The Brooklyn Nets understood the assignment when they drafted Noah Clowney with the 21st pick  of the 2023 NBA Draft.

At 18 years old, the 6-foot-1o Alabama big man is among the youngest selections in franchise history, and that inexperienced showed Friday during his Summer League debut. Clowney had just four points on 1-of-9 shooting from the field and 1-of-7 from three in a 101-97 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The speed of the NBA game, even at Summer League, was a stark contrast to his college days.

“It’s quicker,” Clowney said postgame. “You gotta get a good shot up within 24 seconds. And nobody wants to play the whole 24 seconds. Most teams try to get it up first, if you can get it up in the first six to eight, you wanna get a good shot up then. But we wanna get a good shot as quick as we can.”

The same goes for the shot-making, which will increase tenfold during the real NBA season.

“People make more shots. It’s not like shots that we’ll live with or you could live with in college. You can’t live with them out here,” Clowney said. “So better scoring, better talent.”

Clowney's smooth shooting stroke attracted the Nets, who have been vocal about their desire to rank towards the top of the league in three-point rate. While he shot 28.3 percent from deep as a freshman, he displayed sound mechanics and was not lacking confidence, attempting 3.3 triples per game. That confidence isn't wavering after a rough shooting performance in his first pro action.

“From three I think I was like 1-of-6. At least two or three went in and out. They felt good,” Clowney said. “Left my hand and I would shoot all those shots again. I felt good with every shot I shot from three.

“I work too hard [not to be confident],” he continued. “I’m in the gym every day, twice a day. I work too hard not to be confident in the game.”

That confidence was clear on Clowney's lone bucket of the night, a pull-up transition three from over three feet behind the line.

His willingness to shoot through struggles was a telling sign for Nets general manager Sean Marks during the draft process.

“Noah doesn’t shy away from shooting it. That’s what we want,” Marks said following the draft. “Confidence is something that some people are born with, some people it grows, and you hope a guy like Noah, his confidence just continues to grow and grow and grow. He comes in with some confidence, which is great.”

While Clowney is confident by nature, that doesn't mean he won't need encouragement from Brooklyn's coaching staff, who took every chance they could to tell him to let it fly Friday.

“They’re gonna tell me that, too,” Clowney said postgame. “There’s been times where I’ve dropped my head after missing a lot of shots, maybe airballing one here or there, but (tonight) every shot I shot felt good. The one I lost the ball in the corner, air-balled it. Every other shot felt good.

Brooklyn erased an 18-point deficit during the loss, briefly regaining the lead in the fourth quarter before falling behind again. Second-round pick Jalen Wilson led all Nets scorers with 17 points on 6-of-14 shooting. Former Houston Rockets shooting guard Armoni Brooks tied him on 5-of-9 shooting from three. Former Memphis Grizzlies point guard Kennedy Chandler added 16 points on 7-of-16 shooting.

The Nets will be back in action Sunday against the New York Knicks.