The Curious Case Of Claxton
Of all the ignominious defensive stats the Nets have registered to start this season, this one stood out to me: Brooklyn (0-4) has blocked three shots in four games after putting up a big “0” in that column in their lackluster 137-109 defeat in Monday night’s back-to-back at Houston.
Small sample size disclaimer aside, that’s pretty pathetic. Going back to the turn of the century, no team has averaged fewer than 2.5 blocks per game, with the league-worst team typically swatting a little over 3 per game.
Starting center Nic Claxton has gone all four games without a block, his longest such stretch since the 2021-22 season when he was averaging about 10 fewer minutes per game. The following season, if you recall, he finished second in the NBA in that category to Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. with 2.5 blocks per game.
In the immortal words of Slim Pickens’ Taggart character in the classic comedy film “Blazing Saddles”, “What in the wide, wide world of sports is-a going on here?”
Far be it for me to assess Claxton’s effort level, but it sure seemed like he wouldn’t have minded if he fouled out of Monday’s debacle. After picking up No. 5 early in the fourth quarter, Claxton appeared to shove a Houston player as a ball went out of bounds, only the refs awarded possession to Brooklyn. No matter, Claxton would soon exit a couple of minutes later with the Nets down by 29 points.
It was quite a contrast from Claxton’s performance the prior night in San Antonio, when I had a gut feeling he would get up for the matchup with the rapidly ascending Spurs star Victor Wembanyama. Though Wemby certainly got his (31 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, and 6 blocks), I felt that Claxton made life somewhat difficult for him, with NBA.com’s tracking showing he held Wembanyama to 5-of-13 shooting as the nearest defender. Claxton’s fouls were more of the touch variety, raising Fernandez’s ire, rather than in the act of shooting.
As the Nets’ second-highest paid (and longest-tenured at seven years) player with an approximately $25.3 million salary cap hit for this season, Claxton should be expected to be a bit more consistent. He’s the defensive anchor, for goodness sakes. The back issues from last season were said to be behind him and he doesn’t appear to be physically impaired in any way. Except he hasn’t been fulfilling his primary job, as if he’s just a guy out there on the court getting some run.
It would be one thing if Claxton was being coached to avoid hunting blocks so he can hang in the paint for rebounds, but he’s averaging a mere 2.3 defensive boards per game and the Nets as a team are securing less than two-thirds of the available defensive rebounds when he’s been on the court, per NBA.com.
Look, Claxton’s impact, or lack thereof, is far from the only problem with Brooklyn’s defense, as I delineated in my last post (It’s On Fernandez To Fix Nets’ Indefensible D). But having someone who is considered an elite rim protector is supposed to compensate for a host of perimeter defenders’ sins; in fact, those defenders are often encouraged to play more aggressively because of a player like Claxton’s presence behind them.
Well, Nets Head Coach Jordi Fernandez seems to be imploring that whoever is guarding the ball must get into their men…and the results have been dunkathons. Literally. In the early going, no team has been dunked on more than Brooklyn, according to basketball-reference.com. Yes, Nets rookies Ben Saraf and Nolan Traore were exposed in Houston, with the vastly more athletic Rockets going around or right through them en route to the hoop. But where was the weak-side help?
On the other side of the floor, Claxton’s offensive bag has only marginally improved over the years. He’s a little better at handling the ball and driving to the basket, but his shooting percentage has steadily declined over the last four seasons and he never developed the value-added three-point shot.
That last flaw, along with his contract that runs through the 2027-28 season (though at declining salaries to about $20.5 million in his final year), probably makes him less attractive in the trade market. Contending teams in the modern era look for floor spacing bigs first, and those that can’t had better be elite defenders and rebounders. I could see the Nets receiving more inquiries on their cheaper backup center Day’Ron Sharpe than Claxton through the NBA Trade Deadline.
As a 2019 second-round pick (No. 31 overall), Claxton easily exceeded the expectations for his slot by Years 3 and 4. His progress has since stalled, and the start of this season has strangely seen him go off the proverbial rails.