Nets’ Jalen Wilson making mark at NBA Summer League

LAS VEGAS — Jalen Wilson is just entering his second NBA season, but is starting to have the look of a veteran with twice as much experience.

The physicality was always there for the Nets wing. But the improved jumper has the second-round pick looking like a viable option for Brooklyn.

“Very much so. He’s extremely poised, never gets too high or too low,” Nets assistant Steve Hetzel, head coach of the Summer League team, said after Wilson was the driving force in the Nets’ 92-85 win over the Knicks on Tuesday at Thomas & Mack Center. “We’ve challenged him to be better defensively.

“This was the best defense I’ve ever seen him play.”

Wilson’s work in Vegas bodes well for him earning time on a rebuilding team.

He scored 27 points and finished a plus-19, both game-highs.

The wing shot 8 of 16 overall, and 5 of 10 from deep.

And in a game in which the Nets trailed by 21 points, Wilson carried them across the line.

He never came off the floor in the Nets’ 35-23 fourth quarter, pouring in 15 points to lift them to the win.

So far in his stay in Las Vegas, the 23-year-old has looked like an improved player from his first.

“Probably just being able to do it again. It’s fresh as a rookie; you don’t know really what to expect. But now this is my second year coming back,” said Wilson. “It’s 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.”

A four-year player at Kansas, the physicality isn’t a shock and was even there last season as a rookie. But questions about his 3-point shot in college contributed to him falling to Brooklyn at 51st overall in last year’s draft.

How he answers those questions will determine if he can be a second-round steal.

“Shooting helps everything at any level of basketball because it provides space on the floor for his teammates,” Hetzel said. “So, the better he can shoot the ball or the more room there is for getting in a pick and roll, Keon [Johnson] to attack one-on-one, the shooting provides all the space that we need.”

Wilson hit just 31.6 percent from deep in college and 32.4 as a rookie.

But through three games in Las Vegas, he’s averaging 21.3 points and has shot a far more auspicious 14-of-29 from behind the arc.

“Just my time really being in Brooklyn. Everybody here is valuable on time and wanting to get better every single day. I can call anyone no matter how early or late it is to get in the gym,” said Wilson. “The same shots we shoot in the game, we’re shooting in practice every single day. So I just attribute it to all the time we’ve been putting in this summer in Brooklyn and all the help the coaches have been giving us.”

It’s a new staff.

And it’ll be a new-look Nets team, with Mikal Bridges traded away and the deep rebuild underway.

That means a youth movement — and potentially minutes to be had for Wilson.

“I’m just excited for any opportunity. I feel like it’s a blessing that we all have this opportunity to play and people have trust in us,” said Wilson. “It’s a great thing to have an organization that has confidence in all of us to go out and play and to build into it. So I just think it’s a great opportunity.

“[My goal] is just compete, play hard, learn as much as I can. And game-by-game hopefully it just keeps slowing down and 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.”