Utah Jazz: A way too early look at the 2020 offseason

Jordan Clarkson

Another big decision the Jazz have to make is on midseason trade acquisition Jordan Clarkson. The Jazz traded for JC in December, knowing fully well he was on an expiring contract.

Since the start of the 2019-20 season, Clarkson has re-made himself into a better NBA player. He started his career trying to fit in on the Los Angeles Lakers, which at the time was a mix of young and fringe NBA players with an ancient Kobe Bryant.

He was a draft steal from the second round, and a rising star with backcourt mate D’Angelo Russell, forming the “Swag Brothers“. But it turns out his gaudy box score lines were a product of getting touches and playing time on a bad team.

JC was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers to give them some better help than what Isaiah Thomas was providing King James earlier in the 2017-18 season. He floundered in the playoffs on the first good team of his career, and immediately the Cavs went back to being a lottery team when LeBron left for the Lakers.

Clarkson was a bit of a ball hog and poor defender, somebody I didn’t want on the Jazz. But he quietly made tweaks to his game in the summer of 2019, and earned the trust of Cavs coach John Beilein.

He got better at distributing the ball, developed a smarter shot selection, and defending. He still kept his smooth ball handling skills and sweet jumper. Now that Clarkson’s made himself a Sixth Man of the Year candidate on a playoff team in Utah, he could be in for a huge pay day this summer.

The Utah Jazz have to be happy and proud of how their 6th man has performed this season. Since joining the Jazz, Jordan Clarkson has been a stop-gap for what was otherwise one of the worst bench units in the league.

He regularly leads the charge on offense when his teammates are slumping, and is a big reason why the Jazz won four straight games before the All-Star break. He kept the Jazz alive in Houston, and prevented a blown lead from haunting the Jazz in Dallas.

He did enough to get the Jazz victories against the Denver Nuggets, scoring 37 and 16 points in both games. But his teammates didn’t do their part, resulting in a season series deficit to the division rivals.

The question is, has he been a little bit too good? Will he get a massive contract this summer that’s a little bit unwarranted for just a sample of roughly 60 games? And who knows how he will perform in the playoffs this year?

My bet is that the Jazz will aggressively try to retain Clarkson this season, based on how much Quin trusts the guy. It may come at the cost of letting go of another pleasant surprise this season though.