Noah Clowney season retrospective — Encouraging or disappointing?

In his lone season at the University of Alabama, Noah Clowney shot 28.3% from deep on 7.2 attempts per 100 possessions. Through three NBA seasons (135 appearances), Clowney is shooting 33.2% on 10.7 3-pointers per 100 possessions. In 2025-26, Clowney played more NBA minutes than in his first two seasons combined, shooting 32.9% from deep on just under 11 attempts per 100 possessions.

You’d expect increased efficiency from a teenager with sudden access to NBA-level shooting instruction, but Clowney also takes a ton of threes, a skill by itself. Though he is 6’10”, Clowney doesn’t have the quickest release, bulked up before this past season, has to work through frequent slumps, and is entirely reliant on his teammates to set him up with catch-and-shoot opportunities. And he still gets ‘em up.

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I think this Clowney quote from December is mostly alluding to that skill, a skill that, not coincidentally, Jordi Fernández often praises: “I think my problem was at a time where I would be too worried about how I looked from the outside. I don’t really care no more, because I had to realize the only people whose opinion I really care about and how I’m playing is my teammates and coaching staff that have seen me the whole summer.”

That perspective from the 21-year-old is easy to understand. There are plenty of 2-of-8 nights, who hopefully doesn’t see his mentions on social media, full of irate fans demanding he stops hoisting them up. But he has to keep shooting. Through two seasons as the Nets’ head coach, Fernández’s biggest pet peeve seems to be when players turn down open looks.

So clearly, Clowney has gotten better as a 3-point shooter since Brooklyn drafted him in June 2023. Not every young player can make the statistical shooting leap Egor Dëmin made from NCAA -> NBA, but Clowney’s improvement is commendable. Is it enough?

Noah Clowney is no longer a mysterious prospect. Two years ago, he was exceptionally young, wiry, and possessed a few tools that didn’t add up to a clear player archetype. After spending most of his rookie season with Long Island, he played a few games for…

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Publish date : 2026-04-20 05:52:00

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