game of the event on Friday evening.

The Nets made history in the 2025 NBA Draft by selecting five first-rounders. Egor Dëmin, Nolan Traore, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf have all featured in Vegas. Drake Powell, the No. 22 overall pick, is inactive due to left knee tendinopathy.

“We’re constantly looking at different lineups," Hetzel said. "We just got four new players to our roster, so nothing's set in stone in terms of rotation. [...] So more about just finding chemistry, those guys being able to adapt and function at different roles.” 

Dëmin’s usage has stood out. The Russian rookie is shooting 10-for-23 from three in Summer League so far. It’s a small sample size, but that would put Dëmin at 43.5 3P%. Overall, 10 of his 11 made field goals have come from deep. Dëmin averaged 10.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 5.5 assists in 33 games at BYU. The 19-year-old was mostly a pick-and-roll playmaker at BYU. He ran 442 possessions as the pick-and-roll ballhandler in college, per Synergy. 

“I think he's doing a good job of handling everything that we give him,” Hetzel said. “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. We have positions on the floor and try to get to them.” 

The returning Drew Timme has been Brooklyn’s commander this summer. Hetzel broke down the responsibilities placed on the former Gonzaga big.

“We asked [Timme] to be the rock, the leader, that the ball would go through him — to be the steadying force [since] a lot of these guys have never played against NBA competition,” he said. “He's played in the G League the last couple years, so he's gotten those reps. He played with us at the end of the year, so, yeah, we put a lot on his shoulders.”

Timme is averaging 25.3 points, eight rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.7 'stocks' on 55.4/21.4/64.7 shooting splits. In the 2024-25 season, he posted 12.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per night in nine games with the Nets.

“He's incredibly skilled for his size to be able to put the ball on the floor, use his body to create separation, spin [and] be on balance, up-and-unders,” Hetzel said. “He's got great footwork, he's got tremendous touch. He has the floaters, the spins off the glass to make those ones where he's falling down, and then his 3-point shot is improving. His game is becoming very well-rounded.”