Ben Saraf Is Playing 11 More Minutes a Night for the Nets
With a teammate out, the Nets are leaning harder on Ben Saraf, and his production is keeping pace.
Ben Saraf is averaging 31.8 minutes a night over his last three games with the Nets. That is 11 more minutes than his season average of 20.8. The jump has come with a teammate out of the lineup. The most recent of those three games was April 12, 2026.
The extra minutes have come with extra scoring. Saraf is putting up 16.3 points a game over that stretch. His season average is 7.5 points, across 44 games in 2025-26. The scoring more than doubled along with the minutes. That is not a coincidence. It is what a bigger role looks like when a player is ready for it.
Three games is not a large sample. But the size of the change is hard to ignore. A jump this big, in both minutes and points, usually means the coaching staff has decided to test Saraf in a larger role, not just fill a hole in the rotation.
Whether it holds depends on the teammate who is out. If that player stays out, Saraf keeps the minutes by default. If he comes back, the real test starts: does the staff shrink Saraf's role back down, or does it keep finding him minutes because of what he did with the chance. His scoring pace over a bigger sample will answer that. For now, as of April 12, 2026, the role change is real. Whether it is permanent is still open.