3 players who could be additions by subtractions for the Utah Jazz
By Chad Porto
Jordan Clarkson
We're tired of talking about Jordan Clarkson. You're tired of reading about Clarkson and collectively, we're tired of watching Clarkson. It's time to move on from the guard.
As with Talen Horton-Tucker, we're not saying that Clarkson doesn't have value for a team. He just doesn't have the value needed for the Utah Jazz to keep him. He's a bad passer, he doesn't play any defense whatsoever, and any impact he makes is usually accidental. The only thing he can do well is score, off the bench to be specific. Clarkson is good between 20:00 and 24:00 minutes a night, when he's, at best, your fourth scoring option.
When you don't need him to be super accurate and you just want someone who can come in after your stars are off the court and score some points; Clarkson has value there. Clarkson doesn't have value as the second-scoring option on a team. He's certainly not worth the headache of being the guy on the team in many games where Clarkson has the most shot attempts on your team.
That's when you know things have gone bad. Clarkson isn't efficient and doesn't do well against the other team's best defender. You have to pair him up against a sub-defender on the second unit, and then watch Clarkson go wild. Especially if that second unit has no real scorer on the bench to worry about.
Obviously, the Jazz are not that team. The Jazz have leaned on Clarkson far too often as the team's second-best scorer and it hasn't worked. He's not scoring efficiently enough to make up for the lack of effort he puts in on the other end. Unlike someone like Collin Sexton, who can score more efficiently and balance out his lack of defense.
That's why it's time for Clarkson to go.