Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
Look at the Nets roster and it\u2019s tough to know who will even be in Brooklyn a year from now, how many of today\u2019s players will be a part of tomorrow\u2019s rebuild.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Noah Clowney is expected to be one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The young big man \u2014 under contract for $3.4 million next season and $5.4 million in 2026-27 \u2014 is one of the few pieces who should serve as the foundation for this team after this yearlong makeover. <\/p>\n
So his progress holds extra importance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And though the youth in Brooklyn\u2019s youth movement are gaining valuable experience this season, Clowney\u2019s lessons lately have been hard-earned ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a hot shooting stretch \u2014 essentially proof of concept that he\u2019s capable of being a stretch-four befitting the modern NBA game \u2014 Clowney has hit a cold spell.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe shots I was getting [lately] were not as easy as I had been getting. The shots I was getting before were a lot easier,\u201d Clowney, still just 20, told The Post. \u201cThe shots I\u2019m getting now are still easy, though. I\u2019ve got to go out and make some of them. It ain\u2019t much to it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clowney is coming off a seven-point, 2-for-10 shooting performance Wednesday night against visiting Phoenix and Kevin Durant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coincidentally, Clowney is the first draft pick of the cache that Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks extracted from the Suns, taken 21st overall in 2023. <\/p>\n
After a rookie campaign spent largely going back and forth to G League Long Island, a promising stretch at the end of the season piqued hopes that he could challenge for the starting power forward spot out of training camp this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That didn\u2019t happen, with veteran Dorian Finney-Smith outright earning the job (no, he wasn\u2019t just being put in the shop window to trade). <\/p>\n
But the eventual trade of Finney-Smith to the Lakers just before New Year\u2019s flung the door open for Clowney to seize the job, and he has.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It bears watching now how he handles it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clowney will enter Saturday\u2019s game in a funk \u2014 averaging just 8.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 0.6 steals over his past five tilts, shooting just 28.6 percent from the floor and 80 percent from the free-throw line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a far cry from the hot streak he\u2019d enjoyed over the prior month. And it\u2019s because, with this threadbare roster, foes are actually keying on Clowney.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTeams don\u2019t leave me open like they did before,\u201d Clowney told The Post. \u201cThey\u2019re not necessarily running me off the line, but [they\u2019re making it] more difficult.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clowney is too diplomatic to point out the Nets\u2019 lacking point guard play, with Ben Simmons and D\u2019Angelo Russell both missing time of late. <\/p>\n
Keon Johnson and Tyrese Martin struggle to facilitate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Clowney has hit a cold spell since last Wednesday against the Clippers \u2014 when, to be fair, the Nets lost by a staggering 59 points and nobody covered themselves in glory. <\/p>\n
But in the prior five games, he\u2019d averaged 15.4 points, five boards and a steal, looking the part of a solid piece going forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And in the 11 games before that complete team collapse in Los Angeles, Clowney had averaged 12.9 points and 4.5 rebounds. His shooting splits were a solid 41.7\/38.7\/95.8, successfully spacing the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The past five have told a different story. But coach Jordi Fernandez insists it\u2019s more like a tiny chapter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll give you the answer that my analytics team gives me: Shooting, you don\u2019t take short sample sizes. He\u2019s a good shooter and he\u2019ll be a good shooter,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cIf you miss some shots in five games, guess what? The next five are going in. That\u2019s how he believes, that\u2019s how he works, and that\u2019s how good he is and how good his shot is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, in whatever many reps \u2014 hundreds, or what the case may be \u2014 if the shot doesn\u2019t go in above 34, 35 percent, then you have a different problem. But he\u2019s a good shooter. He\u2019s done a great job and a five-game stretch for us means nothing. It\u2019s actually more encouraging because if he\u2019s missed this or he\u2019s not got great percentages in the last five games, that means that you know it\u2019s coming soon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Look at the Nets roster and it\u2019s tough to know who will even be in Brooklyn a year from now, how many of today\u2019s players will be a part of tomorrow\u2019s rebuild.\u00a0 But Noah Clowney is expected to be one.\u00a0 The young big man<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":178081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-178080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178082,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178080\/revisions\/178082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}