Nolan Traore bulked up for second Nets season with eye on fixing glaring weakness

Nolan Traore spent last season as a waifish rookie, one too slight and skinny to finish at the rim. The young point guard returned to the Nets bigger and brawnier. It remains to be seen if he’s better. “He’s a year older, and maturity is important — presence, confidence, all that.And you can see him with his sleeveless, and how much [bigger he is],” Nets coach Jordi Fernández said.

“It’s great.He’s put the work in.

You watch him move around and play.It’s a second-year player, now he knows a little bit more about what is the NBA, and I’m excited to watch him play.” Anybody who watched Traore at the start of camp saw a more muscular version — because he was wearing a sleeveless hoodie to show off his newfound physique, earned through hours of lifting over the offseason. Though Traore missed summer league — recovering from June arthroscopic surgery — he clearly hit the weight room. “My knee is completely fine now, so there’s no concern,” Traore, 20, said.

“For me, [the offseason] was more the physical aspect.Obviously the shooting, too.

I worked a lot on it and I feel good now.Changed a few things, too. “Offseason was a lot of [time in the] gym.

That was the main thing.Focusing on just getting better as a player, watching clips from the playoffs or watching reads.

Working on my shot, too.” While Traore did focus on more repeatable shot mechanics, more important might be the 10 pounds of good weight he packed on.After being a lithe 180 pounds coming into training camp as a rookie, he tipped the scales at a more solid 190 this year. Part of that is the help of sports and performance dietitian Sarah Wenig, and the Nets training staff, and more from his own weight room diligence. The Nets hope it will help what was arguably league-worst finishing.  Sign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.

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