Nic Claxton is sticking around for the Nets’ rebuild.
He’ll even be part of the foundation after agreeing to a four-year, $100 million contract. The deal was first reported by ESPN and confirmed by The Post.
A day after Mikal Bridges became disenchanted and wanted out to go play for the rival Knicks, Claxton — an unrestricted free agent — committed to spending his prime years in Brooklyn.
“Brooklyn has really grown on me as a city that I’ve grown to love since I’ve been here these past going on five years. Just everything about it; the fashion, the culture, the pride that the people have here,” Claxton said after the close of a disappointing season. “We have good fans, but this year we didn’t deliver the way we wanted to. But Brooklyn, the support here definitely means a lot.
“It’s been wild. It’s been chaotic. It’s been a whirlwind, I’m not going to sit here and lie. But as far as me personally, I feel like I’ve really grown a lot from everything. I was able to play with some future Hall of Famers here. I’ve created some really great relationships with teammates. I’ve learned a lot from every single year, I’ve taken something and I’ve grown from that, and at the end of the day, that’s all you can do as a human being. Hopefully the best is yet to come.”
The Nets had an exclusive negotiating window that opened at 12:01 a.m. June 18 and used it to lock up the center general manager Sean Marks has called their top offseason priority.
“I believe he’ll be Defensive Player of the Year for us,” incoming head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “He’s a priority this summer.”
It’ll be tough for the rebuilding Nets — who dealt away Bridges and could move Cam Johnson and/or Dorian Finney-Smith — to win enough games to put Claxton in the race, but it doesn’t mean he won’t be deserving.
Claxton, a second-round pick in 2019, has developed into the best switching big in the NBA, capable of guarding one through five with his 7-foot-2 ½ wingspan.
He averaged 11.8 points, a career-high 9.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks this past season, a step down from 2022-23 when he finished top five for Most Improved Player.
The center had been at the top of a free agent market that includes the Knicks’ Isaiah Hartenstein and the Pelicans’ Jonas Valanciunas.
Now he’s off the market, having gone from young upstart in Brooklyn’s locker room to veteran and foundation piece in what promises to be a tough rebuild.