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Aug 07, 2023

Threes and D will be key for second

Submit Δ Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission. Only about a quarter of second-round picks make the NBA, and it’s no mystery what Nets rookie Jalen Wilson will have to do to stick

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Only about a quarter of second-round picks make the NBA, and it’s no mystery what Nets rookie Jalen Wilson will have to do to stick around:

Guard opponents and hit shots.

Though his hustle and physicality have never been questioned, his shooting stroke has. It’s why the All-American and Big 12 Player of the Year fell to the Nets at 51st overall in the June draft.

And it’s why he has been putting up copious amounts of jumpers, trying to turn a weakness into a strength.

“[The idea] is just being in the best shape of my life, and being the best defender I can be. As a rookie, that’ll be the main thing that keeps me on the court and gets me on the court … defending and knocking down shots,” Wilson told The Post. “Playing hard will come, always rebounding, but the defense and hitting shots whenever that time comes will be the main thing.”

It’s unwise to read too much into Wilson’s defensive performance during the Las Vegas Summer League.

He will turn 23 in November, so he was supposed to excel against younger foes and he did just that, averaging 17.6 points and 7.8 rebounds.

But by far the most auspicious sign was his shooting.

His career 31.6 percentage from 3-point range at Kansas cast serious doubt on Wilson’s NBA future.

But thanks to his summer work, he hit 45.8 percent in Las Vegas, and looked confident from long range or even while contested.

“Including pre-draft and the time we had in Brooklyn before going [to Las Vegas], it was anywhere from like 600 to 700 shots [daily],” Wilson, who is on a two-way deal, told The Post. “I’d just stick to the same shots. I wouldn’t change them. I’d shoot all the shots I shoot in the game.

“All the 3s I took were the same shots that I shot in practice and workouts, so it just became second nature as far as knowing where I am on the court, knowing how fast I’ve got to get it off. I credit that to how I was able to perform.”

Wilson, who is 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds, showed an ability to read the floor (he averaged 2.8 assists) and a willingness to attack the rim with physicality.

“That [was] one of the biggest things I focused on, just being aware of what I do and when I need to do it, understanding the close out,” Wilson said. “That was the main things I did in pre-draft, reading close outs, and that’ll be the main thing for me moving forward, understanding if someone closes out too short, shoot the ball, close out too strong, use my body, my size and drive to the paint and create something with that.”

Wilson was at the Dodge YMCA in Broooklyn, partnering with his namesake Wilson Sporting Goods to put on a free hoops clinic and presented a $10,000 donation. It is just down Atlantic Avenue from Barclays Center, where he hopes his underdog grit and work ethic will impress Nets fans.

“Just how hard I play. I play with a huge chip always,” Wilson said. “I don’t take the game for granted. No matter who I’m playing, I use it as an opportunity to showcase what I can do and the game I love. It’s brought me so many different things in my life, I feel like I owe it to play that hard. That’d be the main thing people will notice is the winning mentality and the plays I make.”