Copyright New York Daily News
Ahead of Wednesday’s season opener against the Charlotte Hornets, the Nets announced they have exercised Noah Clowney’s team option for the 2026–27 season. The 6-10 forward, selected 21st overall in the 2023 NBA Draft, has averaged 8.0 points and 3.8 rebounds over his first two seasons in Brooklyn, shooting 39.4% from the field and 33.7% from 3-point range. Last season, the 21-year-old posted 9.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game but was limited to 46 appearances due to multiple ankle sprains. Clowney will earn about $3.4 million this season, with his $5.4 million salary for 2026–27 now fully guaranteed. “Noah is exactly what we want,” head coach Jordi Fernández said. “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 praise over the offseason for transforming his body, adding significant muscle and increasing his weight to 234 pounds. He averaged 9.3 points and 3.0 rebounds across four preseason games while shooting 43.7% from deep on four attempts per contest. “My primary goal is just to stay healthy, and outside of staying healthy, just to get better every game,” Clowney said. “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 challenging enough to integrate new ball handlers into a rotation, and even more so when four of them are rookies. That’s the task facing Brooklyn’s off-ball veterans this season: staying steady and productive while showing patience as Egor Demin, Ben Saraf, Drake Powell and Nolan Traore adjust to the speed and complexity of the NBA game. “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 said. “You never know what might happen in an NBA game, so you always want to be ready for any situation.” Fernández said the key for Brooklyn’s young players is learning through experience. No matter how much coaching or preparation they get, he explained, the real lessons come from living it. Some rookies will earn minutes right away while others will have to wait for their opportunity, but that’s part of the process. There will be growing pains, but how the four rookies handle the ups and downs will shape not only the Nets’ season, but also the success of the teammates playing alongside them. “We’ve been playing a lot throughout training camp, throughout this preseason,” Nic Claxton said. “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 Continuing a tradition that started last season, the Nets are once again using football helmets as a creative culture-building tool. Updated versions were spotted inside the team’s practice facility on Tuesday. “Yeah really cool, really cool design,” Fernández said. “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 last season’s approach, each player has their own helmet, along with a shared team helmet that represents the group as a whole. Just like in football, players earn stickers for executing offensive and defensive principles, hitting milestones and achieving individual goals. “So, very, very cool thing brought purpose to what we were trying to do last year,” Fernández said. “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”
