Jordan Clarkson

[randle3030]

JC looks great in the last game, how high is his celling? do you think he will be our future star?
i think JC can be our long term plan

[Dr Aki]

despite his athleticism, his defense is suspect and as such will probably never play PG full time

he also needs to work on his jumper, and is seemingly out of control when he drives and also needs to work on his handles

at best a 7th man

[ckman]

should had given Price's minutes to develop long ago

[randle3030]

monta ellis is great comparison to JC?

[aaron_gray]

In terms of offense, for him to become a threat in the half court, he has to develop some semblance of a 3. Even if he can hit it at something like a 34% clip at decent volume, he'll save himself from the Schroeder treatment where the defense takes 3 steps back and dares him to shoot.

I maintain that the best way to use him is to just give him the green light as a one man fast break and have him create in the same manner that leveraged Bledsoe, Westbrook, Wall and Rose's speed. And he's not the grounded kind of fast, so he should draw a decent amount of fouls once he develops a reputation.





Also, for the fans who keep complaining that Scott doesn't run p/rs, the 2nd half of the previous game was basically Clarkson coming down and running a p/r the first play. Now there are obviously problems with that, such as no misdirection to get the defense off-balance etc, but apparently Byron does not hate Clarkson running the p/r.

his defense is suspect

What part of his defense is suspect?

[Dr Aki]

the part where he gets blown by, gambles too much with his hands instead of moving his feet and gets caught in screens too easily

[aaron_gray]

I don't see him getting blown by, nor do I see him reaching. Can you point to specific plays last game where he was blown by?

In terms of getting caught in screens, he does do that, but at least he hustles back for the contest. He was trying to go under every screen last night, and somehow he still got caught in the middle of them lol.

[EArl]

Guys i think he gets under unitized by Byron Scott. Someone please open a thread to complain about it.

[Marionettetc]

I really wish old man Kobe would move over and let JC develop. He already had his time and chance at minutes this year and blew it by getting hurt.

BS needs to play him more or we should be balling for his head. That's why we needed Mad Dog to be coach, he doesn't see color

[Michael Lucky]

Ceiling is really just a back up PG unless he learns to develop a consistent jumper.

[Slava]

I'd give him about 20 games before I call anything regarding him inconsistent. He has shown very good speed, shooting touch and aggressiveness both on offense and defense. I actually thought he played Tony Parker as well as any rookie can play him.

[Michael Lucky]

I'd give him about 20 games before I call anything regarding him inconsistent. He has shown very good speed, shooting touch and aggressiveness both on offense and defense. I actually thought he played Tony Parker as well as any rookie can play him.

let me put it this way, I haven't seen anything about his jumper so far when you include his past play in college that would lead me to believe he has a consistent jumper at this point. May he develop one, sure, but that remains to be seen and in order to show that he definitely needs to be getting more playing time than he's been getting. I just hope Scott gets over his infatuation with Price's old school mentality and allows the rookie to see consistent time, not just a game here and there.

[what would jack bauer do?]

I don't see him getting blown by, nor do I see him reaching. Can you point to specific plays last game where he was blown by?

In terms of getting caught in screens, he does do that, but at least he hustles back for the contest. He was trying to go under every screen last night, and somehow he still got caught in the middle of them lol.

I think Dr. Aki is talking about Clarkson earlier in the season; and he's right about that, but his last game was a completely different story. That last game by Clarkson was actually the best defensive performance we've seen from a Lakers pg in years. You know how Kobe talks about every defender has a breaking point? IMO Clarkson did not break last game. Parker may have scored on some possessions and shed clarkson, but clarkson fought through screens and really used his explosiveness to recover. There's no doubt that Parker felt his defensive presence on quite a few plays and that's something unheard of for years in LA.

But the fact that Clarkson stopped giving so much cushion on his man last game and really tried to get into his defender to prevent getting blown by or crossed over was GREAT progress. And that's what has my eye here, he's a young player that's listening and learning from the coaches (and even from Price's example). If you think Lin is underutilized you're ignoring the defensive end of the floor because frankly Price ain't even that good of a defender but he's much better than Lin. And last game Clarkson with his length and willingness to lay it all out on the defensive end of the floor showed he can be a good defender at the toughest position to defend in the NBA. Now the only question is if he can maintain that for 82 games with his skinnier frame.

[what would jack bauer do?]

Ceiling is really just a back up PG unless he learns to develop a consistent jumper.

I agree with you here about being a backup pg as his ceiling, but I'm thinking a very high end back up like Devin Harris was back in the day. I think he'll be one of those guys that you say "ok this guy could be a starter on another team". I'd love to see him backing up a reggie jackson here in LA.

But I don't agree with you on his jumper, in his limited attempts this season he's been pretty solid. What I love about his size is if he's able to maintain his defensive effort against speedster pg's; he has a great advantage over them on the other end of the floor. He gets great elevation and his jumper is unaffected by opposing pg's contesting him.

[Slava]

I'd give him about 20 games before I call anything regarding him inconsistent. He has shown very good speed, shooting touch and aggressiveness both on offense and defense. I actually thought he played Tony Parker as well as any rookie can play him.

let me put it this way, I haven't seen anything about his jumper so far when you include his past play in college that would lead me to believe he has a consistent jumper at this point. May he develop one, sure, but that remains to be seen and in order to show that he definitely needs to be getting more playing time than he's been getting. I just hope Scott gets over his infatuation with Price's old school mentality and allows the rookie to see consistent time, not just a game here and there.

The problem is that he takes very few catch and shoot jumpers. He takes a lot of his off the dribble, which is why he has always had lower percentages across the board.

I'd also want to see him get high screens to utilize his drive and kick game, which Scott isn't allowing him to. Right now he dribbles up the court and sets up the initial action of the Princeton offense, then if lucky gets it back with about 5 seconds left to create a shot for himself off the dribble while Hill, Ellington etc take their turns going iso inbetween.

[Michael Lucky]

Yeah he was definitely shooting the ball much better from 3 off the catch and shoot in the preseason.

[Laker_Kid]

JClark actually reminds me of... Jeremy Lin. If he can get as close to a Tony Parker as he can get, that would be better.

[aaron_gray]

So apparently Scott will keep with the starting lineup for the next 15-20 games. Ed is not going to be happy, but then again, he's only here for contract purposes. Honestly if he has to back up Sacre here I can't see his agent rejecting a trade.

[aaron_gray]

Well, the good news is that rookies tend to shoot very poorly from deep. Blame it on adjusting from the college line, blame it on lack of attempts, blame it on higher intensity, whatever. Ben Mac, who was lauded with Ray Allen comparisons coming out of college, shot 32% his rookie year. He's shooting 35 from deep and 45 from the field this year.

The bad news is that Clarkson missed his jumpers last game pretty badly. I saw him air ball a Kobe fadeaway and he damn near banked a pull-up 3. He needs to know when and where to shoot in order to become a threat and earn respect from the defense. A lot of the high volume 3 point shooting point guards earn their shooters rep by pulling up from deep off the pick and roll. That would be a horrible waste of his physical attributes, but that's something you can at least work on in practice to get a bit of rhythm.

There was one D Rose like push shot that he didn't miss too badly. I'd love for that to become part of his game.

He lost his handle a couple times when he drove into the defense, which was collapsing like crazy. Just take a layup next time.

The dude's going to need a big game soon if he wants to keep hold of management's faith in him.

[dipstick]

Its hard to judge Clarkson or anybody else on the roster this season because the roster just seems too unconventional even compared to other tanking teams. We are not really loaded with any young players with upside. (Maybe even none after Randle's injury). After Kobe's injury, we don't have that superstar on a bad team that you can pass to. We don't even have a legitimate NBA center or a legitimate starting caliber NBA point guard.

Guys like Ed Davis, Lin, Boozer and even Clarkson would have looked a lot better if Randle and Kobe were still available and Steve Nash could have played even in limited minutes. Right now, the roster is just a mess. Its just a wonder that the team is still able to compete on some nights.

Best thing to happen now is for us to get as high a pick as possible, get Randle back, get lucky with that Houston pick, get Kobe back, get a star/borderline star FA or 2 and build from there. If we are able to do that, and if we are willing to start rookies next year, then we can have a revamped starting 5 with talent. We can still keep some of this year's players as role players off the bench. Wouldn't get us immediately into championship level but I think that would be a start. Then we can make another splash once Kobe's contract comes off the books and the CAP jumps with the new TV deal.