Claxton’s Performance Heading Into Contract Summer Could Give Nets Pause
Nic Claxton is hardly putting together a contract run for the ages. The Nets center, who is in the final year of the 2-year, $17.3 million deal he signed in the summer of 2022, has at best plateaued from the leap he took last season.
He’s playing nearly the same minutes (29.6 this season versus 29.9 in 2022-23) and averaging 0.5 points less and 0.5 rebounds more per game. Other than his free throw percentage, he’s been less effective in nearly every other area, particularly on the defensive end.
While still among the NBA’s best when it comes to defensive versatility among men his size (6-foot 11, 215 pounds), Claxton is not having the same impact both out on the perimeter and in the paint. Per NBA.com, he ranks 17th among league centers (minimum 50 games played and 10 field goal attempts defended per game) in the difference between the field goal percentage he allowed as the nearest defender versus the shooters’ average conversion rate from those spots. He ranked fifth in the category in 2022-23. When looking at NBA.com’s computation of qualifying centers’ defensive win shares, he has fallen from 11th to 21st this season.
With Brooklyn reverting back to a switch-everything defensive foundation in midseason, it has been incumbent upon their bigs to get out to contest shooters. Claxton has been a bit lax in that area as well, ranking in the middle of the pack in defensive impact on shots from over 15 feet away from the basket since the All-Star break whereas he excelled at that last season. Too many times this season he has been caught with his hand down when facing shooters, negating the advantage his length provides.
Some of the numbers dropoff can be attributed to his surroundings. Claxton played 28 games last season with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and another 19 with either one of them. Those superstars’ extraordinary talents cover up warts. Stuck on a team that has gone 13-35 since December 13, Claxton was never supposed to singlehandedly lift his lesser mates to wins this season, nor is he a Nikola Jokic type who initiates offense. He needs help.
The New York Post’s Brian Lewis had an interesting column on how the Nets need to get Claxton the ball more often to unlock more diversity in his game, but the fact is that such game is still limited. I noted before the season that of the league’s top nine highest paid centers per Spotrac.com, all but Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert can space the floor at least out to the top of the key. Claxton has taken 17 such shots all season, making six (35.3%), including just 1-of-5 three-pointers. When it comes to the ability to feed cutters or drive to the basket, it makes a big difference if your defender can slough off you and protect the paint because he has no fear that you’ll make him pay with a jump shot.
As such, Claxton’s true value probably shouldn’t be north of the neighborhood of the Clint Capella/Jarrett Allen levels, around $20 million per year for traditional lobs-and-blocks guys. But in a free agent market, all it takes is one bidder to set a fair price, which could have nothing to do with true value.
And then there’s the unknown of how Claxton, who turns 25 next month, feels about his place of employment. It might not mean anything, but these trying times have unleashed some fits of immaturity. He’s gotten several technical fouls for taunting after dunks, the most unnecessary variety of such penalties.
Some have suggested I made too much of it, but I was disturbed at Claxton’s behavior at the end of the first half of Brooklyn’s 105-93 loss at the Knicks on Saturday afternoon. Nets guard Cam Thomas tied the game with 8.5 seconds remaining, but New York’s Donte DiVincenzo then took off with the ball and basically drove straight to the rim for a layup. There was still 2.3 seconds left, but a seemingly frustrated Claxton started walking off the court. That Mikal Bridges hit a 62-footer off Thomas’ inbound pass to beat the buzzer is irrelevant. Imagine if that pass had slipped off Bridges’ hands and it was the Knicks who got the last shot—how would that have looked with Claxton standing next to the bench?
An unbiased account of the day should have noted that Claxton was outplayed by Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein, himself a pending unrestricted free agent who has been earning his way towards a massive pay raise after the season. Hartenstein converted 8 of his 10 field goal attempts, many of them over Claxton, for 17 points. Claxton was just 2-for-5 with 5 points on Saturday. Yet Hartenstein, who is one year older than Claxton, is not projected to secure as big of a haul by most NBA analysts.
The Nets (26-45) have 11 games remaining to evaluate where their initial offer to Claxton should land. The organization’s history, at least since Sean Marks took over as General Manager, suggests that they will pay the fare. For better or worse, Marks re-signed Joe Harris, Cam Johnson, and Claxton, when he was restricted, early in their free agency periods. He tends to trade those whom he doesn’t foresee extending, with Spencer Dinwiddie being the most notable defection—and that summer Marks got back draft pick compensation plus a trade exception in the sign-and-trade with Washington.
One reason why Marks felt fine with including Allen in the 2021 James Harden blockbuster was because he had Claxton in reserve. Maybe he held onto Claxton at last month’s deadline because he didn’t feel so secure with Day’Ron Sharpe and 19-year old Noah Clowney as the sole backups going into a crucial offseason where they will have to be fishing for upgrades, if not outright stars. Even though the Nets went 5-4 when Claxton was out with an ankle injury earlier in the season, I don’t believe that calculation will change in three-plus months.
Though the difference will be a lot closer than I thought it would be when I mused about it last summer.