No Market for Utah’s Jordan Clarkson?
The direction of the Utah Jazz is apparent.
With 5 players on the roster selected in the first round of the last two NBA draft’s and an average age of 23.08, Utah is all about the youth movement.
The next few years will be all about internal development and growing player’s skillsets rather than chasing championships and banners.
For that reason, one player in particular stands out like a sore thumb.
Jordan Clarkson, the 2020-2021 6th man of the year, is in a unique spot.
A fan favorite, Clarkson is the last remaining member of a Utah Jazz team that once sat atop the western conference.
Thrilling fans with elusive shot making and big time buckets, Clarkson has likely peaked as a player in the highest level of basketball.
Clarkson has no untapped potential, unmarked upside or any hidden talent to necessarily discover, not like the young guys at least, making his fit on a rebuilding team questionable at best.
As the only player over 30 years of age on Utah’s roster and a logjam in the backcourt only increasing in mass, Clarkson seemed like one of the most likely players to be moved this offseason.
Despite not fitting into Utah’s youthful stance, Jordan Clarkson still has a lot to offer in the league and could likely net the Jazz a decent drat pick in the near future as they continue to rebuild.
On paper, that would seem like the situation that may unfold, in reality the smoke around a Clarkson move has been non existent.
The career 16 point per game microwave scorer is coming off a season putting up 17.1 points per game and a career high average in assists with 5 a night.
A lead bench player giving you 17 points and 5 assist a night seems like a good get for a team trying to compete right?
That sounds reasonable until one digs a bit further into the situation, and the silence on the trade market front certainly relates to knowing more.
Clarkson appeared in 55 games, a career low.
Clarkson shot 41.3 % from the field, a career low.
Clarkson shot 29.4 % from three, a career low.
Clarkson shot an effective field goal percentage of 46.9, a career low.
It was statistically the most inefficient season of Clarkson’s career from a pure shooting standpoint.
Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune was quoted discussing the scene on Utah’s third best scorer last season:
Larsen mentions a needed “bounce back” showing, possibly before teams look into trading for the 10th year guard.
As the stats demonstrate, Clarkson may have struggled staying dialed in with a rather noncompetitive team, injuries likely played a factor, and for a multitude of reasons his play slipped a bit despite discovering a solid role as a distributor.
The non interest could also be tied to a porous market:
But market standing or reasoning for struggling shooting aside, it may prove to be more difficult for Utah to move the veteran than initially anticipated.
The market will come around, the interest will return at the very least a week or two into the season as Jordan Clarkson offers too much intrigue to be left alone for long, but as of now, the Jazz will play the patient game, something they've been quite good at recently.