Egor Demin suffered an injury during the NBA Summer League, the Brooklyn Nets announced Tuesday.
Nets general manager Sean Marks told reporters at media day that Demin is dealing with a plantar fascia tear.
“He’s been a little bit limited with the plantar fascia tear after summer league,” Marks said, per Nets Wire. “He hasn’t potentially had the summer that he would have loved, but at the same time: size, position, the way he plays, the way he sees the game and so forth. Really enjoyed being around him and looking forward to getting him out there and seeing what he can do.”
Demin “wants to get out there” and has high expectations for himself, Marks said.
“As it pertains to Egor, I don’t think anybody’s harder on him than himself, right?” he said.
With Demin, “they’re following the proper steps,” in order for the injury not to become a lingering issue, according to head coach Jordi Fernandez.
“He’s doing a great job, and we’ll see him sooner than later. We’ll give you an appropriate timetable at some point,” Fernandez said, per Nets Wire.
The No. 8 overall pick will be limited for the beginning of training camp, Marks told reporters.
“He’ll be limited for the first part of camp, with what he’s going to be doing, but hopefully there’s a build up through the first couple of weeks here, and then he gets out there. But we have no issues with thinking he’s going to miss, you know, the start of the season,” Marks said, per Nets Daily.
When asked about his injury in Tuesday’s press conference, Demin said he’s focused on following the plan set in place by his physicians.
“I’m not a doctor, so it’s hard for me to even tell what is going on with it. So for me, it’s just important to stay present and I’m trying to focus on whatever plan I have from the physicians, right, and whatever timing I have from them. So, it’s almost like I’m not trying to get too deep into it and do as much as I can from what I’m allowed to do,” he said.
The former BYU Cougar added that there wasn’t a singular moment during Summer League in which the injury occurred.
“I’m assuming it’s not that big of a deal at this point. But it’s something that comes with the volume and time. So it wasn’t like a moment when I’m like, ‘OK, that’s when it happened,’” he said.
Here are three highlights from Demin’s media day press conference.
On the experience moving to Brooklyn
“I love it here. I’m really a food person, so I like to eat and there’s a lot of spots in Brooklyn and New York in general, including any type of kitchen I can find from all over Europe, Russia, or Asia or whatever it is,” Demin said.
On the pressure of representing Russia
“My way to approach it is not to get the pressure out of it but to get the support from out of it. Obviously, you know, I get a lot of people who (are) supporting me from back home, including my family, right, and it’s just really important for me to know that there’s people who it’s important for them to watch me play and get better and just whatever it is just to follow me right. Out of it, there comes responsibility, some sort of responsibility, which is again — can I call it pressure? Probably. Is it the bad pressure? Definitely not,” Demin said.
On where he wants to improve this season
“I think for me, watching film from the last year, it’s obviously a lot about physicality and how to use my body as my advantage and not going really deep into the skillset in case of shooting and all this, it’s obvious thing. But decision-making, it’s a big thing since the league — as we just talked — physicality is a different level. The speed of the players is a different level, reactions, so the decision-making got to be on a different level to be able to deal with all that,” Demin said.
On criticism about Nets 2025 draft class
“I think that’s something we shouldn’t be talking about really. I believe there’s always gonna be some sort of hate from the outside, same as there’s going to be a support and positive kind of talking,” Demin said. “For us, it was just important for us to focus on what we have and just to have one step ahead and one day at a time. I don’t think anybody from all five of us or the whole organization of our team were ever really thinking about it.”
Demin also spoke with YES Network on Tuesday. That interview can be seen below.