The Nets will begin their preseason against the Clippers on Oct. 8 without their most complete player.
Nic Claxton will be out due to hamstring soreness, head coach Jordi Fernandez announced after Nets practice on Friday, before the team heads to San Diego for the remainder of training camp.
The decision is for precautionary purposes, and Fernandez said he is unaware of when the center developed the injury.
Claxton also sat out of the scrimmage during Thursday’s practice.
“We’re not concerned about it,” Fernandez said. “We’re just more aiming [for] the first game of the season and doing what we believe is best just for him to be ready there.”
Trendon Watford and Day’Ron Sharpe both are being assessed for hamstring issues.
The status of the two for Tuesday’s preseason game is not yet known.
“Obviously, today’s a big recovery day after three days of working really hard,” Fernandez said. “Now, we’re just trying to recover today, long flight [ahead], which is also going to impact their bodies, and that we’ll have a good practice once we get there the next day.”
It’s not the start the Nets wanted for their $97 million center, for whom they have lofty goals such as earning Defensive Player of the Year.
Claxton, 25, will be a key starter for the Nets, and is the last link to their better days, starting in the 2019-20 season.
With Claxton out, Noah Clowney could have more opportunities at center after having some success towards the end of last season, including four games with 10 or more points, coming up from the G-League.
“He’s a multi-positional player on both ends of the floor. That works in his favor because it gives us more opportunities to be on the court, right, like he could play perimeter spot or the center spot when we play small,” Fernandez said. “But at the same time, sometimes it’s harder to figure it out because you could be a little bit all over the place, right? So it’s my job to help him be efficient, whether he plays at the 4, the perimeter spot or the 5. And so far, he’s done a very, very good job.”
Dorian Finney-Smith won the first Borough Cup, a new weeklong free throw shooting contest instituted at Fernandez’s training camp.
It’s scored similar to golf, so the lower the score, the better.
Finney-Smith ended with a -27, followed by Dennis Schroder (-21) and Tyrese Martin (-19) to round out the top three.
At the bottom were Claxton (9) and Ben Simmons (11).
The Nets took some notes from the Lakers and brought a DJ into practice Friday.
When asked what he wanted to hear, Fernandez said: “It depends on what the crowd is. When I play music for others, you’ve got to play for the crowd. If you play for yourself, that’s when you’re a bad DJ.”
