The Brooklyn Nets made a huge decision last year when they selected five players in the 2025 NBA Draft, headlined by taking guard Egor Demin with the eighth overall pick. While Demin had a solid rookie season for Brooklyn prior to his left plantar fasciitis ending his season in mid-March, but there are some people who are wondering if the Nets could have made a different choice.
"While Coward has been among the most productive rookies in this class, he's also on the older side (22) and could be dinged by other teams for a perceived lack of upside," Zach Buckley wrote for Bleacher Report. As is done with every other draft class, it's fair to contemplate if certain teams could have made other choices depending on what happened over the course of the 2025-26 campaign.
"If you're wondering why the tanking Nets wouldn't be among them, that's because Brooklyn has designs on becoming competitive as soon as next season," Buckley continued on his reasoning for the Nets picking Coward instead of Demin. "It might covet his reliability, scoring punch, physicality and overall activity over some of the more risk-reward dart throws it threw during the actual draft."
Demin, 20, finished this past season with averages of 10.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game while shooting 39.9% from the field and 38.5% from behind the three-point line. Demin had his fair share of struggles as the Nets were trying to develop him into an NBA point guard on the fly, but he looks to be the part thanks to his shooting and versatility on the defensive end.
Coward, 22, also had a productive rookie season to his credit as he averaged 13.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per contest while shooting 47.1% from the floor and 33.8% from deep for the Memphis Grizzlies. Coward was initially selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the 11th pick so it's clear that Brooklyn preferred Demin since Coward was still on the board, but it's always interesting to ponder what could have been.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Should the Nets have taken Cedric Coward in the 2025 NBA Draft?