Nets GM Sean Marks speaks on development of 2025 NBA rookie class

Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks is the person in charge of the Nets' current rebuild and decided to approach this downtime in the franchise by developing the young players on the team. Brooklyn came into the 2025-26 NBA season with a league record five players in the first round and Marks gave his take on how the rookie class is coming along.

"At this point now, I'm obviously happy with the development of our young guys and I can't speak highly enough of the group rallying around them, our veteran players, our coaches, everybody pushing them," Marks said during a YES Network interview with Ryan Ruocco. Brooklyn's 2025 rookie class, headlined by guard Egor Demin (eighth overall pick), has seen different levels of development in each guy, but the goal appeared to be getting experience.

"Knowing that our objective this year was to have the young guys play and play real NBA minutes. That was the number one priority in between the G League and the development there and also here," Marks continued when explaining that playing time was the most important objective. "We now lead the league in rookie minutes the whole year, so that's exactly what we wanted to do."

To Marks' point, the Nets had the biggest rookie class by far with teams like the Charlotte Hornets bringing in three players, including potential Rookie of the Year winner in forward Kon Knueppel. Demin, who averaged 10.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game while shooting 39.9% from the field and 38.5% from three-point land, leads Brooklyn's rookie class in total minutes played with 1,308 heading into Sunday's season-finale at the Toronto Raptors.

While Demin has shown that he can shoot the NBA three-pointer at a more-than-acceptable level, players like Nolan Traore and Danny Wolf have seen areas of growth in interesting ways. Marks and head coach Jordi Fernandez have applauded the rookie class as a whole and with the team heading into an important offseason, the leader of the front office seems to be pleased with what he has seen this season.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets GM Sean Marks speaks on development of 2025 NBA rookie class