Are the Utah Jazz going to consider Donovan Clingan as a possible replacement for Walker Kessler?

Walker Kessler is one of the two best defensive players on the team, right there with Kris Dunn. Yet, despite his defensive prowess, Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy has hardly used him this season. Coming off of a massive rookie year that had him in the conversation for a spot in the Top 100 players department, the second-year center out of Auburn has done anything but live up to the hype.

It's been so bad that many have started talking about finding his replacement, there are some like ESPN NBA insider Tim MacMahon who believes Kessler has failed to take a step forward and criticized his lack of a three-point shot and his inability to screen well enough consistently. MacMahon went on  The Drive with Spence Checketts on ESPN 700 (via Sports Illustrated) and explained he'd still buy stock on Kessler, but he's got work to do.

""He hasn’t taken the step that you’d hope after a really, really, really good rookie year, and I would still buy Walker Kessler's stock in terms of him being a high-quality center in the NBA. You can not be a non-shooting 7-footer in today's NBA and a poor screener and be a factor on a good team. He has to master the art and science of screening. That should be the primary focus this offseason. I don’t need to preach the value of the screen in Salt Lake City. The screen was the most popular thing in Utah for the last six or seven years of [Rudy] Gobert’s career.”"

What's wild is that Taylor Hendricks is currently starting over Kessler and Hendricks isn't a good player in his own right. It wouldn't be hard to say that Kessler gives the Jazz a better chance of winning, which is why he's likely not getting the minutes he deserves. Considering how bad the Jazz's defense has been since Hendricks got a bigger role on that side of the ball, it's fair to say he's not helping things.

For the Jazz to lose interest in Kessler despite a poor plan for how to use him would be silly, especially when there are others out there who are suggesting the Jazz replace Kessler with Donovan Clingan. Clingan is a good center prospect in his own right but the idea that the Jazz should bail on Kessler for Kessler 2.0 is silly. The Jazz need to figure out how to get the most out of Kessler and not let something silly like not making threes limit him.

After all, why hold Kessler to a different standard than that of Jordan Clarkson? Clarkson and so many other Jazz players have been awful from three-point range, to demand Kessler be better than a guard at shooting from three is absurd. Kessler has been so mismanaged it's not even funny.

Drafting a replacement for him is the most absurd thing you could do, especially when he'll be held to the same standard.