Various Nets have come into training camp looking visibly different, from Day’Ron Sharpe and Cam Thomas having gotten leaner to Egor Dëmin having gotten bigger.
But none reshaped their body more than Noah Clowney.
The once-willowy big man finally qualifies as big, and finally looks like a grown man instead of a young one.
Clowney packed on muscle in the offseason, added weight that he and the Nets figure will help shore up the weak parts of his game.
“Yeah, [Clowney] looks great,” said coach Jordi Fernández. “Credit to him and the work he’s put in the whole summer. He looks like a grown man at just 21.
“[I’m] excited to watch him play real games. Obviously you’ve got to go through training camp and the preseason games, but he’s done a great job. His ability to shoot, his size and getting better at playing off two feet in the paint, limiting turnovers and fishing better at the rim. So those things are important for him.”
The added bulk should help toward that end.
“That’s been the whole goal, being a better driver,” Clowney said. “I have to get stronger, I have to be able to drive through contact and be able to still be able to explode.”
After coming into camp a year ago listed at 210 pounds, and saying he played last season at various times between 220 and 225 pounds, Clowney tipped the scales last week at a solidly built 234 pounds.
Physically, he looked more like starting center Nic Claxton than the waifish youngster who struggled to finish last season.
“A lot of [NBA] players have been top athletes all their lives and when they get to this level, they just think they’re going to go to the rim, jump and finish. And a lot of times they’ve never had to figure it out,” Fernández said. “Challenging centers in the best league in the world is not necessarily a good thing.
“A lot of times the best finishers are guys that’ve never been that gifted early on, and they had to find a way to play, to be better decision-makers and finish when you have the advantage. So it’s part of the process. As coaches, we need to figure that out, so it’s a good challenge. Our players are buying into it. And we want to be a better finishing team because last year, we were a poor finishing team.”
That certainly wasn’t helped by Clowney’s woes.
He largely inherited the power forward spot after Dorian Finney-Smith was traded.
But while Clowney’s shooting touch helped space the floor, he’s going to have to round out his game and do more than just camp out in the corner.
Clowney ranked in just the fourth percentile on 2-point shots, per Cleaning the Glass.
And his horrid 45.3 percent shooting within 10 feet of the rim was fifth worst in the entire league among all players 6-foot-7 or taller with at least 50 attempts.
That has to improve, as does his rebounding.
That’s where the added muscle comes in.
“Yeah, I think it helps. Numbers, the games will tell us what it is, but that’s the reality,” Fernández said. “Noah was a good rebounder. Now that he’s stronger, he’ll be a better rebounder. That’s my assumption.”
The visible changes to Clowney’s arms, chest and shoulders can make a difference trying to explode through contact.
Better decision-making from the third-year pro can make just as much on drives.
“In transition, it’ll be downhill. It’s easy because everyone’s not loaded, and it’s the easiest way you can get there and just being able to play off two [feet],” Clowney said. “I did a lot of bump Euros off of one [foot], you got a foot in front, and you have to make a decision and not turn it over.”
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