At the beginning of the 2024-25 NBA season, Ben Saraf was a projected lottery pick with high praise from scouts and analysts across the league. The 6-foot-6 point guard had the tools and frame to entice teams, coming out of Ratiopharm Ulm.
However, his stock slipped, and the Brooklyn Nets took him 26th overall in the 2025 NBA Draft. He slipped from a potential top-10 pick in a draft, headlined by Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper, to a prospect with questions surrounding his game. Nevertheless, the Nets made him the fourth of their five top-30 picks last year.
Saraf received plenty of opportunities from day one, averaging nearly 18 minutes across his first 20 regular-season games. However, those performances were marred by turnovers and a lack of scoring. The Israeli guard put up 4.9 points, 1.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.9 turnovers on 32.7% shooting from the field and 25.5% from three-point range in that stretch.
The 20-year-old was eventually sent to the Nets' G League affiliate in Long Island to develop his game and get more comfortable with the competition. His time there was very different from his early NBA experience.
Naturally, Saraf showed so much more in the G League, averaging 15.4 points, 3.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game on 42-37-76 shooting splits. He was more comfortable in shooting from beyond the arc, and while turnovers were still an issue at three per game, there were more opportunities for him to work as a true floor general.
Saraf would bounce between Long Island and Brooklyn, but the Nets kept him with the NBA roster through March and April. It's safe to say that those late-season games were much more impressive than his first few, as he averaged 10.1 points, 2.7 rebounds, four assists and a steal per game on 42.2% shooting from the field.
His 14.6% three-point rate is a major stain on those games, but his overall performance was much better than when he started. Saraf finished the regular season with six games scoring at least 15 points, including a career-high 22 and five assists against the Sacramento Kings on March 22.
Saraf's expectations were low coming into the regular season, but he was still inefficient and had a turnover issue for most of the year. He has potential as a pure facilitator, but questions still surround overall scoring. It was a tough season for the most part, but bright spots toward the end died the noise down a bit.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nba/nets/onsi as Brooklyn Nets Rookie Grades: Ben Saraf .
