With the Nets officially eliminated from contention for this postseason, attention has already turned to next season.

They can claim all they want that they have two feet in the present, but they’ve already got an eye on the future. That means seeing how quickly Noah Clowney can play a part in it. And how big a role that can be.

Without a first-round pick in the June draft — that’s owned by Houston, thanks to the James Harden trade — the Nets went for upside with both of last year’s first-round selections. They took teenagers Clowney and Dariq Whitehead with the 21st and 22nd picks, respectively, the two youngest players ever selected by the franchise.

And while Whitehead spent much of the season sidelined — first by a stress fracture and then from surgery — Clowney has been mostly developing in the G League. With the Nets no longer treading water in a vain attempt to make the play-in but finally resigned to their fate, it’s time to experiment. To see what they have.