Jalen Wilson's Minutes Jumped From 15.9 to 28.6 a Game
In the final five games of last season, the Nets forward played nearly double his season average.
Jalen Wilson averaged 28.6 minutes a game over his last five outings of the 2025-26 season, the one that ended April 12. That is 12.7 minutes more than his season average of 15.9, across 54 games for the Nets.
The gap matters because it changes what kind of season Wilson had. For most of the year, he was a bench piece: 15.9 minutes a night and 6.4 points a game. A jump to 28.6 minutes puts him closer to a rotation regular than a role player, at least for that five-game stretch.
A swing like this can mean a few different things. It can mean the coaching staff decided to see more of him once games no longer carried playoff stakes. It can also mean an opening appeared elsewhere on the roster and Wilson was next in line. Either way, the minutes were real, and they came in the last five games the Nets played last season.
For the increase to hold, Wilson would need to keep drawing that kind of playing time once games matter again, not just once the schedule was already decided. If the extra minutes were tied to the specific circumstances of those last five games, his workload could drift back toward the 15.9-minute season average he carried for most of the year. The 54-game season set a baseline. The final five games offered a different picture. Which one holds up is what the Nets will decide with how they use him next.