For the Nets, this season is all about beginning a rebuild.
It’s unclear how lots of the gamers from this roster will even be round long run, when that course of is finished.
However Noah Clowney is likely one of the few that has an opportunity.
And he reminded all people why Monday, scoring a team-high 19 factors and snatching 5 rebounds to assist lead the Nets to a 111-108 win over the Lakers at Barclays Heart.
It snapped a seven-game skid that was the longest within the NBA and the Nets’ worst of the season.
“As a group, we just didn’t want to lose,” Clowney mentioned. “Me personally, I know my shot wasn’t falling at the start of the game. So I had to find a way to impact the game otherwise. So I started crashing harder, trying to get the ball out quick to get us going when I get defensive rebounds, offensively just trying to get us extra possessions.”
Nights like this are why it’s incumbent upon the Nets to provide him an opportunity to show what he has down the stretch.
If that is going to be a misplaced season — sacrificed in hopes of rising — then the Nets want to provide enjoying time to a 20-year-old who nonetheless has room to develop.
“Yeah, we know what he’s able to bring to the table,” Cam Johnson mentioned of Clowney. “He can shoot the ball. He understands the sport. He’s rising in that division. And , for him to return again and have an effect like he did, I imply, it’s robust. Anyone who is aware of [realizes that].
“The kid’s 20 years old, he’s young. It’s difficult to come back from being out for a while and to find your flow, and I think it was a little tough on him maybe the first couple minutes out there, but he kept his head up, and stayed with it and made some big play for us tonight was a big reason we came away with the win. So we got to give him a lot of credit on that end.”
Monday marked simply Clowney’s second recreation over the previous six weeks.
He had missed 15 straight with an ankle damage suffered on Jan. 27.
Clowney didn’t return till Saturday’s 105-102 collapse at Charlotte.
He logged a scoreless 18:06, going 0-for-5 from the ground — all from deep.
That’s a part of the difficulty.
Whereas Jordi Fernández’s perception in his gamers does buoy their confidence, the issue is Clowney has to do extra than simply shoot.
“[They’ve told me] just keep striving to be better. Gotta shoot more consistently,” Clowney mentioned. “I want to be able to get to the rim, finish better, close out defense. I want to be able to close out and contain anybody.”
Even in his restricted motion final season, he confirmed promise as a rim-runner and excelled at rim safety.
However his blocks and rebounds per 36 minutes are each down, and his taking pictures proportion has plummeted from 53.8 p.c to simply 36.8 p.c.
Sure, proving he might house the ground was necessary with a purpose to coexist with famous non-shooters Ben Simmons and Nic Claxton.
Simmons is lengthy gone, however Clowney might have gone too far, boosting his 3-point makes an attempt from 1.4 final season to five.6 getting into Monday.
Claxton’s taking pictures proportion will enhance; his type is ok.
He simply must proceed rounding out the remainder of his recreation.
A 2023 first-round decide, he confirmed promise on the finish of final season, however struggled to make an affect at energy ahead after Dorian Finney-Smith’s departure opened the door for him.
Finney-Smith has been an enormous boon for the Lakers, whereas Clowney was coming off the bench once more Monday behind Ziaire Williams.
However with Williams a restricted free agent — and having a reasonably hefty default qualifying provide of $8,353,153 — it will behoove the Nets to force-feed Clowney as many minutes as attainable.
Particularly in a yr the place there’s no stress to win.
Solely to develop.
