Nic Claxton agrees to four-year, $100 million deal to return to Nets: Report

Center Nic Claxton has agreed to a four-year, $100 million contract to return to the Brooklyn Nets, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

A second-round pick out of Georgia in the 2019 NBA Draft, Claxton has gone from a lightly used reserve to one of the most productive defensive big men in the NBA over the course of five pro seasons. The 25-year-old averaged 12.3 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.3 blocks and 2 assists in 29.8 minutes per game in Brooklyn over the past two seasons across 147 appearances, all starts.

At 6-foot-4, with an 8-foot wingspan and an 8-foot standing reach, Claxton has become one of the best shot smackers in the league. He finished in the top 10 in blocks per game and total blocks in each of the past two seasons — and in the top five in block percentage, which measures how many of an opponent’s offensive possessions involve a deflection. Only Brook Lopez (382) logged more blocks than Claxton (335) in that span; opponents shot just 52.3% against him at the rim in 2022-23, sixth-best among the 100 defensemen who made at least 200 close attempts, and 54.4% in 2023-24, 13th in a sample of 113 defensemen.

However, what sets Claxton apart from many other shot-blocking 5s is his ability to switch screens and comfortably guard smaller players on the perimeter. While his slight 215-pound frame may limit his effectiveness against the league’s heavier players, the lithe and lanky Claxton has the foot speed, lateral agility and athleticism to play with nimble guards and wings in space to enforce. He is adept at preventing playmakers from creating open looks, diverting them inside in traffic and using his length to recover and compete from the back:

Claxton plays a more limited role on the offensive end, using just 15.6% of Brooklyn’s offensive possessions last season and holding the ball for an average of about a minute and a half per game. But while Claxton isn’t too serious of a scoring threat unless he’s within arm’s length of the hoop, he’s a capable participant in the two-man game, finishing in the 90th percentile in scoring efficiency for a pick-and-roll roll man in 2022 -23 and tied for 14th in screen assists per game last season, despite Brooklyn’s significant lack of on-ball playmaking. And the NBA’s leader in field-goal percentage through the 2022-23 season has the hops and hands to finish what’s thrown at him at a high level:

Two seasons ago, when he was the center of an all-star Nets team looking for title contention, some pundits saw Claxton as a future candidate for Defensive Player of the Year; a few disastrous years in Brooklyn diminished the boom that was on the rise a bit. Relatively little of that decline — marked by superstar defections, head coach firings, ranking drops and rapidly declining vibes — had to do with Claxton, though, and a 25-year-old big player who can switch from 1 to 5, the edge can protect and can serve as an engine in the profiles of the two-man game as quite a valuable piece. And now we know how valuable.