Brooklyn Nets Film Room: How Nic Claxton Had One of His Best Games of the Season

Brooklyn Nets big Nic Claxton finished with 18 points on 9-for-10 shooting to go with six rebounds and five assists in his team’s last game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

It was one of the best performances of Claxton’s up-and-down season. He scored efficiently, made very few mistakes and embodied what head coach Jordi Fernández wants from his bigs in terms of getting touches at the elbows and free throw line, being a willing (dribble) handoff distributor and putting the ball on the floor for short spurts.

Claxton’s optionality to play out of handoffs is apparent in this first clip. He receives the ball around the left high elbow and segues right into a fun two-man game with Trendon Watford. Watford could go outside of his man to get the handoff, but he cuts instead. That draws the attention of Rudy Gobert, Claxton’s defender, which enables Watford to throw the lob up for the Nets’ center to finish.

In this possession, Claxton could again go for the easy or more straightforward dish-off to Tyrese Martin. He instead keeps and shows off his touch off the shimmy fade. It’s not a recourse Claxton turns to often, but he has a soft shot.

It’s a similar idea in the first clip above, but Claxton goes right into the eurostep to score on Gobert and he also gets a screen from a smaller player to create a further advantage or misdirection. The Nets gave Claxton touches around the elbows or above the break, and he used them functionally.

At different times, the Nets had Dariq Whitehead, D'Angelo Russell or Keon Johnson setting brush screens for Claxton to then get downhill. It would be interesting to see whether Claxton, who has solid positional ballhandling and was used much more on-ball when he was in college at Georgia, could ever run more of an extended inverted pick-and-roll. That would be intriguing, but it maybe doesn’t really line up with the Nets’ developmental timeline.

The 25-year-old’s five assists against the Timberwolves also displayed some interesting passing. For the most part, Claxton’s role in this department should be limited to acting as a handoff hub, but he was pushing the ball in transition and setting up his teammates with solid looks.

The Nets are back in action on Sunday afternoon against the Toronto Raptors at Barclays Center, although Claxton is listed as being out due to rest. Brooklyn will be without Noah Clowney (right ankle sprain), Cam Johnson (lower back contusion), De’Anthony Melton (left knee ACL tear), Day’Ron Sharpe (right knee sprain), Cam Thomas (left hamstring strain) and Russell (right ankle soreness) for this game. Both teams are also “competing” for the best lottery odds.