The Locked on Nets guys take a look at the growth and improvement from Nic Claxton over the last couple of seasons and dive into what that could mean for him this year. He finished 9th in Defensive Player of the Year voting last year but was as high as 3rd in odds at one point.
How high could he climb this time around and what needs to happen to really put him in consideration? It will involve more than just his play but the Nets are set up well to be a good defensive team this season. He was among the league leaders in blocks last year and has the counting stats to back up a case. But will the Nets actually be good enough to push him into real consideration?
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15 Comments
Hello everyone. For me Nic Claxton's defensive skills have improved every year and having another strong consistent defensive year would definitely help him get more votes in a bid for DPOY.
But what I'm more excited about is Nic Claxton evolving his offensive skillset even more and adding a jump shot and possible three point shot as well 🔥.
If Claxton can increase his offensive output even more it will bode very well for Brooklyn's offensive side as well….
Thanks for all the great coverage. Good stuff.
Also as far as training camp goes it will be interesting seeing how the coaching staff can create better schemes for Ben Simmons and Nic Claxton to coexist on the court.
If Ben Simmons is the starting point guard it will be important for him to find Claxton good scoring opportunities at the rim. If Claxton can add a jump shot and three point scoring to his skillset his chemistry with Simmons could improve a lot more.
More importantly in order for Claxton and Simmons to be on the court more together they both can't be non scorers and need to take their offensive skills to the next level 🔥…
It should be obvious by now that Sean Marks consider Dinwiddie, Bridges, Claxton, DFS, Cam J, Royce O'Neale, Cam T, and Day'Ron Sharpe as the Nets core. It's still "wait and see" what Ben bring to the table regardless of his summer PR blitz. Marks did say last April that he want to give this core another shot because he liked what he saw in the last third of the season with them. I think Nets fans will slowly begin to believe him. Over the summer with most of the core being around each other, they're developing a family-like vibe which will be good for their cohesion. There shouldn't be any need to risk damaging that by adding any new players.
Play making and a midrange shot…that’s literally it other than that Clax is daddy
The Nets met it's goal of staying competitive, flexible, and more important, getting out of the repeaters tax hell. In spite of Joe Tsai being a billionaire, I cringe at the fact that he's paid $323 million in luxury taxes since buying the franchise in 2017. It's a good thing that the Nets are planning for the long term. It's, possibly, a consequence of spending so much and getting so little in return from the "big three" era. I'm glad that's behind us.
team standings and team defensive rating is more important than individual stats to determine DPOY. I believe the nets have a top defense in the league next season
But Doug Brook Lopez is a slow plodding center how can he possibly play on an NBA floor or guard anybody? He’s a traditional center a Dino. Think they could used him in FIBA?
As for Claxton I said it before highest ceiling on the team but will the Nets coaches and management allow him to be more than just some rim running big. Will they allow him to be more of a playmaker offensively. However, on defense we already know how dominant a switch defender he is BUT I’m looking to see more improvement in the rebounding area. It great to be able to switch But that also hinders your ability to be in a rebound position and when you’re basically the only size on the roster that’s an issue. Despite Claxton abilities the team still got general outrebounded and guys like Mason Plumlee looked like All stars against them. So rebounding and how impactful can he be shutting down his own position in the paint.
I’ve always been very high on Nic. He took a big leap forward last year, and I expect him to continue on his upward trajectory this year. DPOY? I expect him to be a contender and expect to see him develop his mid range shot and continue to improve his foul shots. Most important, I expect the Nets to be in the top 10 defensively if Simmons is healthy and on his way back to form.
I want expand a tiny bit more about the rebounding issue and Claxton. Doug is correct that there are some optics around getting defensive player of the year award and whether your team is relevant or not. However, rebounding is still a considerable stat, when deciding on whether a Big is deserving of defensive player of the year. Now, if Claxton was a wing or guard, that’s a different story, but he’s a Big and therefore how well he rebounds is going to be a considerable stat for him. Last year he wasn’t even in the top 10 for Bigs in rebounding he was 15th and on top of that his team overall was generally outrebounded. And we all know that that’s not necessarily Claxton’s fault because they played a strict switching defense, but the big is still historically, thought to be the anchor of a defense, and that’s gonna be a knock. To really bolster his case he needs to focus on trying to get up into that 11 or 12 rebounds a game category. That’s going to be tough with their switching but with teams pull him away from the rim it makes it more difficult for him to be a position to get rebounds which in turn put the other big in position to get a lot of offensive rebounds.
This is why I love basketball because there’s so many angles and layers you can go at this. It’s amazing to have a big that can switch on all defenders teams are very smart and there’s a drawback to that. if your primary Big is out on the perimeter, guarding their point guard and your team like the Nets that loves to go small then who is guarding the other team center in the paint? Let’s say that wing or guard takes a contested shot from Claxton how is Claxton in position to get the rebound? And do you have a guy like cam Johnson trying to box out Brook Lopez? So Claxton could have an amazing defensive sequence on the guard, but if it ends up giving up an offensive rebound that’s not necessarily a positive.
I love how this podcast jumps from high fantasy topics like Cam Thomas resembling a good NBA player and realistic ones like Claxton being DPOY candidate 😂. Keep me coming back.
Good morning! Doug absolutely crushed his takes on Nic Claxton in this episode. I share Doug's view that Claxton already shines defensively in various aspects, such as switches, on-ball and off-ball defense, and rim protection. Doug pointed out, "We tend to switch everything, following the Nets' strategy under Jacque Vaughn," and this is where I started questioning and critiquing the coaching approach. Relying solely on constant switching can make it easier for opponents to counter, especially in the playoffs. Claxton's ability to switch from 1 to 5 is great, but sometimes, opponents exploit this to pull him away from the basket and create mismatches with smaller players. To succeed, we need to mix up our defensive tactics to keep opponents guessing, especially since we struggle with rebounding. It's unfortunate that our best rebounder, Sharpe, doesn't get consistent playing time due to his inability to switch 1 through 5 like Claxton. Ultimately, the blame falls on coaching. Both our offense and defense have become too predictable, which was evident in our inability to win a playoff game against Philly, even when Joel Embiid was mostly unavailable. Everything we did in that series was easy for the opposition to anticipate.
"Almost RIP with this guy" lol doug
Nets need to be a top team in league for him to win the award.
Great job w the content guys keep it up always a good listen