Get Even More Visitors To Your Blog, Upgrade To A Business Listing >>

Nets’ Nic Claxton facing high expectations entering contract year

Spencer Dinwiddie has plenty of goals this season — mostly for his teammates.

And one of them is to see Nic Claxton get paid.

“We have a lot of guys here that if we win collectively, they have things that they can prove,’’ Dinwiddie said Thursday. “The thing I’d love to see most is Nic get his $100 million [contract], because I’ve seen him come in the league.”

Claxton enters his fifth season in the league coming off career highs in nearly every statistical category and spent the offseason getting stronger so he can be more of a presence in the paint.

The 24-year-old is looking to unlock the potential Dinwiddie saw in Claxton after the Nets drafted the center 31st overall in the second round of the 2019 draft.

“It’s fun to experience, but I expected it,’’ Dinwiddie said of Claxton, who he called the Nets’ second-most talented player, only behind Kevin Durant, on the 2019 roster.

“I told him probably like Day 3 [of Claxton’s rookie season], I was like, ‘If you give up the rock star [stuff], you’re gonna be one of the best centers in the league, straight up,’” Dinwiddie said. “Just the way he moved, his ferocity and willingness to attack and block shots, it was too natural for him not to really put it together, if he put in the work.”

Nets center Nic Claxton shoots at training camp.Corey Sipkin for the NY POST

Dinwiddie signed with the Wizards after Claxton’s second season and returned last year in the trade that sent Kyrie Irving to Dallas.

And now he’s seeing the player he was confident Claxton could become.

“He wasn’t LeBron James, where he’s just gonna walk out of bed and get 27/7/7,” Dinwiddie said of Claxton’s potential. “It wasn’t like that. But you could just see it, being on the court enough, he had a different fluidity than Jarrett Allen. Where like [Allen] was probably a little more mature, a little more locked in already, and kind of knew what he was good at.”

Dinwiddie and Claxton worked out together in the offseason and Claxton said the strength he added both last offseason and heading into this year will pay off “everywhere.”

“Finishing around the rim, being able to guard bigger guys in the post, being able to take advantage of switches more in the post,” Claxton said of the strides he’s confident he will be able to make. “Just asserting my will and doing things that you know maybe I wanted to do in the past, but I didn’t have that strength to do. I just got to keep on building. The stronger I get, the easier the game is gonna get for me.”

Claxton, now 24, led the Nets last season with 9.2 rebounds per game, to go along with 12.6 points per game — both career highs.

His work on the boards figures to be especially important for the Nets, who were better than only the Mavericks last season when it came to rebounds (40.5 per game).

“Rebounding has definitely been paramount for us,’’ Claxton said. “We can’t be the worst team in the league in rebounding. So that’s on me. That’s on the whole team. And that’s definitely a point of emphasis for us.”

Nic Claxton slams the ball in front of Joel Embiid during the first quarter of game 3 in round 1 of the NBA Playoffs..Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

That’s good news for head coach Jacque Vaughn.

“I think he’s recognized what makes him really good, and those things that make you really good, just keep doing them,’’ Vaughn said. “You can add to your package, and you can add to your game, but I think he’s at a good base of how he can help us on both ends of the floor.”

And like Dinwiddie, Vaughn was with Claxton at the start, as Vaughn was an assistant in Brooklyn.

“To see it from the beginning, drafting him, being part of that, and to see where he is right now, definitely he gets credit for that,’’ Vaughn said. “Each year, he’s gotten better, and that speaks and means something to me for sure.”



This post first appeared on Viral News Africa | Africa Trending News, Celebs, Social Media News, please read the originial post: here

Share the post

Nets’ Nic Claxton facing high expectations entering contract year

×

Subscribe to Viral News Africa | Africa Trending News, Celebs, Social Media News

Get updates delivered right to your inbox!

Thank you for your subscription

×