Jordan Clarkson isn't the best Utah Jazz alum still currently playing in the NBA, but it's not all that surprising that he is in the NBA Finals, as him joining the New York Knicks gives him a legitimate shot at winning the title. And it wouldn't have happened in the first place were it not for the Jazz.
It is a shame that a. Clarkson never got the same chance with Utah that he is getting now with New York, and b. that Clarkson had to waste a few of his prime years on a Jazz team that sadly had no use for him.
However, at least it sort of worked out for all sides, as waiving Clarkson got him on a good team (and still netted him a good chunk of change from the Jazz's end) and paved the way for Keyonte George to break out.
So Clarkson got the chance to show what he's still made of, and the Jazz didn't suffer too much from swallowing the last year of his contract whole. It's paying for Clarkson now and will indirectly pay off for the Jazz starting next year.
Now, to be fair, this isn't the first time Clarkson has gone to the NBA Finals, as he did exactly that when the Cleveland Cavaliers traded for him. The big difference is that he will likely factor into whether the Knicks win, which definitely wasn't the case during the Cavaliers' 2018 Finals run.
There are no sour grapes that Clarkson got this shot because he certainly deserved it. More than that, Jazz fans should cheer for him because he stuck with the team through the thick and thin of everything in the late 2010s and 2020s.
It's proof that Utah had the right supplementary ingredients
With Donovan Mitchell's and Rudy Gobert's public playoff failures since leaving the Jazz further proving that their Utah teams were simply good, not great, it's kind of a nice change of pace that Clarkson's success since joining the Knicks is proof that Utah really had the right idea in mind with the supporting cast they built around Mitchell and Gobert.
Clarkson definitely had his warts when he was a Jazzman, but for what they wanted him to do, he held up his end of the bargain. Unfortunately, his efforts aren't as memorable because they consistently didn't get as far they hoped, but at least his success shows the front office had good taste with the players they wanted to round out the playoff rotation.
He is a different player with the Knicks compared to what he was with the Jazz, which in a way is a bit frustrating knowing there were fundamental aspects to his game that were never explored in Utah. Even so, when a former Jazzman who grew as a player in Utah succeeds elsewhere, it is proof that the Jazz weren't wrong in what they saw in him.
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