Jalen Wilson has high hopes for 2nd season in NBA: ‘I want to attack everything’

Second-year Brooklyn Nets forward Jalen Wilson opens training camp for the 2024-25 NBA season Sept. 30. And he’ll be as confident as ever after earning MVP honors in the Las Vegas summer league.

A second-round pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, the former Kansas Jayhawks standout is considered a likely member of the Nets’ regular playing rotation as Brooklyn embarks on a rebuild.

“I think everything in life, accomplishments are always good to go for,” the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Wilson told the New York Post during a break at a recent youth clinic in Brooklyn, where he was asked about his summer league honor. “And once you get them, you just have to set new ones.”

A starter on KU’s 2022 NCAA title team, Wilson proved worthy of his new three-year, $4,96 million contract by averaging 21.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in five summer league contests.

He took on leadership duties as one of the young team’s elder statesmen. In fact, seven teammates on the current Nets’ roster are younger than Wilson, who is in the early stage of his pro career.

“I think we all knew that going into summer league, the opportunity that we had as far as all the young guys having the chance to really play this year,” Wilson told the NY Post. “So I just take every single day and every single opportunity I’m handed as a blessing, and I want to attack everything.”

Wilson turns 24 in November.

“I started off with summer league and now the summer and going to training camp and things like that,” he said. “So it’s taking advantage of opportunity. You know, that’s all you ask for as a young guy in the NBA is the opportunity to play and get to showcase what you can do.”

Wilson, a native of Denton, Texas, has been working out in both Brooklyn and Dallas this summer, his mother told The Star on Tuesday.

Of course he’d like to improve on his rookie-year averages of 5.0 points (on 42.5% shooting), 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 43 games (three starts, 15.5 minutes per outing).

“You can never get complacent with where things are,” Wilson said. “And that’s where I’m at. I’m just shooting for more goals, shooting for more achievements. Now that I’m here back in town (Brooklyn), you have the opportunity to get in the gym every single day and get better. So you know, when the time comes, that you’re prepared.”

Wilson hit 32.4% of his 3-point attempts during his first season as a pro, converting 11 of 22 in the last 10 games of the NBA season. And he knocked down 55% of his 3s in Vegas.

“I would say the main thing is first just getting the reps in,” Wilson said of improving his stroke beyond the arc. “If you don’t get the gym, it’s not going to happen.

“A lot of the times, you want to have good misses if you’re going to miss. So shooting everything long, right? I think nothing short. It’s having the confidence in your shot, I feel like that’s the main thing. If you’re coming off a screen or you’re getting a pass, and in your mind you know it’s going in already, that’s the main part.

“And that confidence comes with the reps, it comes with the repetition, and seeing it go in in the game. Every time you make a 3 in the game, I feel like every player gets that boost. That’s what you want to feel. So you’ve got to put in the work to do it. And I would say reps is the most important thing, consistently no matter if your shot’s feeling good at practice or not, you’ve got to just keep working, keep getting the reps in.”

Nets management in March showed its faith in Wilson, the 51st pick in the 2023 Draft, by turning his two-way contract into a three-year deal. According to spotrac.com, he is ticketed to earn $1,891,857 this season. For now, just $75,000 is guaranteed, but that number climbs to $325,000 if he is with the Nets on opening night.

The contract becomes fully guaranteed if Wilson is still with the team on Jan. 10, 2025. The Nets hold an option for the 2025-26 season, one in which he’d be paid $2,221,677, if he’s with the team on Jan. 10, 2026.

“Emotions were kind of all over the place,” Wilson said after signing the deal. “This is something I’ve been working really hard for… It means a lot. This is the birthplace of my professional career, so it’s pretty cool to see how valuable people feel I am. Just a blessing to be here.”

Kevin Ollie, the Nets’ interim coach at the time of Wilson’s signing, told SI.com: “(Wilson is) just a constant professional. He gets in the gym early, leaves late, all those different things that everybody says, but they’re true. Always in the lab, working on his game, perfecting his game, open to coaching. And just a great role model. Yeah, he’s young, but he’s a leader. And we see those qualities in him, we see the leadership in him and he’s just going to continue to develop because he’s open for learning and he’s eager for learning. We want him to continue to do that. It’s great to have him in our organization on a multi-year deal.”

Nets summer league coach Steve Hetzel said Wilson “is extremely poised, never gets too high or too low. We’ve challenged him to be better defensively. This was the best defense I’ve ever seen him play.”

Wilson told The Post that being a second-year player, compared to being a rookie, “is just fun. You get to see things, get to experience having a chance to win it. That’s the thing that drives a guy, especially when it’s our second time doing it.

““Game-by-game hopefully it just keeps slowing down. I feel like that first year is just so fast for a rookie because we’re just like, ‘We’re in the NBA now.’ It’s different. So hopefully the second year is slowed down and I get to really learn the game.”

SI.com’s Kyler Fox sees good times ahead for Wilson.

“Now amid a full-fledged rebuild, the opportunity Wilson has to continue to not only develop but become a massive contributor could not be any better. As Brooklyn is expected to be among one of the worst-performing franchises in the league next season, Wilson will have free reign to make the mistakes needed to further his development. He will receive far more than the 15.5 minutes per game he did in his first professional season, and if he continues to perform the way he has this summer, may even himself a member of the starting rotation.”

Wilson spent four years (2019-23) at KU, where he averaged 14.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 30.7 minutes per contest across 104 career games (89 starts). He was a consensus first-team All-America selection and unanimous Big 12 Player of the Year his redshirt junior season.

He helped KU win a national championship during his redshirt sophomore campaign and was named third-team all-conference.