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The 2024-25 season figures to bring a year of development for a Brooklyn Nets team that, all things considered, may be the worst in the entire association. The Nets front office knew that running it back would be pointless, so they decided to trade Mikal Bridges away for a haul of draft picks. Doing so, however, means that the Nets will be destined straight for the bottom of the NBA standings.
The harsh reality of contending windows in the NBA is that they can slam shut, and slam shut indeed it did for the Nets after they traded Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving away. But now that the Nets have embraced the youth movement, they can now give much-needed developmental minutes to their most promising players — with Cam Thomas looking primed for another huge scoring leap following his impressive 2023-24 campaign.
Thomas, however, is an obvious breakout candidate. The Nets don't have too many players on the roster who can manufacture scoring for themselves, so all the makings are there for Thomas to have as many shot attempts as his heart desires.
In this exercise, we will be looking at a potential breakout player for the Nets who is flying under the radar. (And no, Ben Simmons doesn't count.) During the 2023-24 silly season, Noah Clowney flashed his potential as a long-term keeper for the Nets in the frontcourt, and he could be someone who shocks the world by emerging as a nightly contributor for a Brooklyn team destined for the top of the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.
Noah Clowney is the Nets' surprise breakout candidate
At the moment, the Nets' frontcourt picture is very crowded, which makes a potential breakout for Noah Clowney a bit unlikely to materialize from the get-go. Ben Simmons is still around, and it's looking like he'll be starting the season as the team's nominal power forward. If not, the Nets can always call upon the likes of Cameron Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith to start, pushing Clowney down the totem pole.
It will be difficult for Clowney to earn 20+ plus minutes off the jump. The Nets will want Johnson and Finney-Smith to get minutes, if only to showcase themselves as trade assets. Even Trendon Watford, someone who played 63 games last season for Brooklyn, is still around to make the team's frontcourt picture that much murkier.
But even then, those players mentioned above don't exactly have the long-term future Clowney has with the Nets. Clowney is only 20 years old, and the Nets have high hopes for him after drafting him with the 21st overall selection of the 2023 NBA Draft. It's the do-it-all nature of Clowney's game at his impressive size (6'10”) that makes him such an interesting prospect for a Nets team that's in need of an infusion of some high-end young talent.
Clowney shot the ball confidently from beyond the arc to end last season; he ended his rookie season having shot 36.4 percent from beyond the arc on 1.4 attempts per night — a good enough output from a 20-year-old that's still learning the ropes of the NBA.
His defensive potential is even more massive; he is very mobile for how tall he is, keeping up with opposing ballhandlers while showcasing some very smooth footwork that allows him to change directions in a hurry.
The Nets have nothing to play for this year anyway, so fans better expect Clowney to become a rotation fixture sooner than later — with room for him to become a nightly double-double threat once Brooklyn trades away the veteran players standing in Clowney's pathway to a larger role.
