With so much focus on the development of Brooklyn’s rookies, no Nets player has developed more than Noah Clowney.
The young forward had a career-high 31 points against the Knicks on 7-for-13 shooting from 3-point range with four rebounds and three assists.
He attacked close-outs more viciously than last season and looked more confident.
“A lot. Trying to be aggressive helps my teammates. Yeah, it really does,” Clowney said.
The forward – at 21 still younger than rookie teammate Danny Wolf and half of this incoming draft class – has blossomed as a starter.
He is averaging 18.1 points over the past seven games, hitting 40 percent from deep.
Ziaire Williams was a healthy scratch, dropped from the rotation entirely by head coach Jordi Fernández on Monday due to a disappointing lack of defense.
“It was just my decision. I wanted to challenge him with his defense,” Fernández said. “Last year he was elite at a lot of the things that interest us defensively, from ball pressure to deflections to pick-and-roll defense to defending isolations, and he was huge and I didn’t feel that energy. And then I can go through the numbers, and there weren’t any. So I challenge him to do that.”
“I wasn’t completely satisfied with the last two games, and I just gave it a chance [Jalen Wilson]who is always ready, whether I play more or less. He was always there for his teammates. … It’s about giving someone else the opportunity to refocus, to be ready for the next opportunity. And when the time comes, just take it and stick with it and be the best defensive player on the team and one of the best in the NBA… which I think he’s more than capable of doing.”
Ben Saraf is injured and both Nolan Traore and Danny Wolf have mainly toiled in the G-League.
Although Traore is seen as the one most in need of spice, the struggling French teenager has had some encouraging outings on Long Island of late.
He had 15 points, nine assists and two rebounds in the G-League on Monday after putting up 28 points and nine assists on Saturday.
“We want to play a competitive and winning game of basketball. It starts with the habits,” Fernández said. “I know he saw the ball go in. Those are things you can’t always control, but you can make the right shots and make the right plays. He had an assists-to-turnover ratio of 9 to 3, which is really good. So all those things are positive.”
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