As one of the youngest players in the NBA — and also in Nets history — Noah Clowney has to grow in terms of both experience and frame. Brooklyn is counting on it.
And through training camp and the first preseason games of his career, Clowney is already starting to show signs of that growth, pains and all.
After looking overmatched at points during Las Vegas Summer League in July, the teenager was already much-improved when he returned to the same city just three months later.
He stood out in Monday’s preseason opener against the Lakers in Las Vegas, and was active in Thursday’s win over Israeli club Maccabi Ra’anana.
“The big thing is to see progress and my own development, where I was at [in] Summer League versus where I am now,” Clowney told The Post. “The goal is just to keep getting better. I’ve got a lot of tools that I can polish up and I can really utilize. That’s been the offseason and training camp [mission], and we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to play as a team, just trying to put it all together.”
That basically sums up the task for any rookie, even more so with the 19-year-old Clowney being one of the five youngest players in the NBA this season.
In June, for about 10 minutes, he was briefly the youngest player ever drafted by the Nets, until Dariq Whitehead got picked one spot after him at No. 22 overall.
Though Clowney’s inexperience could relegate him to significant development time in the G League, he’s showing there is something there to develop. His growth since Summer League is apparent.
“Just being comfortable on everything, talking, really just I felt like I was overall a lot better,” Clowney said of his experience in training camp.
“Obviously, I’ve got to get better in one-on-one defense with bigger guys. I never really had to go at that in college playing the four a lot. … I need to be able to hold my own. So that’s something I’m working on. It’s been a lot of improvement.”
Mastering the learning curve
The improvement has been apparent, not just in his physicality, but also his comfort on the court. At just 18 years old when Summer League began, the progress has been predictable.
Clowney had struggled in Las Vegas, averaging 4.8 points and 5.4 rebounds while shooting just 22.6 percent and regularly getting in foul trouble. But he’s hit 6 of 7 field-goal attempts through his first two preseason tilts and looked confident.
In a solid debut, Clowney had five points and eight boards in 16:22 against the Lakers, including four on the offensive glass — both rebounding figures game-highs. He made both of his shots — including a 3-pointer — and his plus-6 was the second-best on the team.
In Thursday’s 15:22 encore, Clowney added 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting, including six in the first quarter on a couple of dunks and an alley-oop.
Clowney has drawn comparisons to Nic Claxton, and Brooklyn’s current starting center sees the similarity in their games.
“He looked good. Of course, he had some possessions where he left his feet, he fouled. He obviously has a long way to go, [but] I see a lot of similarities,” Claxton said. “I’m helping him out any way that I can. The future is bright for him.”
Clowney grew up a half-hour away from Claxton in Spartanburg, S.C. His wiry frame, rim protection potential and switchability on defense could make him a viable backup for Claxton, or worst case — if the 24-year-old starter leaves in free agency — a possible successor.
Considering his tender age, Clowney could well spend a considerable amount of time in Long Island this season. But his first action was auspicious.
“I was impressed by his ability to find the basketball, his ability to take contact and play through it,” said Jacque Vaughn. “Even the screen he set in transition, that was not a good [foul] call as I rewatched the tape. But overall, he played with some physicality.
“And he was very communicative out there on the floor. That piece of it surprised me a little bit … asking questions at the end of the third quarter to me about the play. But across the board, really good job by him.”
It’s a given that the wiry Clowney is going to struggle at times against older, bigger veterans, especially while transitioning from a spindly college power forward at Alabama to playing center in the NBA.
“But even at this level, I think I can cause a matchup problem at the five if I get to the point where I can defend consistently against bigger guys,” Clowney said. “Then they can’t just sit in the lane and protect the rim. I think I can make an impact that way as well.”
That work has already started. Clowney played at between 210 and 215 pounds in college, but has already added 10 pounds of muscle. He’s even been meeting with Nets executive chef Marlon Facey, getting tips on what to cook to hone his body, something he admits he’ll need to defend the post.
“That’s something I’d say I work on a lot because people see I’m skinny and they’re going to try and just go at me,” Clowney said.
Still, bulking up will be a process, as will every other facet of his NBA maturation.
“Yeah, with the gaining weight part, I’m not [going] to rush it, but I’m learning patience at this level,” Clowney said. “That’s one of the big things, being patient.
“People I’m banging against [have] got seven, eight, nine, 10 years on me. They’ve been lifting a whole lot longer. My body is not going to change overnight, so I’m trying to learn how to use what I’ve got for the time being until I can gain enough weight to really push back, get stronger.”
It’s the same process Claxton, and every young big, has to go through.
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It takes a village
“He’s a rookie. He’s got to take what’s going to come,” said new addition Harry Giles. “This is supposed to be the year you get beat up on, but you’re supposed to just take everything that can come with it, with structure, with playing against stronger guys, playing against bigger guys. He’s 19, so he has nothing to go but up from here. He’s been adjusting. He’s getting better.
“He’s already a good player. He’s just got to adjust to certain styles, certain talk, just getting confident and getting comfortable out there as well. … Really, each game, he’ll keep getting better.”
After Thursday’s victory, Vaughn praised Clowney’s ability to understand concepts and put those principles into practice over and over again.
“That’s the point I lean on, is the mental piece of it,” Vaughn said. “So mentally being able to take a hit and respond, and get back up and try to do it again over and over again. To be able to be put in positions that he hadn’t been in before and be able to respond to it on a daily basis.
“Our vets have really taken him under their wing and being able to talk to him. He’s just been really good as far as taking in knowledge and applying it immediately.”
Dorian Finney-Smith has talked to Clowney about defense, Royce O’Neale helped him when he was getting frustrated during the early days of training camp and Claxton has provided tips about guarding the post.
But perhaps most encouraging is the way Clowney quizzes Vaughn and the staff. The pair sat after practice recently having a long conversation, the rookie picking Vaughn’s brain.
Still, for the time being his learning curve may be even steeper off the court than on. He’s a 19-year-old figuring out how to live on his own in a big city — doing laundry and food shopping, learning how to cook something more complex than boiling hot dogs. Comparatively, deciphering defensive schemes is the easy part.
“On court, it’s principles,” Clowney said. “I talk to my coaches quite often if I don’t understand something, I’m going to talk to them until I understand it. It’s hard for a coach to tell me to go do something and I don’t know why I’m doing what I’m doing. If I get the logic behind it, now I can play it exactly how you want me to play it, defensively and offensively.
“On court, it’s a lot easier for me to learn versus off the court. I’m in a big ol’ city I ain’t never seen nothing like before. Now I live here. So I’m getting used to that still.”
Brooklyn is patiently counting on it.
