2025 Scouting Report: Egor Demin

Who is Egor Demin? What skills will he immediately bring to an NBA team? Who does he play like in the NBA?

Following the NBA Draft Lottery in mid-May, I published Spurs Draft Board 3.0. That board featured several players within the San Antonio Spurs’ range for the 14th pick. I want to start exploring who those players were, beginning with the first prospect, Egor Demin, who appeared in two different mock drafts for the Spurs and had a 14.3 mock average.

Photo credit: BYUCougars.com, Nate Edwards

Who is Egor Demin?

Demin is a 6’9", 190-pound point guard from Moscow, Russia, who just completed his freshman season at BYU. He recently turned 19 in March, meaning that when he’s 22 and eligible for his rookie scale extension, he will have acquired three years of NBA experience.

Physical Measurements from NBA Draft Combine

• Height without shoes: 6’8.25” (1st among 35 guards)

• Weight: 199.2 lbs. (17th among 35 guards)

• Standing reach: 8’9.5” (2nd among 35 guards)

• Wingspan: 6’10.25” (6th among 35 guards)

• Draft Express Physical Comps: Deni Avdija

Stats

• Games: 33 (Started 33), played in 92% of team games

• Minutes: 27.5

Offense

Scoring

• Points per game: 10.6

• Shots per game: 9.3 (41.2% FG)

• 3-point attempts: 4.7 (27.3% FG)

• 2-point attempts: 4.6 (55.3% FG)

• Shot diet: 50% of attempts on 2s, 50% of attempts on 3s

• Free throw attempts: 2.5 (69.5% FT%)

Passing and Rebounding

• Assists: 5.5

• Turnovers: 2.9

• Offensive Rebounds: 0.3

Defense

• Steals: 1.2

• Blocks: 0.4

• Personal fouls: 1.2

• Defensive rebounds: 3.6 (Total: 3.9)

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Three Key Questions

As mentioned in this newsletter, one of the books I’ve been reading and applying to my research and analysis is Basketball Beyond Paper by Dean Oliver.

In one of the chapters, Dean writes about his experience working for an NBA team, and when the time was approaching for the draft, he provided three key questions on the scouting reports for each draft prospect. I will also use these questions here, based on my observations after watching film on Demin.¹

(1) What does this player do to get into an NBA game?

On Offense

• Passing and Floor Vision - Though he’s 6’9”, Demin is a pass-first point guard. He quickly scans the floor to make reads inside, outside, and from the corners. If someone isn’t open right away, he’s ready to use the pick-and-roll to draw in the defense's attention and create an open shot for one of his teammates. Demin has a plethora of passes he can make: the two-handed passes stationary, or on the drive to a strongside corner, or with one hand, he can be on the left side arc, then throw a right-handed pass across his shoulder to a right arc or corner shooter. There were even some possessions where he drove deep into the teeth of the defense and delivered a pass back to the center arc 3-point shooter. He’s more comfortable working out of the pick-and-roll and driving left or right to find a passing lane to a teammate. He could drive in against drop coverage in the pick-and-roll and feed a rolling big for an alley-oop dunk. On the break, Demin can help get transition points by throwing hit-ahead passes for layups or dunks inside, or to shooters for open transition threes. Against full-court pressure, he knows how to space out and quickly get the ball to a teammate so the trap doesn’t entirely work. In a pick-and-roll, if there’s a switch, and he sees a big man with the advantage against a smaller defender, he can also deliver that pass to the player until he gets position. While the passing and floor vision skills are there, there are also times when Demin is too far ahead in reading lanes and angles, and a lot of his turnovers come from those plays where he throws no-look passes where his teammates are or should be going. Instead, they’re not there, and the defender either got a steal, deflection, or the ball went out of bounds.