LAS VEGAS — Jalen Wilson is simply getting into his second NBA season, however is beginning to have the look of a veteran with twice as a lot expertise.
The physicality was at all times there for the Nets wing. However the improved jumper has the second-round decide wanting like a viable choice for Brooklyn.
“Very a lot so. He’s extraordinarily poised, by no means will get too excessive or too low,” Nets assistant Steve Hetzel, head coach of the Summer season League group, stated after Wilson was the driving pressure within the Nets’ 92-85 win over the Knicks on Tuesday at Thomas & Mack Middle. “We’ve challenged him to be higher defensively.
“This was one of the best protection I’ve ever seen him play.”
Wilson’s work in Vegas bodes properly for him incomes time on a rebuilding group.
He scored 27 factors and completed a plus-19, each game-highs.
The wing shot 8 of 16 total, and 5 of 10 from deep.
And in a recreation through which the Nets trailed by 21 factors, Wilson carried them throughout the road.
He by no means got here off the ground within the Nets’ 35-23 fourth quarter, pouring in 15 factors to raise them to the win.
Thus far in his keep in Las Vegas, the 23-year-old has appeared like an improved participant from his first.
“In all probability simply having the ability to do it once more. It’s recent as a rookie; you don’t know actually what to anticipate. However now that is my second 12 months coming again,” stated Wilson. “It’s simply enjoyable. You get to see issues, get to expertise having an opportunity to win it. That’s the factor that drives a man, particularly when it’s our second time doing it.”
A four-year participant at Kansas, the physicality isn’t a shock and was even there final season as a rookie. However questions on his 3-point shot in faculty contributed to him falling to Brooklyn at 51st total in final 12 months’s draft.
How he solutions these questions will decide if he generally is a second-round steal.
“Taking pictures helps all the things at any degree of basketball as a result of it offers area on the ground for his teammates,” Hetzel stated. “So, the higher he can shoot the ball or the extra room there may be for getting in a decide and roll, Keon [Johnson] to assault one-on-one, the capturing offers all of the area that we’d like.”
Wilson hit simply 31.6 p.c from deep in faculty and 32.4 as a rookie.
However by three video games in Las Vegas, he’s averaging 21.3 factors and has shot a much more auspicious 14-of-29 from behind the arc.
“Simply my time actually being in Brooklyn. All people right here is effective on time and desirous to get higher each single day. I can name anybody irrespective of how early or late it’s to get within the gymnasium,” stated Wilson. “The identical pictures we shoot within the recreation, we’re capturing in follow each single day. So I simply attribute it to on a regular basis we’ve been placing on this summer season in Brooklyn and all the assistance the coaches have been giving us.”
It’s a brand new workers.
And it’ll be a new-look Nets group, with Mikal Bridges traded away and the deep rebuild underway.
Meaning a youth motion — and probably minutes available for Wilson.
“I’m simply excited for any alternative. I really feel prefer it’s a blessing that all of us have this chance to play and folks have belief in us,” stated Wilson. “It’s an incredible factor to have a company that has confidence in all of us to exit and play and to construct into it. So I simply suppose it’s an incredible alternative.
“[My goal] is simply compete, play exhausting, be taught as a lot as I can. And game-by-game hopefully it simply retains slowing down and slowing down. I really feel like that first 12 months is simply so quick for a rookie as a result of we’re similar to ‘We’re within the NBA now.’ It’s totally different. So hopefully the second 12 months is slowed down and I get to actually be taught the sport.”
