There’s a sucker born every minute.
After Brooklyn Nets Media Day and one singular post-practice scrum session, I am 100% committed to the belief that Nic Claxton will be great once again during the 2025-26 season. What that looks like on a tanking team, well, I haven’t figured that part out yet.
Claxton spoke on Tuesday and Wednesday about his back, which he injured last summer. The injury required intense management throughout last season, and he even received an epidural injection in the fall, calling
it a long-term issue. While his back was little excuse to crash out — as he often did last season in the form of three ejections and four flagrant fouls — the injury visibly hampered him in 2024-25. Occasionally, he didn’t have the lift to touch the top of the square.
But at Media Day, he said the back felt great. And after Wednesday practice, when asked if his health is in a different spot than last season, he didn’t even let the New York Post’s Brian Lewis finish the question: “Absolutely. Y’all will see it.”
Clax, who has transformed from a cherubic rookie to a hardened, seven-year veteran before Brooklyn’s eyes, has been open about his struggles in year six: “Last year was frustrating for the team, frustrating for myself. I didn’t perform how I wanted to. I really just flushed that out and just focused back on the work, like I said, just consistence, being in the gym every day, being around family. It was really good. It was healing. I’m excited for this season. I’ve had a really good, really good offseason.”
Nic Claxton, who suggested he may need to speak to a therapist after getting ejected from a game last season, is not dishonest with the media. He is private, but not cagey. His “really good” offseason included the birth of his first child, a daughter, a fact only discoverable through his girlfriend’s Instagram account.
“It changes everything,” said Claxton of fatherhood. “It changes the way you look at life. It changes the way you love, the way you love people, the way you appreciate life. And it gives you even more of a purpose to go out and be the best version of yourself.”
None of these quotes sound particularly fresh or insightful. Claxton isn’t one for an ornate metaphor, but he truthfully analyzes every situation, good or bad, basketball or personal, with such calm conviction. It inspires belief, though I might feel this way solely because I have enjoyed watching him play basketball for the Nets. Still, I believe that his back feels great. That he will recapture his 2022-23 form any day now.
Head Coach Jordi Fernández believes it too: “Nic has had a great summer, and he’s in a great place. I think that it tells you, like, how much he holds himself accountable to a high standard. And it’s great to hear that he feels that way. I do believe he can be way better than than he was last year and right now, since we have this relationship, I think we can even help him more.”
For Clax to do that, he’ll have to play with the motor and physicality he did in 2023, and he’ll have to make more free-throws. But he’ll also have to excel in a pick-and-roll/dribble-handoff heavy offense, and last season it wasn’t always easier. Claxton has never been the most natural screen-setter, and his decision-making as a high-post hub hasn’t come naturally either. (Day’Ron Sharpe is much better in these areas.)
This limits his ability to pressure the rim, which Fernández called his “superpower” on Wednesday. When healthy, Clax cuts through defenses with long strides and high jumps. He can fake dribble handoffs, simply drive to the rim, or roll and dunk on somebody. It’s about setting the right screens, hitting the right cutters, and driving at the right times to maximize these opportunities.
Maybe we’re grasping at straws here, but he did have average 2.1 assists and 1.2 turnovers per game in Brooklyn’s first 41 games last season. He averaged 2.4 assists and 1.3 turnovers in the final 41, and anecdotally, made some better decisions. What does he need to hone in on to be the savvy-yet-dynamic hub that the Nets want him to be?
“I think it’s everything. It’s, like you said, it’s angles. It’s communicating with the coaches what I see, what I felt last year, maybe watching some film, but then breaking some stuff down. And then just consistency, consistently just being myself but getting outside of my comfort zone a little bit.”
Claxton should also benefit from playing more games with Cam Thomas, whose hamstring limited him to 25 appearances last season. No matter where you fall on the CT continuum, he is Brooklyn’s most dynamic scorer, and has showed great progress in pick-and-roll passing…
“People say a lot. You can say empty calories, whatever. He made the game a lot easier for myself,” said Claxton of Thomas on Wednesday.
“The thing about CT, like, he’s one of the best scorers that I’ve ever played with, and I’ve played with some of the best scorers. Just his ability to put the ball in the basket — and he has to grow, obviously, as a player. He’s still super, super young, and I think this year, he’s gonna continue to show it, continue to get better, continue to get everybody else better.”
With Thomas improving and the Nets drafting a stable of ball-handlers, Claxton should have plenty of opportunity to eat this season. Jordi Fernández thinks so too: “I’m pretty sure Nic will have a career year.”
Ohhh man, don’t tell me that.
Objectively, Nic Claxton does not make a ton of sense on this Brooklyn Nets team. They will not win many games, and the seven-year veteran is playing in front of Day’Ron Sharpe, who returned to Brooklyn in free agency after the best year of his career. Clax, making $75 million over the next three years, is likely still a Net because his play declined as he starting making real money, deterring contenders from exchanging draft picks for him. These inconvenient truths look like broken railroad tracks from my perch atop the 2025-26 Clax hype train.
I get it, he is not the player many Brooklyn Nets fans want to hear about to start training camp. There are rookies, there’s CT and his qualifying offer, there’s new arrival Michael Porter Jr., there’s Noah Clowney and Dariq Whitehead facing a pivotal year.
And yet, Nic Claxton is still here. He might as well make the most of it.
