LAS VEGAS — Mikel Brown Jr. and Egor Demin walked off the court at Thomas & Mack Center on Friday looking like they’d been playing together for years. In reality, it was just their first game as Brooklyn teammates, and they put 40 points on the Knicks in a 91-65 blowout.
Brown, the No. 6 pick out of Louisville, dropped 20 points. Demin, taken at No. 8, matched him. Both did it with the kind of easy chemistry that usually takes months to develop, not weeks.
“We’re making the game easy for one another,” Brown said. “My job is to make it easy on him. His job is to make it easy on me. We’re just playing off of each other. That’s going to help us in the long run.”
For Nets fans who watched the organization’s lottery luck fall apart in recent years — the team hit its pick but slid down the board each time — this duo is giving them something real to hang onto. Brown and Demin aren’t theoretical prospects. They look like the real thing.
A backcourt built on opposites that fit
Brown is the explosive one. He gets downhill in a hurry, pulls up from damn near anywhere, and sees passing lanes before defenders do. In the second half Friday, after a quiet start, he poured in 16 points. His handle is tight. His burst is sudden. And considering he missed the second half of his freshman season with a back injury, the athleticism on display was a legit relief.
“Mikel’s extremely talented overall,” Demin said. “With his shooting ability, his ability to create his own shot, and how shifty he is, he’s gonna give defenders a lot of trouble.”
Demin, on the other hand, is the one who’s been in the weight room. He calls it “the lifting room” — and it’s paying off. On Friday he shot 3-for-9 from deep but bullied his way to the rim on drives, finishing 4-of-6 on two-point attempts and drawing contact all night. Through three Summer League games now, he’s 15-of-18 on twos and has taken 12 free throws. Last year in Vegas, he was 1-of-4 on twos with one trip to the line.
“The best part about Egor is his willingness to learn, ask questions, and allow us to coach him,” said Nets Summer League coach Dutch Gaitley. “The more he gets in there, it’s going to open up the three, and then it’s going to be hard to stop him as a three-level scorer.”
Off-court chemistry is already a thing
Brown and Demin don’t just play well together. They’re already in each other’s pockets. After the game, Demin cut into Brown’s postgame interview and asked him straight up: “Going back to your first bucket with the Nets, can you talk us through that beautiful pass that came to you?”
Brown played along like a pro. “Beautiful pass by yay. He said he was gonna find me there. Great player.”
Demin’s response: “Good answer.”
That kind of easy rapport matters more than people think. These two are going to share the backcourt for years, and they already talk like they’ve been running sets together since high school.
Brooklyn will get another look at the pairing Tuesday against the Kings and No. 7 pick Darius Acuff Jr. If Friday was any indication, the Nets might have finally caught a break.
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