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Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn and center Nic Claxton look...

Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn and center Nic Claxton look on during practice at the team's training facility in Brooklyn on Wednesday. Credit: Ed Murray

Nic Claxton wants to send the NBA a message: He’s not thrilled he was left off last year’s All-Defensive Team.

At Media Day on Monday, he was still bothered that voters forgot about him. Part of it, he said, came from the Nets being overlooked once Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were traded.

“When KD and Kyrie left, it’s like my name just fell off the map,” Clayton said before taking a deep breath, “It makes my blood boil. I mean, I was obviously robbed of the [All]-Defensive team . . . I was robbed of it. My numbers were amazing. I passed every eye test. I know you can say it was his first year doing it, but I held down the whole defense.”

The fifth-year center was second in blocks per game (2.5) and showed his versatility guarding multiple positions as well as protecting the rim. However, he received the third most votes as a center behind Jaren Jackson Jr. and Bam Adebayo and was tied for ninth in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

It’s set him on a mission. He wants to be an elite defensive player once again and he’s got support from teammate Spencer Dinwiddie.

"You’ve got to make it a national campaign now. You’ve got to make it sexy, you feel me,” Dinwiddie said. “Y’all need to write this, ‘Nic Claxton is the best defender in the league and he got snubbed for Defensive Player of the Year.' ”

Claxton did his part this summer training in Los Angeles with Dinwiddie and his trainer Olin Simplis. In training camp this week, the Nets are installing more drop coverage to not just improve rebounding, but take advantage of Claxton’s rim protection.

There’s also financial incentive since he’ll be an unrestricted free agent this summer. But he’s also motivated by respect and helping the Nets win.

“It’s an even bigger chip on my shoulder,” Claxton said. “I’m just ready to be there for my team to prove to everybody, to prove to myself who I am as a defender and as a player in this league.”

For a Nets team looking for an identity post-Durant and Irving, they’re hanging their hat on defense as training camp begins. They haven’t run many offensive sets through two days as coach Jacque Vaughn has focused on teaching defensive schemes.

It’s played to the team’s strengths and also given Claxton a chance to establish himself early on. So far, his teammates have been encouraged and it led Royce O’Neale to proclaim Claxton can one day win Defensive Player of the Year.

It means Claxton will have to do more this season to be remembered. But he thinks he will and so does O’Neale, who played with Rudy Gobert, a former Defensive Player of the Year winner in Utah.

“This year, [Nic’s] actually made a big emphasis on just taking the next step, guarding guards, bigs, doing it all.” O’Neale said. “So we got a lot of trust and confidence in him. And that’s what he’s going to do.”

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