Nets' Noah Clowney visibly bigger after reshaping body: 'Looks great'
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Several Nets players have arrived at training camp with noticeable changes in appearance, as Day’Ron Sharpe and Cam Thomas have slimmed down, while Egor Dëmin has bulked up.

But none reshaped their body more than Noah Clowney.

The once-willowy big man finally qualifies as big, and finally looks like a grown man instead of a young one.

Clowney packed on muscle in the offseason, added weight that he and the Nets figure will help shore up the weak parts of his game.

“Yeah, [Clowney] looks fantastic,” stated coach Jordi Fernández. “He deserves recognition for the effort he’s put in over the summer. At just 21, he appears quite mature.

“I’m excited to see him in actual games. Of course, he needs to go through training camp and the preseason matches, but he has performed admirably. His shooting ability, size, and improvement in playing with stability in the paint, reducing turnovers, and finishing more effectively at the rim are crucial for him.”

The added bulk should help toward that end.

“That’s been the whole goal, being a better driver,” Clowney said. “I have to get stronger, I have to be able to drive through contact and be able to still be able to explode.”

After coming into camp a year ago listed at 210 pounds, and saying he played last season at various times between 220 and 225 pounds, Clowney tipped the scales last week at a solidly built 234 pounds.

Physically, he looked more like starting center Nic Claxton than the waifish youngster who struggled to finish last season.

“A lot of [NBA] players have been top athletes all their lives and when they get to this level, they just think they’re going to go to the rim, jump and finish. And a lot of times they’ve never had to figure it out,” Fernández said. “Challenging centers in the best league in the world is not necessarily a good thing.

“A lot of times the best finishers are guys that’ve never been that gifted early on, and they had to find a way to play, to be better decision-makers and finish when you have the advantage. So it’s part of the process. As coaches, we need to figure that out, so it’s a good challenge. Our players are buying into it. And we want to be a better finishing team because last year, we were a poor finishing team.”

That certainly wasn’t helped by Clowney’s woes.

He largely inherited the power forward spot after Dorian Finney-Smith was traded.

But while Clowney’s shooting touch helped space the floor, he’s going to have to round out his game and do more than just camp out in the corner.

Clowney ranked in just the fourth percentile on 2-point shots, per Cleaning the Glass.

And his horrid 45.3 percent shooting within 10 feet of the rim was fifth worst in the entire league among all players 6-foot-7 or taller with at least 50 attempts.

That has to improve, as does his rebounding.

That’s where the added muscle comes in.

“Yeah, I think it helps. Numbers, the games will tell us what it is, but that’s the reality,” Fernández said. “Noah was a good rebounder. Now that he’s stronger, he’ll be a better rebounder. That’s my assumption.”

The visible changes to Clowney’s arms, chest and shoulders can make a difference trying to explode through contact.

Better decision-making from the third-year pro can make just as much on drives.

“In transition, it’ll be downhill. It’s easy because everyone’s not loaded, and it’s the easiest way you can get there and just being able to play off two [feet],” Clowney said. “I did a lot of bump Euros off of one [foot], you got a foot in front, and you have to make a decision and not turn it over.”

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