Utah Jazz: Midseason grades for Jordan Clarkson
By Caleb Manser
Overall
As mentioned in the first slide of this article, Clarkson has been a big help of the Jazz’s turnaround. Previous to the trade, nobody off the Jazz bench could create their own shot with confidence. Since Clarkson has come on board, we’ve seen him do it multiple times.
Emmanuel Mudiay has had more space to create in the mid-range, and Georges Niang and Tony Bradley have also benefited from the additional offensive threat on the court.
Some were worried that losing the second longest tenured Jazzman (Exum) would disrupt the chemistry in the locker room. But Clarkson has been a team-first guy and seems to love his new band of brothers.
In the one game where Mitchell had to sit (illness), Clarkson filled in 23 points; the problem was it took him 22 shots to get there. In the most common five man lineup that features Jordan Clarkson (Gobert-Royce O’Neale–Bojan Bogdanovic-Clarkson-Mudiay), that group gets beaten by an average of 11 points per 100 possessions.
Clarkson isn’t the best sixth man out there to have, but overall he’s good enough to get the job done. It will be interesting to see what him and the Jazz do this summer when Jordan is an unrestricted free agent.
Will 52 games with the Jazz plus a playoff run convince Clarkson to stick around the Wasatch Front? Will the Jazz want to financially commit to someone like JC with the looming pay-days of Gobert and Mitchell approaching?
Next. Will the Jazz become a victim of peaking too early?. dark
Whatever happens, Jordan Clarkson is another case of how players can develop and transform their game under Quin Snyder’s development. He’s been a godsend to the Jazz bench this season, but still has his limitations.