At the crux of the Nets’ current tear — this 6-1 stretch entering the All-Star break and the “we don’t care” anti-tanking tirade from Cam Johnson and the standings picture illustrating that the Nets are closer to the play-in tournament than the No. 1 overall pick — sits sequences like the one Nic Claxton delivered Wednesday, with just over four minutes remaining in the third quarter and the 76ers’ Justin Edwards veering toward the basket after an outlet pass.
Claxton was the lone man standing between Edwards and a layup that would cut Brooklyn’s lead to three.
But Claxton swatted the initial shot.
Edwards collected the ball, and Claxton swatted his second attempt, too.
Moments later, down at the other end of the court, Trendon Watford converted a basket to cap the four-point swing in Brooklyn’s eventual win.
Two blocks can’t spark a potentially season-saving, tank-ruining run alone, but if there’s a reason the Nets can channel a run into something more, their defense, which has produced the NBA’s best defensive rating since Jan. 29, serves as Exhibit A.
And Claxton’s emergence since returning from a lower back strain in November, accelerated across the past seven games, has become its most critical individual layer.
After averaging 1.1 blocks per game in his first 40 appearances of the season, Claxton has watched that number balloon to 3.1 across his past seven, following his five-block night against Philadelphia, and quickly reestablished himself as the Nets’ defensive anchor.
It took time. There were inevitable growing pains when Jordi Fernandez took over as head coach.
But with 28 games remaining and the Nets, somehow, entrenched in the chase for the final play-in spot, Claxton has finally gotten “used to the defense” and settled into a rhythm.
“It was rough,” Claxton said Wednesday of his adjustment to defensive changes. “It’s been different because I never did it at all. We never really trapped. We always just guarded one-on-one. So it’s been different, but I can be really good at it because I can kind of do both a little bit. So I’ve just embraced it. I’ve been doing better.”
From his first press conference with the Nets, Fernandez didn’t hide his vision for what Claxton could become.
Claxton wasn’t even under contract at that point, either.
He’d just finished his fifth season with the franchise, which made him a first-round pick back in 2019, and Claxton — who’d eventually return on a four-year, $97 million deal — was set to become an unrestricted free agent.
Still, Fernandez labeled Claxton as someone who’d win Defensive Player of the Year and be a priority for the Nets to retain.
Asked to double-down on that prediction last Friday, Fernandez again answered without hesitation.
Claxton had just swatted six shots — a season high — in a victory over the Heat in which the Nets allowed just nine points in the fourth quarter and 86 for the game.
“My challenge is [to] do it consistently throughout four quarters because we need him,” Fernandez said of Claxton on Feb. 7. “And I’m very happy with the steps, the positive steps he’s taking, and like I said, he has been anchoring our defense.”
At points this year, though, Claxton’s name still swirled in trade rumors.
That’s life on a team with a rebuilding label as the deadline nears.
But Claxton, who said navigating the rumors was “not easy,” remained in Brooklyn by the time 3 p.m. arrived Feb. 6, and his best production of the season immediately followed.
He has stepped into the role the team envisioned when it signed him to the long-term deal.
Claxton and Johnson are the only two players inked beyond this season, and Claxton is the only one signed through the 2027-28 campaign.
So the term of his deal places Claxton in the unique spot of being someone who could remain with the Nets throughout their rebuild, through the losing and the draft picks — though their current stretch of winning certainly complicates that wrinkle.
His role as their defensive anchor could, and should, extend beyond this year.
It’ll take more than Claxton to sustain this burst. Brooklyn holding six of its past seven opponents under 100 points after doing that just four times in its first 47 games certainly helps.
Day’Ron Sharpe collecting the NBA’s third-best defensive rating among players averaging 15 or more minutes the past seven games does, too — and it allows the Nets to remain stout even with Claxton on the bench.
“The whole team,” Claxton said, “it’s just clicking right now.”
But he has become the centerpiece of the unit.
