If history is any indication, Jordan Clarkson can’t keep this pace up for the Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz have seen Jordan Clarkson go off as of late but if history is any indication, it’s not going to be something that lasts long.

The Utah Jazz and its fandom have watched as Jordan Clarkson has gone off over the last four games. Over that stretch, he’s averaging 31.5 points, 4.25 assists, 2.75 rebounds and 1.5 steals. He’s doing all this with insane efficiency, shooting 43.6% from the floor, 44% from three, and going 16-16 from the free throw line.

It’s been incredible to watch, and part of the reason is that he’s now playing with a distributor in Keyonte George, someone who is allowing the offense to flow through him, instead of being the offense like Clarson was trying to do as the primary ball-handler, or whatever Talen Horton-Tucker was trying to do.

The only problem is that as Clarkson is going off, he’s firstly taking away shots from the team’s best player; Lauri Markkanen and also playing more and more minutes. The more minutes he’s on the court, the longer the Jazz have to rely on him to play defense; something he just cannot do. On the year he’s a -36 player and is currently averaging a BPM of -3.6, 11th best on the team.

Yes, he can score 30 points a game, but he’s giving just as much if not more when he’s on the court. His poor defense is part of the reason the Jazz can’t keep affording to start him. He’s giving up

And even if we take the defense out of the equation, which we shouldn’t but we will, we know that the Clarkson we’re seeing isn’t the Clarkson he’s going to be for the rest of the year. He’s a notoriously streaky shooter, shooting around 41 or 42% from the floor some years.

We know that Clarkson is going to bottom out, but when he does, he’s going to keep shooting. So while this hot streak that he’s on is all well and good, all it’s going to do long-term is give Clarkson and Jazz head coach Will Hardy a false sense of belief in Clarkson. The Jazz have to get away from this ball-dominant offense that they’re allowing Clarkson to turn the team into, because it’s not a successful style of basketball in today’s NBA.