Takeaways From Nets Home Loss To The Raptors

With Cam Thomas out for the foreseeable future and Day'Ron Sharpe banged up, the Nets need Nic Claxton to be at his best. And that's exactly what he was on Tuesday night. Claxton filled up the stat sheet, scoring 21 points to go along with eight rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks. He was actively looking for his shot, going 8-14 from the field.

Claxton has been a good player across his seven-year NBA career, but the 26-year-old has the skillset to be great. He's going to be an important part of the next winning team in Brooklyn, and he can play like this more often; that would make Sean Marks' life a lot easier. This was a great performance from Claxton.

2. Egor Demin Takes Another Step

After a rough start to his NBA career, Egor Demin is starting to figure things out over his past few outings. And Tuesday's game against the Raptors was one of his best performances of his young career. Demin had 16 points, four rebounds, and five assists on 5-11 shooting from the field and 4-8 from behind the arc. While the box score stats are nice, a lot of his improvement won't show up there.

Demin was way more aggressive on Tuesday than he'd been before, especially with some drives to the rim. After starting his career strictly shooting threes, Demin has done a great job diversifying his shot selection recently, showing off some mid-range skills and the ability to get to the rim. Out of all the rookies in the 2025 class for Brooklyn, Demin is arguably the most important, which is why his recent improvement is a great sign.

3. Bench Unit Struggles

All of Brooklyn's starters had decent games on Tuesday, but the bench unit left a lot to be desired. Playing without Day'Ron Sharpe, the bench got outscored 30-20 by the Toronto bench unit. It was a tough night for Ziaire Williams, who scored just two points on 0-8 shooting overall and an ugly 0-7 from three. Williams had shown some great upside early this early, but didn't have a great game on Tuesday.

Despite rejoining the main roster, Danny Wolf and Ben Saraf did not see the floor until garbage time against Toronto, which was a little surprising. With Sharpe out of the lineup, it would've made some sense to see what Wolf can do with the bench unit, but head coach Jordi Fernandez opted to roll with his veterans instead. It won't be long until Wolf gets some run in Brooklyn.