{"id":635731,"date":"2026-03-03T02:59:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T02:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/635731\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T02:59:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T02:59:33","slug":"danny-wolfs-nets-growth-on-display-during-career-best-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/635731\/","title":{"rendered":"Danny Wolf’s Nets growth on display during career-best game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Danny Wolf was instructed to miss a free throw intentionally in the closing seconds of Sunday\u2019s loss to the Cavaliers<\/a>, but the rookie\u2019s admittedly \u201ctoo hard\u201d attempt missed the rim entirely for a violation that essentially ended the Nets\u2019 last chance to come back and win.<\/p>\n

Coaches and teammates jokingly gave him a hard time afterward, but they agreed that the mistake should not detract from what was likely the strongest performance of Wolf\u2019s initial NBA campaign.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-11 forward put up a career-best 23 points with three made 3-pointers, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals in 27 minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, you see the points, but it\u2019s nine rebounds, five assists, one turnover; that\u2019s elite,\u201d coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez said after the game. \u201cVery happy for him. Well deserved. He was confident from the beginning, all the shots looked really good.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can handle, get to the rim. He did everything, and you cannot control all the time if you\u2019re going to be able to score at that level, but the good things and the good intentions were there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo huge growth in this game for him, and happy to see it because he deserves it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old Wolf was the final of an NBA-record five first-round picks by the Nets in 2025, selected at No. 27 overall out of Michigan. <\/p>\n

\"DannyDanny Wolf attempts a shot during the Nets\u2019 March 1 loss to the Cavaliers. Robert Sabo for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Each has started at least five games, led by lottery pick Egor D\u00ebmin\u2019s 45.<\/p>\n

Wolf has started eight times but ranks second to D\u00ebmin among the quintet with averages of 8.9 points in 20.5 minutes over 46 appearances entering consecutive games Tuesday and Thursday\u2019s against the Heat in Miami.<\/p>\n

The lottery-bound Nets have dropped eight straight games to sink within a half-game of the Pacers for the worst record in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have another [22] games left to improve on this year to finish my rookie year, but I gotta go game by game and hopefully we can string together some wins,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cI think you have a bunch of guys in the NBA, and most guys come from winning teams, whatever level that is. However long I can think of my basketball career, I\u2019ve been a part of winning teams, and you know the feeling.<\/p>\n

\"DannyDanny Wolf dribbles the ball during the Nets\u2019 March 1 loss to the Cavaliers. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve been a part of \u2014 I don\u2019t want to say we\u2019re a losing team, obviously our record is 15-45 \u2014 but we\u2019re the youngest team in the NBA, and there\u2019s a lot of valuable lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those for Wolf will be to not repeat his mistake on the intentionally missed free throw if that situation arises again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s harder to miss the way I missed it than it is to make a free throw,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cAfter I made the first one, my thought process was to hit the front of the rim, but I threw it definitely a little bit too hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou live, and you learn; it\u2019s something new that I needed to know that I need to work on that I didn\u2019t know before. So, that\u2019s definitely on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assistant coach Juwan Howard was seen talking and laughing with the rookie right after the play, \u201cunderstandably so,\u201d Wolf added.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Teammate Michael Porter Jr. said he also joked with Wolf that \u201cmaybe he\u2019s been in the weight room too much,\u201d but the team\u2019s scoring leader also stressed that shouldn\u2019t be the focus after the rookie\u2019s overall performance Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis all-around game \u2014 outside game, 3s, getting to the lane, layups, throwing dimes, post-ups \u2014 I thought that he was spectacular and played with a high motor and was all over the floor,\u201d Porter said. \u201cSo he\u2019s just got to be able to replicate that, and through misses and makes, be able to play like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he didn\u2019t start the game off making his first couple of shots, but I could still see in his energy and his aggression that he was going to have a good game, regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u00ebmin (plantar fascia management) remains out for Tuesday\u2019s game, while Nic Claxton (thumb) is probable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Danny Wolf was instructed to miss a free throw intentionally in the closing seconds of Sunday\u2019s loss to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,248,6,671,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-635731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-jordi-fernandez","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nets","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116163011272696103","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}