A humbled Nic Claxton spoke before the media at April's exit interviews following the Brooklyn Nets' 2024-25 campaign. The 26-year-old was coming off his worst season in years, during which he battled a debilitating back injury. Claxton took responsibility for his subpar play and said he was looking forward to using the offseason to get healthy.

Six months later, the veteran center is playing some of the best basketball of his career.

Claxton has been a bright spot during the tanking Nets' apathetic 2-11 start. The big man looks rejuvenated, emerging as one of the NBA's most efficient offensive centers while shouldering a heavy burden in Jordi Fernandez's offense. He's averaging 15.2 points and 3.9 assists per game, both career-highs, while posting a 64.8 true shooting percentage, his highest since his breakout 2022-23 campaign.

“We’ve all seen how he’s worked all summer… He’s gotta sustain it for 82 [games], but all his work is paying off,” Fernandez said of Claxton's dramatic improvement. “Right now, he’s doing a good job driving to the rim and being aggressive. He's also finding his teammates. The challenge is whether he can reach four-plus assists per game. Those steps are important. And then from there, we want high-level defense. So that’s the biggest challenge right now for him. But overall, I’m very happy with his performance… When he plays with energy, he affects everybody else, all his teammates.”

With the Nets lacking a high-level on-ball creator, Claxton has taken on a more prominent offensive role.

Is Nic Claxton part of Nets' future plans amid career-best start?

Article Continues Below
Brooklyn Nets center Nic Claxton (33) drives to the basket around Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. (34) during the first quarter at Kia Center.
Mike Watters-Imagn Images

The seven-year veteran has excelled amid his career-high workload, showing significant improvement as a driver. He's flashed an array of crafty moves — ghosting dribble handoffs, crossing over slower centers, and decelerating at the rim to create separation.

Claxton is averaging 5.8 drives per 36 minutes, over two more than any other season in his career. He's shooting a career-high 58.1 percent on those plays.

“It was a focus this summer, for sure. I needed to add more stuff to my bag,” he said. “The prior summer, I didn't really get to work on it [because of my back injury]. So this summer, I just wanted to add some tools to my bag. That [decel] move is what I really focused on. So I'm just being assertive, knowing how teams are gonna guard me. Teams have been really aggressive, so I've been able to get by my defender and finish, create a little bit. So it's just a lot of reps over the summer, and just my IQ kicking in.”

In addition to his improved driving ability, Claxton has regained his touch on putbacks, lobs and post-ups. The Georgia product is converting 72 percent of his shots at the rim and 49 percent of his shots from 4-14 feet, tied for his career-high since becoming a full-time rotation member. He's also shooting a career-high 71.2 percent on free throws.

Arguably, the most impressive aspect of Claxton's offensive resurgence has been his playmaking efficiency. Brooklyn's starting center is averaging a career-high 3.9 assists per game. He's assisting on 20.9 percent of his teammates' made shots during his minutes, the third-highest mark among 28 centers playing over 25 minutes per game, behind only Nikola Jokic (49.1) and Alperen Sengun (28.1).

Those impressive numbers have come along with a career-low 9.9 turnover percentage. Claxton's 3.00 assist/turnover ratio ranks third among all centers (minimum 10 minutes per game), trailing only Jokic (3.51) and Kristaps Porzingis (3.30).

But while Claxton was posting career-best offensive numbers to start the season, his defensive impact was nonexistent compared to usual standards. He failed to block a shot during his first four games. Brooklyn allowed 522 points during that span, the most in franchise history.

The Nets are attempting to implement one of the NBA's most aggressive defensive schemes. Brooklyn's centers have posted one of the league's highest pick-up points when defending ball screens this season. The coverage has pulled Claxton away from the rim, forcing the team to rely on low-man rotations to protect the paint, to no avail.

Claxton emerged as one of the NBA's top defenders in 2022-23 while playing a switch-heavy scheme, one he admittedly prefers.

“I'm dialed in to any scheme. But I love guarding one through five. That's probably the reason why I got paid. That's probably the reason why I'm still here,” he said after an Oct. 29 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. “So that's just my most natural thing that I love to do on the basketball court, guarding multiple positions. But I want to be able to dominate any scheme that my coaches want me to do. So that's what I'm working towards.”

Claxton's defensive rebounding has also left much to be desired. He's averaging just 4.5 defensive boards per 36 minutes, the second-fewest among 31 centers to play over 250 minutes this season. The Nets rank dead last in defensive rebounding percentage by a large margin.

However, Claxton has shown improvement as a rim protector and rebounder of late. He's averaged 2.1 blocks over his last seven appearances, the sixth-most in the NBA during that span. The former second-round pick rejected a season-high four shots while holding Alex Sarr to one offensive rebound during Sunday's 129-106 win over the Washington Wizards.

Claxton had a pregame meeting with Nets assistant Steve Hetzel, who challenged him to be better.

“Just getting back to myself,” Claxton said after the win. “I started the season off [and] I wasn’t getting many blocks. But the timing is slowly coming back, so I’ve been feeling good on the defensive side of the ball with where they want me. Coach Steve challenged me before the game [and] showed me some clips. I know the level I can defend at every night, so I’ve got to go do it.”

Claxton's career-best start will fuel trade speculation approaching the Feb. 5 deadline. While the 26-year-old is young enough to be a part of Brooklyn's next iteration, he'll have the most trade value of the team's veterans. He's on a descending contract that will play him under 14 percent of the salary cap in 2026-27 and 2027-28.

Brooklyn has a competent backup center in Day'Ron Sharpe and selected Danny Wolf in the first round of June's draft. Should Claxton continue his high-level play, this year's deadline could offer the tanking squad a chance to sell high.

Whether the Nets shop their longest-tenured player or retain him as a core piece to the rebuild will be among their season's top storylines.