Forward of Wednesday’s season opener towards the Charlotte Hornets, the Nets introduced they’ve exercised Noah Clowney’s workforce choice for the 2026–27 season.
The 6-10 ahead, chosen twenty first total within the 2023 NBA Draft, has averaged 8.0 factors and three.8 rebounds over his first two seasons in Brooklyn, taking pictures 39.4% from the sphere and 33.7% from 3-point vary. Final season, the 21-year-old posted 9.1 factors and three.9 rebounds per sport however was restricted to 46 appearances attributable to a number of ankle sprains.
Clowney will earn about $3.4 million this season, together with his $5.4 million wage for 2026–27 now absolutely assured.
“Noah is exactly what we want,” head coach Jordi Fernández stated. “From the culture perspective, he had an amazing summer. He’s developed not just his body, but also his personality, his growth as a person. He looks like a grown man… What I’ve seen, the games he’s played, you know, he’s going to keep getting better and better, and he has the shooting, the size, the toughness, the leadership that we want.”
Clowney drew reward over the offseason for remodeling his physique, including important muscle and rising his weight to 234 kilos. He averaged 9.3 factors and three.0 rebounds throughout 4 preseason video games whereas taking pictures 43.7% from deep on 4 makes an attempt per contest.
“My primary goal is just to stay healthy, and outside of staying healthy, just to get better every game,” Clowney stated. “I learn something from each game, but I don’t like to make the same mistake over and over again. That’s the goal.”
ADJUSTING ON THE FLY
It’s difficult sufficient to combine new ball handlers right into a rotation, and much more so when 4 of them are rookies. That’s the duty going through Brooklyn’s off-ball veterans this season: staying regular and productive whereas exhibiting persistence as Egor Demin, Ben Saraf, Drake Powell and Nolan Traore regulate to the pace and complexity of the NBA sport.
“Just being able to adapt and try to get to know each point guard as much as possible, knowing how they play, how they see things,” Cam Thomas stated. “You never know what might happen in an NBA game, so you always want to be ready for any situation.”
Fernández stated the important thing for Brooklyn’s younger gamers is studying by expertise. Irrespective of how a lot teaching or preparation they get, he defined, the true classes come from dwelling it. Some rookies will earn minutes immediately whereas others should wait for his or her alternative, however that’s a part of the method.
There shall be rising pains, however how the 4 rookies deal with the ups and downs will form not solely the Nets’ season, but additionally the success of the teammates enjoying alongside them.
“We’ve been playing a lot throughout training camp, throughout this preseason,” Nic Claxton stated. “So, we’re excited now to finally play some real games. It felt like a long camp, so we’re all excited to get to work. And we all just got to go. We play hard and we make our processes right. We’ll figure out all the small stuff.”
HELMETS RETURN
Persevering with a practice that began final season, the Nets are as soon as once more utilizing soccer helmets as a inventive culture-building software. Up to date variations have been noticed contained in the workforce’s follow facility on Tuesday.
“Yeah really cool, really cool design,” Fernández stated. “Coaches have done a great job, and now we have to start playing to make sure that those guys can achieve whatever they have to achieve for the stickers.”
If the Nets are following final season’s method, every participant has their very own helmet, together with a shared workforce helmet that represents the group as an entire. Identical to in soccer, gamers earn stickers for executing offensive and defensive ideas, hitting milestones and attaining particular person targets.
“So, very, very cool thing brought purpose to what we were trying to do last year,” Fernández stated. “Once again, the coaches did a great job, especially Connor [Griffin], former Division 1 football player and mixed in the idea. It was very special”
