Brooklyn Nets rookie Mikel Brown Jr. will miss Sunday's back-to-back against the Indiana Pacers due to back injury management. The No. 6 pick missed most of the preseason due to an ankle injury. The Nets say his new designation on Sunday's injury report is strictly preventative.
“Correct. There's not a new injury,” said head coach Jordi Fernandez. “He's good. He's doing great. Then after this game, he'll be ready to go.”
Brown missed the second half of his freshman season at Louisville with a back injury. The 6-foot-4 guard has come off the bench while on a minutes restriction in his first three NBA appearances, which Fernandez said won't change “anytime soon.” Brown hadn't shared minutes with fellow lottery pick Egor Demin until the fourth quarter of Saturday's 125-121 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Fernandez recently explained Brown and Demin's lack of playing time together.
“The thought process is if you guys try to do your subs, like all the fantasy that you guys do, try to do it yourself. It's pretty hard to share minutes when it's [one guy starting] and [one coming] off the bench. Right now I'm trying to work the groups and have guys play together, but it's hard to do it in certain ways without breaking up the player's rhythm,” the Nets coach said. “I'll try all the combinations, but again, it's harder when [Mikel] is coming off the bench and has a minute restriction to get all the combinations without messing up other players. Do I want to see them together? Yes. It's hard for me to predict right now. I want to find the right groups that can function together efficiently and work on both ends of the floor. That's on me. How many games is it going to take? I don't know, but that's what happens with new groups. When you start with new groups, you have a lot more things to figure out, but it's not better or worse. It is what it is.”
Jordi Fernandez on why Mikel Brown Jr. and Egor Demin haven't played any minutes together thus far:
“If you guys do your subs, like all the fantasy that you guys do, try to do it yourself. It's pretty hard to share minutes when it's on the bench, off the bench. I'm trying to… pic.twitter.com/Cov0HI5Iuk
— Erik Slater (@ErikSlater_) October 23, 2026
Brown played alongside sophomore point guard Nolan Traore in Brooklyn's second unit. Meanwhile, Demin has paired with veteran swingman Keon Ellis in the starting lineup.
Will Nets showcase Mikel Brown Jr.-Egor Demin pairing more in coming weeks?
Brown has shown impressive flashes but struggled with efficiency in his first two regular-season games. The 20-year-old has averaged 7.0 points, 4.0 assists and 1.5 turnovers on 5-of-18 shooting in 20.0 minutes per game.
Brown and Demin shared the floor for the first time after the Nets fell behind 106-86 in the fourth quarter vs. Cleveland. The duo played four minutes together and sparked a near-Nets comeback, combining for six threes in the final period.
Mikel drains two deep stepback threes on B2B possessions. pic.twitter.com/Zt9VWGlsf4
— Erik Slater (@ErikSlater_) October 25, 2026
Article Continues BelowEgor drains three straight threes to get the Nets back in the game. pic.twitter.com/sbn4tC2NAM
— Erik Slater (@ErikSlater_) October 25, 2026
Fernandez spoke about the late lineup change after the game.
“The way I would explain this is when you're coaching the game, if you're coaching thinking you want to play certain guys together, it's when usually you're doing it for the wrong reasons,” he said. “A lot of times you have to coach the game while feeling the game… I think the game flows. I felt Mikel had a good moment of making a couple of shots. He was vocal. He felt like he was giving [good] energy. I had the starting group [on] the bench. That's when I felt like it was a good moment to play together. Did I plan it? No. But a lot of times it's how basketball is. We have all this preparation, the coaches do a great job putting all these pages and film and so forth.
But then at the end of the day, you have to react to a lot of things that are not controllable in the game. And that's why I know that I've gotten this question before, would I like to play them together? Yes. But if I'm just thinking about playing them together, I may not do what's best for the group at the moment. That's the way I feel.”
Demin finished Saturday's loss with 22 points on 5-of-10 shooting from three with four rebounds, six assists and only one turnover. He was highly complimentary of Brown when asked about their first minutes together.
“[We didn't play together] so much, but as I've been saying, I think he's a special player. I think he's going to be very special for this team, for the organization, for Brooklyn in general. And he's fully embracing the name, not just on his back, but on the front of his jersey,” Demin said. “And I think that's what's most important right now for him, being able to adjust to the whole NBA game. And it's not necessarily that he's struggling with physicality or whatever. It's just for him to kind of feel himself a little bit more because obviously everybody's a little anxious [starting the season]… But yes, I'm super happy to go out there and play with him and I can't wait to spend more time with him on the court.”
Brown's next appearance will come on Tuesday when the Nets travel to TD Garden to face the Boston Celtics.