Clowney’s fourth and final ankle sprain of his sophomore campaign will do him in, and the mood around the Brooklyn Nets as the regular season ends, and the real work starts.
The energy at HSS Training Center, with just six games left in the Brooklyn Nets’ season, is still high.
“These guys do a great job day-to-day like I’ve always said, and the energy is always good. You guys can see it here,” said Jordi Fernández at Wednesday’s practice.
And yet, despite the eye-blinding smiles from guys that are, above all, happy to be here, like the post-practice Drew Timme and Tosan Evbuomwan shooting group, the day began with some bad news.
Though Day’Ron Sharpe and Cam Johnson may return from their injuries before season’s end, Noah Clowney’s latest ankle sprain will end his sophomore campaign. Fernández broke the news in his media scrum: “Noah is not going to play, he’s not going to play this season, the way the ankle sprain is going.”
We’ll have a full Next Nets profile on Clowney’s second year as a pro soon, but ultimately, it was a disappointment for the 20-year-old put in the unfair position of being Brooklyn’s most interesting young prospect as the team entered a rebuild.
The Nets #21 overall pick in 2023 — the first draft pick from the Kevin Durant trade — averaged 9/4/1 in 23 minutes a night, and though he started the season hot from deep, he finished with a dismal TS% of 51.6, nearly nine percentage points below league average — 36/33/84 splits.
“I think later in the season, in the last few games, he was a lot better, more efficient with his drives and less turnovers and more efficiency at the rim,” said Fernández (somewhat questionably).
“He’s been working at it, and that’s one of the things, it’s like, you may not see the work, but the work has been there. And now for us to see results, we’re going to need a bigger sample size. And what he needs especially is games, and you know, that’s why we’re excited about next season and also excited about the summer, to put more work in.”
Most importantly, Clowney will need to avoid the constant injury stream that flooded his 2024-25 season. He appeared in just 46 games, and four significant chunks of his season were cut out, all due to ankle sprains.
Said Trendon Watford of his second-youngest teammate: “I think he had some bright spots and he probably knows what he has to work on going into his third year. Obviously, Noah’s young, man. He’s had some bright spots, a lot of bright moments during this season. The fans should be happy for his growth he’s made in year one and year two, and can’t wait to get into year three and get even better.”
Of course, Clowney’s absence, in addition to other injuries, will open up even more playing time for the litany of Nets once on the fringes of the roster — or the league.
Prior to Brooklyn’s recent 30-point loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, Fernández said, “We’ll have some younger guys that we may have to make decisions [on] throughout the summer, and it’s important to give them a look. So if we find the opportunity [to play them] while being competitive, for sure.”
His tune was the same one week later: “There’s been times that we’ve given opportunities and minutes to some other guys, and maybe we will again. I mean, I’m not gonna, you know, obviously say right now, for obvious reasons, but I’m excited to see these guys play. Every guy, every player that has been on the court, for us, for the most part, has competed at a high level, and tried to do the right thing. So that’s what I want to do for six more games.”
Indeed, in year one, Fernández has developed a reputation for being incredibly tight-lipped and/or evasive … about rotations, playing time, and especially about league-wide trends. You’ve probably noticed the lack of interesting quotes I’ve been able to put in these stories particularly lately.
When asked about the NBA’s league-wide injury epidemic…
Following last night’s games, the total games lost to injury or illness in the NBA surpassed the 6,000 mark for just the second time since the 2005-06 season. The only other time this has occurred was during the 2021-22 season that was ravaged by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
— Jeff Stotts (@InStreetClothes) April 1, 2025
…Fernández largely declined to comment, saying “it would be me guessing right now, and I don’t think it makes sense.”
When asked what the difference was between living and dying with playoff wins, like his last two stops, vs. a rebuilding team where Fernández has explicitly said wins and losses don’t necessarily mean wins and losses, he side-stepped the question altogether.
“Once you establish the goals and what you want to do, and establish your identity, you can play. You can tell how connected and how hard the group plays, and they have joy doing it. In my opinion, if you watch the Dallas game, I think you can see a group that is having fun, and this just comes from spending time together and working together. That’s a very good start for what we want to do.”
Alas, quotability is famously low on the list of what makes an effective NBA coach.
Though Fernández and his players won’t lean into it, the end does feel nigh, because it is. The shades were rolled up at the end of Wednesday’s practice, and summer was screaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of HSS.
Bargain-bin players like Tyrese Martin and Keon Johnson have done admirably to lift the team from 20-or-so wins to 25 wins, but, outside of NBA Draft Lottery odds, it means little for the long-term health of the franchise. Summer marks the start of the real work, for both the front office and the many players with an uncertain future.
Still, Watford denies that he is already in reflection mode, “because then if I start doing that I feel like the season’s over with. I have a lot I can do in these next six games to help myself and to help the team. We started building this identity we’ve been building all year, so I’m just trying to keep helping that and I’ll reflect on the 13th.”
Watford is an unrestricted free agent. The Nets return his Bird Rights.
This season, with all of its twists and turns, subplots and minor characters, from Dennis Schröder to Drew Timme, has been a precursor to a monumental offseason for the Brooklyn Nets. We’re expecting this time.
And the time is almost here.