Will Nets' Noah Clowney be signed to rookie-scale extension?
· Yahoo Sports
Brooklyn Nets forward Noah Clowney is in an interesting spot after the 2025-26 NBA season is over as the Nets will have to make a decision on his future with the team. Clowney, like every player drafted in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft, is eligible for a rookie-scale extension this summer, but it's interesting to see if Brooklyn will award him with that extension.
"The Nets are not a good basketball team this year, but that's given Clowney a significant opportunity to play. He's started most of the season, scoring a career-best 12.5 points per game," Eric Pincus wrote for Bleacher Report when predicting rookie-scale extensions. Clowney has been a key member of the Nets' rotation over the past three years, but it's fair to wonder if that will translate into a significant pay rise for the former Alabama Crimson Tide.
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"The team is asking him to stretch the floor as a 6'10" forward/center, and Clowney is taking a relatively high volume of three-point attempts (6.0)," Pincus continued. "He'll need to improve above 33.3 percent by a few points for that to be sustainable. Next season, Brooklyn doesn't have its own draft pick, so changes could be coming this summer to make the team more ready to win. It's unclear at this early stage where Clowney fits into that calculus."
Clowney, 21, is nearing the end of the best season of his career as he's averaging 12.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game while shooting 39.4% from the field and 33.1% from three-point land in 65 games played as of this writing. As Pincus pointed out, part of the reason that Clowney has been able to learn on the job, so to speak, is due to the nature of Brooklyn's rebuild needing the younger players on the team to step up sooner rather than later.
Pincus went on to note that he believes Clowney's closest comparison in terms of a realistic rookie-scale extension for him is Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic, who extended for $62.4 million over four years. Prior to signing his extension last summer, Jovic averaged 10.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game while shooting 45.6% from the floor and 37.1% from behind the three-point line during the 2024-25 campaign.
However, the Nets could be looking to compete for a playoff spot as soon as next season so Brooklyn may have to think hard about signing Clowney to that amount of money, especially when considering that forward Michael Porter Jr. is also eligible for an extension. Pincus believes that the Nets will not sign Clowney to his rookie-scale extension, meaning that he would be a restricted free-agent following the end of the 2026-27 season if that comes to pass.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Will Nets' Noah Clowney be signed to rookie-scale extension?