The Utah Jazz announced that Jordan Clarkson will miss the rest of the 2024-25 season after getting a procedure done to treat his plantar fasciitis.
Jordan Clarkson Injury Update đŸ““
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 27, 2025
Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson underwent a medical procedure to address plantar fasciitis in his left foot. He will be out for the remainder of the season while he continues to receive treatment.#TakeNote
Anyone who had been paying attention to the Jazz knew Clarkson had been dealing with foot issues all season, so this didn't come as any surprise. Prayers for Clarkson that he will recover fully before next season starts.
With Clarkson out, the Jazz's young guards should get more playing time, not just Isaiah Collier and Keyonte George. Because of this, the Jazz may give Jaden Springer more time. They probably would have done that anyway with the season winding down, but now they have more reason to.
Clarkson's injury is very unfortunate for him and the Jazz, but it also makes one Jazz decision look worse in hindsight. Note that this move wasn't exactly well-received when it was announced, and it has gradually looked more and more like an ill-advised decision ever since.
The Jazz extending Clarkson makes even less sense
The Jazz extended Clarkson in 2023 after having a not-bad-but-not-good season. This move was highly questioned because it seemed readily apparent that the Jazz should opt more for tanking. There were two reasons the Jazz could give to justify Clarkson's extension.
1. In case they became good again quickly, they had Clarkson back for the long haul.
2. If they were bad, they could trade Clarkson elsewhere.
The Jazz have steadily gotten worse since then, but Clarkson remains with the team even though his name has been featured in trade rumors since pretty much the day he signed his extension. Now that he's out indefinitely after dealing with his foot injuries all year, the decision to extend him looks even worse.
It doesn't have anything to do with Clarkson as a player, as he's the same as he's ever been, but on top of not fitting this team's timeline, his being out makes him basically a waste of money. Now that he'll enter the offseason coming off a procedure to take care of a nagging injury, that will also hinder his trade value—assuming he has trade value.
Knowing what the other option was makes it worse. The Jazz could have cut this cord sooner and let Clarkson go to another team better suited for him. Doing so would have allowed them to explore further what they had in their other younger guards. Clarkson's loyalty to Utah has been great, but this union should have dissolved three years ago.
His season-ending procedure just further reinforces that notion. Is it the worst decision the Jazz have ever made? No, and it's not like the Jazz suffered from it much, but everything that's played out with Clarkson was avoidable.
It's far from the brightest move and is the worst one they've made since deciding to start over in 2022. That's right, we found a move worse than the Bojan Bogdanovic trade.