The Utah Jazz faced Jordan Clarkson for the first time since the team waived him during the offseason. Clarkson and his new team, the New York Knicks, proved exactly how big a favor the Jazz did for him when he and his current teammates beat the crap out of his former Utah teammates on the backend of a back-to-back.
This game was over mere moments after it had just started, as the Knicks had jumped out to a 23-0 lead. While the Jazz kept it within reach for the rest of the first half, the embarassment only piled on in the second. That 23-0 run to start the game sealed Utah's fate.
It's not entirely surprising, as it was an away game, the Jazz were playing for the second straight night, and they were playing against a team that many believe are among the top teams in the East. It would have been fair to pencil this in as a scheduled loss for our boys in Utah.
Clarkson didn't light up the box score. If anything, he had a standard Clarkson performance, putting up 16 points on five-for-13 shooting, which included two threes and shooting four-for-six shooting from the free throw line. The Jazz alum also had five assists and four rebounds.
So he certainly did his part in annihilating his former team, showing that Utah did right by him, even if how things turned out wasn't exactly how the team would have preferred.
The only way it could be worse
Look, it's already been talked about that, in hindsight, Utah screwed up by giving him that extension. They did so believing that Clarkson would either be part of their next playoff team or that they could fetch an asset or two for him. Because their rebuild would take longer than they expected and because players like Clarkson aren't valued highly, the best option was simply a buyout.
The alternative was keeping him, which could have prevented Keyonte George from exploding the way he has this season. It would have created a massive logjam that the Jazz already had a tough time dealing with last season. The writing had already been on the wall for some time that Clarkson was on his way out.
So, even if the Jazz get occasionally humiliated like they were tonight against the Knicks, it's pretty clear that this was what was best for all sides here. Whether Clarkson gets championship glory as a Knick is certainly up in the air, but at least the Jazz gave him the chance to get some.