Egor Demin
Guard
Elite passer who played inconsistently against top competition.
Egor Demin is 6’8” with a pleasant-looking 3-point jumper, and he can pass the rock. Egor Demin cannot get by a parked car, and shot 27.3% from deep this season, albeit on a bunch of attempts.
It would be hard to find a Demin detractor or a superfan to disagree with either one of these sentences. And yet, the lanky Russian played point guard for BYU in 2024-25, amassing a robust 25.8 usage rate. At his best, which was often seen during uptempo possessions before the defense could truly get set, he could break defenses down at a level few 6’8” NCAA hoopers have been able to do. On this drive following something of a drag screen, he’s two steps ahead of the low man, and it results in a wide open 3-pointer for a teammate:
But press your ear to the screen on this play, and you may be able to hear the sound of dial-up Internet as Demin tries to shake his primary defender away, ultimately hoisting up a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer that draws glass:
All this indicates that whatever NBA team plucks Demin out of the draft will likely curtail his on-ball usage, and play him more as a wing. At 6’8”, a slightly slower release will still allow him to shoot over closeouts off the catch, and every couple clips of him bricking a three like the above, there is a confident swish from 25 feet out. Like I said, he took a lot of them.
Having turned 19 years old in March, the one-and-done prospect improved throughout the season; one of his better performances came in a round of 32 victory over Wisconsin, where he hit both pull-up threes and cutters, and even used his length to contest shots down low. Demin will walk into the NBA as one of the better outlet passers, though his rebounding numbers are suppressed by that lack of athleticism we discussed.
Given the positional fluidity, or in some cases, positional non-existence throughout the NBA, it’s hard to imagine a move to the wing will grant Egor Demin a much different pathway to success. But there is a chance that fewer ball-handling opportunities only accentuate his very real strengths and limit his very real weaknesses.
Lucas Kaplan