Brooklyn Nets big man Nic Claxton has had a career few years for the team, surging to a Defensive Player of the Year candidate for the past few seasons.
Drafted No. 31 overall in 2019, Claxton has seen a steady increase in production in his career, and has become a pivotal piece to Brooklyn’s success.
Claxton is currently finishing up a two-year, $17 million contract that spanned his age 23 and 24 seasons, and is now set to enter unrestricted free agency. Those were easily the two best years of his career — 12.3 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.3 blocks across 147 total games — and its likely propelled him to a much bigger contract.
After signing for just two years, Claxton is likely looking for his payday and a longer term deal for four or five seasons. Even more, the market has bloomed even in the last few years.
That could very well mean the 25-year-old is line line for over $20 million-plus per year. Around the 20-million mark feels fair given the state of the cap, and anything over 25 starts to feel somewhat undoable for a franchise in the middle ground.
All in all, a four-year deal at $22 million per season feels like the safe middle ground that keeps both sides happy for the foreseeable future.
Regardless of what the contract looks like, the Nets brass has already stated retaining Claxton the their top priority currently.
"I think Nic is the No. 1 priority for us.” General Manager Sean Marks said at Jordi Fernandez’ introductory presser. “There's no doubt about that. We hope he's a Net for a very long time. We hope we can continue to build around him and build with him and so forth."
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