Jordan Clarkson is not a starter for the Utah Jazz and for good reason. He's not good on defense at all, he's inefficient when he shoots, he's a turnover machine and he's largely just not as good as he thinks himself to be. Despite being 10th on the team in BPM (-4.4), and 11th in true shooting, Clarkson still takes shots like he's on Lauri Markkanen's level.
Markkanen and Clarkson tied for the team lead in shots attempted against the San Antonio Spurs, but Markkanen went 12-17 for an average of 70%, while Clarkson went 7-17 for an average of 41%. He tanked his performance by going 2-8 from three, something he's not done well at all season. He's shot just 30% from three all year and is somehow still given the green light by the Jazz's coaching staff to shoot at will.
And we're not sure why. He's proven he's not that guy anymore, and is actively hindering the Jazz's offense when he takes ill-advised shots from deep. This is made even worse with the emergence of Simone Fontecchio as the team's rotation guy. He's the team's best three-point shooter, hitting nearly 41% of his attempts, second behind Kelly Olynyk. Unlike Olynyk, though, who's only hitting about one per game, Fontecchio is taking four shots per game minimum.
Since he started getting more reps at the end of November, Fontecchio has become a far more effecient shooter and has become a much-needed member of the Jazz's rotation. His shooting is part of the reason why the Jazz are on their hot streak right now. When Clarkson jacks up an ill-advised three (which is anytime he shoots them), he takes away from guys like Fontecchio, Markkanen, John Collins and Ochai Agbaji. All better three-point shooters.
Clarkson's desire to still pretend he's this Kobe Bryant-like player is going to lead to him being out of the league sooner than fans may want to believe. If you won't play defense, and you're not efficiently scoring points, what value do you have for a team in the modern NBA? Clarkson has to be reined in by the coaching staff even as a bench guy, or he's just going to make too many games closer than they really need to be.