Nets' Nic Claxton Admits Lineup Changes Have Been Tough to Deal With

There have been a considerable number of players logging meaningful minutes for the Brooklyn Nets this season.

The Nets have dealt with key injuries to guys like Michael Porter Jr., Egor Dëmin, and Day'Ron Sharpe, making them dig deeper into their rotation while clearing way for young players on two-way and short term deals.

Though at full strength Brooklyn proved it can potentially compete for a play-in spot and win games against some of the best teams in the league, a clean bill of health wasn't a luxury always afforded to by the Nets.

“It wasn’t always easy, honestly, with the lineup changes, with playing with a lot of younger guys at this stage of my career,” Nic Claxton said. “This year was rough, obviously. So we’ve got a few more games this year, we flush that out, we get back to the drawing board this summer and we go from there.

“You can’t let it affect your preparation and your mindset. Even this year I struggled with that some. Going into games you have to go in with the mindset, ‘OK, we’re going to win this game.’ But as far as wins and losses, I get what [coach] Jordi [Fernández] is saying. It doesn’t always come with the scoreboard. It can be seeing our rookies go out and spread their wings and gain confidence. It can be me maturing and finding that peace within myself no matter what’s going on out there on the court. Then next year hopefully we get some more actual wins.”

The rebounding numbers also haven't always looked good in Brooklyn, as the Nets' bigs are sometimes stationed at the level in Fernández's switch heavy defensive schemes.

“Sometimes you’ve got some rebound-hungry dudes on the team that can make your numbers dip because when I average more rebounds, my teammates would pretty much let me get the rebounds," Claxton said.

"It is just a mentality thing of going after all of the rebounds. Sometimes the rebound numbers can be skewed because my teammate can be right there to get the rebound and we secure the rebound, but if I don’t go after it, I finish the game with a lower number of rebounds, but my teammate grabbed the board. But it is a numbers game at the end of the day with the NBA, so it’s something you always want to just put some focus and energy towards.”