{"id":72167,"date":"2024-04-07T09:32:07","date_gmt":"2024-04-07T13:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=72167"},"modified":"2024-04-07T09:41:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T13:41:34","slug":"nets-view-seldom-used-rookie-as-key-piece-moving-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/07\/nets-view-seldom-used-rookie-as-key-piece-moving-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets View Seldom-Used Rookie as Key Piece Moving Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After falling out of postseason contention, the Brooklyn Nets have started to call up players from the end of the bench, seeing what they can provide moving forward. It\u2019s a customary practice, especially for teams in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/06\/nets-looking-rival-knicks-help-head-coach-search\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a rebuilding (or retooling) year<\/a>, like the Nets. It\u2019s not always a fruitful experiment but, this time, it has been.<\/p>\n<h2>Nets View Noah Clowney as Key Piece Moving Forward<\/h2>\n<p>19-year-old forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/clownno01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Noah Clowney<\/a> has scored as many points in his last two games (39) as he did in the previous 15 games.<\/p>\n<p>Averaging 19.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game while shooting 81.3 percent from the field and 71.4 percent from 3, he\u2019s clearly on a hot streak. However, his production tracks with what he\u2019s been able to do with their G League affiliate. In 19 games, Clowney has averaged 17.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks per game, shooting 50.0 percent from the field and 33.9 percent from 3.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Noah Clowney tallies 17 points and 4 blocks vs. Pistons | 4.6.24\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9yFirZGpSMw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Clowney\u2019s strengths at 6-foot-10 and 210 pounds have led to the Nets viewing him as a positionless piece of their puzzle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s position-less, and we want him <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/04\/06\/sports\/noah-clowney-is-young-but-he-can-still-see-his-nets-potential\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to play like that<\/a>,\u201d interim head coach Kevin Ollie says, per the New York Post\u2019s Brian Lewis.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cHe\u2019s sticking one-through-five. I got some clips of him sticking, going over the pick-and-roll and blocking [Jordan] Poole, and switching out onto big men, got a charge [the other day]. I mean, he\u2019s done all of those small things, and when he got comfortable shooting his three-point shot, look out. He\u2019s going to open up all of our offense.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Given Clowney\u2019s mentality and Ollie\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CjHolmes22\/status\/1760101370839855286\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">desire for hunters,<\/a> his intangibles may be nearly as appealing as his skillset.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Noah Clowney racks up 22 points and 10 rebounds vs. Pacers | 4.3.24\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1FYFrLjcNlo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After notching 22 points and 10 assists against the Indiana Pacers last Wednesday, Clowney said: \u201cI always say, \u2018they bleed the same blood, they put their shorts on just like I do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cYeah, [the Pacers] are a good team, but I\u2019ve got to play with the same confidence I play with in the G [League] that I do here. I don\u2019t want to start playing shy, and then I\u2019m playing bad, tripping over mistakes. Just play confident.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Overperforming When Given Opportunity<\/h3>\n<p>Clowney was drafted 21st overall in the 2023 NBA Draft out of Alabama. A one-and-done for the Crimson Tide, Clowney averaged 9.8 points (on 48.6 percent shooting from the field), 7.8 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks per game on his way to earning All-SEC Freshman honors. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-sports\/basketball\/recruiting\/player\/_\/id\/245114\/noah-clowney\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">top-75 high school recruit<\/a>, Clowney arguably overperformed in his freshman season. However, there were still <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/05\/16\/noah-clowney-2023-nba-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">clear areas for improvement<\/a>, namely his streaky outside shooting and limited scoring impact off-the-dribble.<\/p>\n<p>Clowney still needs to work on his game. That\u2019s to be expected with his youth and inexperience. Nonetheless, he\u2019s taking advantage of the opportunity in front of him.<\/p>\n<p>Making the Nets consider a larger and long-term role for him is a testament to his talent, potential, work ethic, and mental fortitude.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After falling out of postseason contention, the Brooklyn Nets have started to call up players from the end of the bench, seeing what they can provide moving forward. It\u2019s a customary practice, especially for teams in a rebuilding (or retooling) year, like the Nets. It\u2019s not always a fruitful experiment but, this time, it has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":72172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1608,62,3],"tags":[38084,4783],"class_list":["post-72167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nets","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-kevin-ollie","tag-noah-clowney"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}