2025 NBA Draft: Nets Pick Noa Essengue and Egor Demin in New Mock

Yahoo Sports’ latest 2025 NBA Draft mock sees the Brooklyn Nets drafting Noa Essengue with the No. 8 overall pick, then filling in the rest of their draft board with size and playmaking of an international flavor.

Essengue, who plays for the German club Ratiopharm Ulm, is a versatile forward/wing with fluid open court athleticism that results in two-way plays and an improving dribble/pass/shoot skillset. He has flashed a bit of everything this season in a developmental setting, but needs to keep improving as a half-court scorer. Brooklyn also picked Essengue at No. 8 in Yahoo Sports' May 19 post-lottery mock draft. The Frenchman was recently projected to the Nets by Bleacher Report this week, as well.

The 18-year-old will be the second youngest player in this draft after Duke freshman Cooper Flagg, the surefire favorite to go No. 1. Essengue’s German league season is still being played, but he has averaged 10.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.6 'stocks' across 52 games in all competitions until now. The Ulm prospect’s next game is on Sunday against Würzburg, which has future Washington big and 2026 draft prospect Hannes Steinbach on their roster.

“Brooklyn has a clean slate of a future, so it’d only make sense to take a big swing,” Yahoo’s pitch for the Nets taking a swing on Essengue reads.

The Nets’ No. 19 pick goes towards BYU freshman Egor Demin, whom the organization recently was linked to by ClutchPoints' NBA insider Brett Siegel — albeit, at the No. 8 pick. The Russian prospect is a prototypical point forward and he has a legit case to be considered the best passer in this draft class; however, Demin needs to prove that he can make threes and create separation off the dribble in the half-court.

“Demin has one of the widest ranges in this draft class with people around the league seeing him as an option from anywhere in the mid-lottery to the late teens,” Yahoo writes. The mock adds that Demin “is said to be excelling in pre-draft workouts” with regards to his shot.

The 19-year-old playmaker shot 27.3% from three this season on 42-of-154 attempts. He shot the ball decently at previous levels with Real Madrid, his youth club in Spain. Demin made 36.3% of his threes on 49-for-135 shooting in the 2023-24 Spanish league season, and 40.1 3P% (61-for-152) in the year prior to that. Teams will be invested in his outside jumper off the catch and, if he is to remain on-ball, off the bounce.

Thomas Sorber is so long that he contests the floater+steals the drop-off in a single moment #nbadraft pic.twitter.com/3rYdYy6tJD
— FLOOR and CEILING (Wilko) (@wilkomcv) May 22, 2025

The Nets’ back-to-back No. 26 and 27 selections in this mock are Georgetown freshman Thomas Sorber — although he “may not make it this far on draft night” — and Israeli combo guard Ben Saraf, who is on the same Ulm team as Essengue. Sorber was also mocked to the Nets by B/R after the draft combine, and he would fit what head coach Jordi Fernández wants from his bigs with connective playmaking, physicality, defense and efficient decisions. He is currently recovering from a season-ending left foot injury, although he should be able to play around early August.

Regarding Saraf, Yahoo notes: “The Nets have five top-36 picks. Are they really going to keep all of these? I doubt it.”

The Ulm prospect is a capable playmaker and scorer who can toggle on- and off-ball as a guard. He needs to make more threes, although he’s shot the ball better of late. Then, Saraf is a crafty ballhandler and a smart passer. The 19-year-old played against the Portland Trail Blazers in the latter’s preseason, and had 16 points, one rebound, two assists, four turnovers and two steals in 33 minutes. Yahoo first mocked Saraf to Brooklyn in March.

The Nets’ last pick, No. 36, is Alex Toohey from the Australian league’s Sydney Kings. Nets general manager Sean Marks traveled down under to scout the NBL’s prospects this draft cycle, which was showcased in the Nets’ pre-draft docuseries ‘SCOUT.’

Toohey recently played at the NBA Draft Combine and impressed. He is an off-ball wing at the NBA level who will play the 3 and the 4. The Aussie prospect even saw some reps at the 5 at the combine, which is a highly idealistic outcome but speaks to his underrated size. Toohey’s ceiling isn’t particularly high, but he defends multiple positions, ties things together with his smart decisions and is fairly big at around 6-foot-9 in shoes with a wingspan slightly less than 6-foot-11.

His swing skill will be the three-pointer, and he will also have to work harder than in the NBL to match up against NBA-caliber athleticism. Toohey shot 30.2% from three in the NBL this season on 26-for-86 shots and 25.4 3P% (17-for-67) last season. The conversion and volume needs to go up a notch.