TAKEAWAYS: Nic Claxton responds, Day’Ron Sharpe returns, etc

Thankfully, the Nets have reached the most restful part of their schedule all season, but that only means we have more time to crunch film!

To start to December, the Brooklyn Nets are playing about two games per week. They split home contests against the Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday and Sunday, respectively, and will now spend their time practicing and watching knockout rounds of the Emirates NBA Cup before traveling to face the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.

In the past three games, three Nets have returned from the injury list: Day’Ron Sharpe, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Noah Clowney, though the latter received a DNP against Milwaukee.

It’s a window into the utopia we’d have if the NBA ever shortened the season from 82 games (it won’t) to something more reasonable. (In my ideal world, Brooklyn would play each team twice, constituting a 58-game regular season.)

As it stands, the 82-game season is an overwhelming slog, evidenced by the ten-or-so games every season that are decided before tip-off, either by virtue of a ridiculous kink in the travel schedule or a drooping injury list, or more often, a combination of the two.

I understand market saturation is the goal with every entertainment company, but a shorter schedule would also heighten the stakes of every regular-season game. It’s easy to understand why so many American fans are gravitating toward the English Premier League, for example: Every match is an event.

Neither of Brooklyn’s two recent home games were ground-breaking basketball, but still, the anticipation was there, as was real practice time between games, and Head Coach Jordi Fernández had nearly a full roster to work with. As for the actual basketball…

Nic Claxton responds

NetsDaily will be taking credit for this one.

After I asked, in quite a few words, if it’s time to worry about Brooklyn’s $100 million man Nic Claxton posted two strong performances. His 21/10/4/3/2 outing against Milwaukee was undoubtedly his best of the season, and while he needs to sustain that level of play before all concerns are alleviated, seeing that he still has it in him deserves a deep breath.

Recently, the Nets have looked increasingly motivated to find Claxton earlier in the shot-clock, and against Milwaukee, he often took matters into his own hands by attacking Brook Lopez off the dribble or posting up mismatches. Even better, though, was his overall spirit, his energy.

Clax used his length and athleticism to make extra-effort plays, to grab offensive rebounds, to bring the ball coast-to-coast. As I previously wrote:

…we’re looking for the whole package here. Goga Bitadze is a good NBA player, but Claxton has to outplay him, plain and simple. Get the 50/50 balls, finish through contract, survive 2-on-1 situations as the sole defender. Great players turn negative situations into positive plays.

On his first real defensive chance vs. the Bucks, Taurean Prince drove an open lane, and Clax helped off Giannis Antetokounmpo to meet Prince at the rim. But Clax didn’t just make his scheduled rotation, he made a great play to bail Brooklyn out, jumping with Prince to deter a layup, then stealing his attempted pass to Giannis on the block.

Clax winning a game of monkey-in-the-middle at the rim, a negative situation into a steal, that’s the play that kickstarted his big day…

“I’m just getting my flow back,” he said in postgame. “That’s just me playing more games. My body, everything is just starting to come together. I need to be aggressive for us, especially right now with Cam [Thomas] being out and us missing some scoring.”

Hopefully, it really is as simple as that. Yes, the vibes on last year’s team were cancerous, and yes, that back injury is nothing to play with, but eventually, Nic Claxton will need to play to the level we saw in 2022-23.

Dorian Finney-Smith believes that’s in the cards: “All it takes is a good three weeks and he’s right back to his numbers, so you can’t really — and he’s been hurt. He’s been hurt all summer, he’s been in and out of the lineup. So it’s hard to get your rhythm, especially playing as a big nowadays. It ain’t like they’re throwing you the ball 15 times and telling you to go get a bucket. He’s gotta work for his points and his lobs and stuff like that. He’s gotta build that chemistry with guards to even get those lobs.”

And there’s no faking that chemistry. In the fourth quarter of Brooklyn’s loss to Milwaukee, Claxton hardly touched the ball: no free-throws, no shots, and definitely no post-up or downhill opportunities. As Milwaukee switched every action down the stretch, Brooklyn’s offense devolved into stagnant, tough isolations for Cam Johnson and Dennis Schröder against, mostly, Bobby Portis.

Brooklyn has made a clear effort to integrate touches for Claxton into their offense recently, but not to the level where they’re comfortable throwing him the ball when he seals mismatches in crunch-time.

Still, it’s coming along. On this play, Dennis Schröder initially misses Clax in the paint before circling around and hitting him for that little eight-foot push shot.

That’s a big shot for Nic; in his excellent 2022-23 season, he shot 51.4% from 3-10 feet, per Basketball Reference. Those floaters and hooks were money, and it stabilized his scoring. Last season, that number fell to 43.4%. Right now, he’s shooting 19-of-37 from that range, or exactly 51.4%. Spooky, but encouraging.

But once again, it’s not just about the numbers for Claxton. They do help illustrate how he’s performing, especially as a center, but by this point, Nets fans can likely pick up on his activity immediately. Let’s hope last week was the start of something sustainable.

Day’Ron Sharpe returns

As for Brooklyn’s other center, Day’Ron Sharpe now has three games under his belt in 2024-25, after a hamstring strain kept him on the shelf for two months.

There’s been some good and some bad, but Sharpe is moving around well out there. Jordi Fernández has been playing some real aggressive pick-and-roll coverages — not just blitzing or switching, but good ol’ hedging-and-recovering.

You don’t see that a lot in today’s NBA; it’s tough to put your own defense in scramble-mode considering how talented these offenses and pull-up shooters are, but it’s worked out decently for Brooklyn. It also gave Sharpe the chance to make this play in his season debut against Chicago…

…and he’s continued to move well in the games since. In lineups next to Trendon Watford and Ben Simmons, Fernández is having them all switch and make the same rotations on the perimeter, and Sharpe is moving well.

That’s big for his long-term prospects as a solid center who may not dominate any single coverage, but can survive in a few.

However, this has to be the season his finishing at the basket takes a leap. Shooting in the low-60s as a center isn’t good enough in today’s NBA, but that’s where he’s been in his career. Through three games, he hasn’t gotten his feet under him yet…

…but that’s always been his bug-a-boo. Cleaning the Glass currently ranks Brooklyn as the 3rd-worst finishing team in the league, so if he can provide some spark on the inside, that’d make a big difference for their bench units.

A big minutes crunch

Literally and figuratively. With Ben Simmons, Trendon Watford, Nic Claxton, Dorian Finney-Smith, Day’Ron Sharpe, and now, Noah Clowney all healthy, how the heck do these lineups shake out in a sensible way?

As mentioned, Clowney did not play in his first game back from an ankle injury, and while that’s just one game, who gets removed from the lineup? Brooklyn’s 2023 first-round pick obviously shouldn’t be sitting much this season, but the answer isn’t so clear. Against Milwaukee, Fernández played ten guys, with Watford receiving 13 minutes and Sharpe just 11.

Indeed, it gets real spooky if the Watford/Simmons/Sharpe lineup that dominated Indiana but flatlined against the Bucks isn’t feasible. Now that seems likelier than not, but it is worth noting that that unit had some good defensive moments vs. the Pacers, in which Sharpe’s mobility stood out…

But is that worth cutting Noah Clowney’s minutes for? Or having him play next to Finney-Smith and Claxton, ensuring the Nets will always have a bunch of forwards and centers on the floor that can only kind of shoot? If the aforementioned players can stay healthy — and that’s a big if — we will find out soon enough.

Transition offense: very bad

Jordi Fernández has focused on Brooklyn’s lack of size and propensity to foul as factors limiting their transition offense, and he clearly has a point: It’s hard to run when you’re lined up at the free-throw line and expending such great energy to secure defensive rebounds.

But Cleaning the Glass ranks the Brooklyn Nets as the very worst transition offense in the league. Not by frequency of transition play, but efficacy: The transition possessions they do get are less fruitful than any other team in the league.

Unfortunately, this isn’t to believe. Nic Claxton is currently the only above-average rim-finisher on the team, and he’s rarely leading the charge down-court; there are also possessions that just don’t look right, for a variety of reasons.

Ben Simmons hardly ever takes it to the rim in transition, and he’s most often the one leading the charge. It seems as though, behind Simmons, Brooklyn has fully leaned into transition offense as a way to increase 3-point volume, and that doesn’t always lead to good shots.

On this first play, Jalen Wilson takes a contested, leaning three as the result of a 3-on-2. It seems as though he’d have a layup had he cut to the rim. The second play is just plain bad…

We know Simmons isn’t generating any attempts at the rim for himself. If those players running the floor with him aren’t either, then Brooklyn’s trnasition is going to continue to lag behind.

In better news, Cleaning the Glass ranks the Nets’ half-court offense as #12 in the league. That’s an outstanding, encouraging mark given Jordi Fernández’s reputation as an offensive savant before getting hired, and the injury-riddled (and fairly talent deficient) roster he’s coached through 24 games.

Thus, we know he and the Nets can generate 3-pointers in the half-court. Their transition offense has to be better, and that could start with them putting more pressure on the rim.

Their next chance to run out and throw down some dunks, or at least make some layups, will come this Friday evening against the Memphis Grizzlies. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. ET.