Don't Sleep on Jordan Clarkson (and our Guard Play)

[crazyeights]

This guy has all the makings of a maniac. Dude's a gym rat.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/NBA/status/634410572671356928[/tweet]

I love to see that Jordan's hunger's translated over to the summer. He looked very seasoned in Summer League.

He's 23 years old and if he keeps it up he could be a very valuable weapon and complement to Russell's skill-set. With both of their size, Jordan's athleticism and ability to break guys down off the dribble and get to the rim, and Russell's shooting...man I'm excited about our future backcourt.

Add in a few workouts with Nash, and hopefully a relatively healthy year of Kobe and his guidance, and these guys could be electric to watch.

Russell/JC/Kobe/Williams. We could have a really strong guard rotation for the first time in a long time.

[dockingsched]

In half court sets I think seeing Clarkson as the "pg" breaking down the defense off the dribble with Russell off the ball coming off screens for the quick shots or coming off screens for the sweet pass when defense has to adjust to him is going to be the best.

[Slava]

In half court sets I think seeing Clarkson as the "pg" breaking down the defense off the dribble with Russell off the ball coming off screens for the quick shots or coming off screens for the sweet pass when defense has to adjust to him is going to be the best.

What is the theoretical max Clarkson could command after this season?

[crazyeights]

In half court sets I think seeing Clarkson as the "pg" breaking down the defense off the dribble with Russell off the ball coming off screens for the quick shots or coming off screens for the sweet pass when defense has to adjust to him is going to be the best.

What is the theoretical max Clarkson could command after this season?

Here's a nice write-up here:
http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2015/07/29/lakers-jordan-clarkson-free-agent-2016/

All of this sounds sort of scary, but it really isn’t. Yes, the contracts the Rockets doled out to nab Lin and Asik contained “poison pill” third years similar to that which Pelton describes as a possibility for Clarkson. And, yes, those players’ incumbent teams (the Knicks and Bulls) balked at paying those prices (the Knicks because…who can explain the Knicks and the Bulls because they’re notoriously cheap considering their profit margins). In theory, then, the Lakers might also balk at paying Clarkson a huge amount in the 3rd year of his deal.

But that’s in theory. In practice, I don’t imagine the Lakers deliberating too hard on whether to pay Clarkson huge money in the 3rd year of his deal should he show, next season, he’s on the upward trajectory to be even close to worth that money. I say this with confidence for two reasons:

1. By the time Clarkson would be earning that large amount, the cap is very likely to be over $100 million. Clarkson’s salary, then, would be roughly 20% of the cap, which is below the first tier of “max” contracts under the current CBA. (The max contract tiers are currently 25% for players with 0-6 years experience, 30% for players with 7-9 years experience, and 35% for players with 10 or more years experience.)

2. The Lakers’ plan — whether flawed or not — is to fill out their roster over the next two summers with max (or, at the very least, highly paid) free agents. With this, Clarkson not getting paid big money until the 3rd year of his deal is less of an issue than if he was getting big money in one of the first two years of his deal.

[TylersLakers]

I think he'll be our best player this year start to finish. Kobe will have better numbers but he won't play in as many games.

[Slava]

In half court sets I think seeing Clarkson as the "pg" breaking down the defense off the dribble with Russell off the ball coming off screens for the quick shots or coming off screens for the sweet pass when defense has to adjust to him is going to be the best.

What is the theoretical max Clarkson could command after this season?

Here's a nice write-up here:
http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2015/07/29/lakers-jordan-clarkson-free-agent-2016/

All of this sounds sort of scary, but it really isn’t. Yes, the contracts the Rockets doled out to nab Lin and Asik contained “poison pill” third years similar to that which Pelton describes as a possibility for Clarkson. And, yes, those players’ incumbent teams (the Knicks and Bulls) balked at paying those prices (the Knicks because…who can explain the Knicks and the Bulls because they’re notoriously cheap considering their profit margins). In theory, then, the Lakers might also balk at paying Clarkson a huge amount in the 3rd year of his deal.

But that’s in theory. In practice, I don’t imagine the Lakers deliberating too hard on whether to pay Clarkson huge money in the 3rd year of his deal should he show, next season, he’s on the upward trajectory to be even close to worth that money. I say this with confidence for two reasons:

1. By the time Clarkson would be earning that large amount, the cap is very likely to be over $100 million. Clarkson’s salary, then, would be roughly 20% of the cap, which is below the first tier of “max” contracts under the current CBA. (The max contract tiers are currently 25% for players with 0-6 years experience, 30% for players with 7-9 years experience, and 35% for players with 10 or more years experience.)

2. The Lakers’ plan — whether flawed or not — is to fill out their roster over the next two summers with max (or, at the very least, highly paid) free agents. With this, Clarkson not getting paid big money until the 3rd year of his deal is less of an issue than if he was getting big money in one of the first two years of his deal.

Nice! The breakdown he provided in the comments section was helpful.

Darius Soriano July 29, 2015 at 3:23 pm

anonymous,

If the Lakers are put in a position to match a contract with a poison pill season, the cap hit will match the structure of the contract. So, for example, say a team like the Hornets offered Clarkson a contract for $50 million over 4 years, the structure might look like this:

year 1: $5 million
year 2: $5.5 million
year 3: $19.5 million
year 4: $20 million

For the Hornets, the cap hits for those years would be $12.5 million each year. But the cap hit for the Lakers would be exactly like the structure of the contract where they would be paying those small amounts in years 1 & 2 with balloon payments in years 3 & 4. I hope this makes sense.

Even if he makes $20 mil, on a $108 mil cap, that'd be the equivalent of him making $13 mil on the current cap, which he probably is worth depending on what he shows this season.

[FrozenIceCubes]

Clarksons offensive explosiveness is the closest to what Westbrook displays...

[Lakers415]

haha, JC won't get that money Lin got from Morey....

Lin carried the knicks when Stat and Melo all went down.

It was essentially, lin, Fields, Chandler, Smith, Jeffries, and toney douglas....

[Lakers415]

I have 0 faith in JC being a laker longterm... HE can prove me wrong, but I highly doubt it.

[TN3LL662]

I have 0 faith in JC being a laker longterm... HE can prove me wrong, but I highly doubt it.

Why is that?

[kblo247]

Clarksons offensive explosiveness is the closest to what Westbrook displays...

Russ was never defensively inept, and if anything he's more Francis than Westbrook

[Up-And-Coming]

Here's another video of Clarkson's offseason workout. I personally think Clarkson will be the Laker's best player this season. He has shown that he puts in the work to continue to improve. I disagree with the above statement, Clarkson is not inept on defense and I have seen enough to believe that he can be solid on that end of the court. Not to mention no one can stay in front of him and his midrange shot is money. He still has to really improve his 3 pointer and work on getting fouled more, but I have high hopes for him

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os_FMRy0E5w[/youtube]

[Marionettetc]

I also have zero faith in Clarkson being a long term Laker.

Whenever I hear him speak in interviews about anything, he seemingly exudes "checked out", and this year will be a contract year for him. I think he's moved or leaves for more money somewhere else depending on his play. I get the impression he thinks he's a better player than he really is, the Lakers org knows this and is planning to get rid of him.

[BEazy]

“Our vision would be that both of those players play together in the backcourt for 10-12 years,” Kupchak said recently on SiriusXM NBA Radio with Brian Geltzeiler and Rick Mahorn. “That’s what we’re hoping for. We don’t look at them as players that can’t play with each other or have to play with somebody else. We think they can play together.”

http://www.insidesocal.com/lakers/2015/07/27/mitch-kupchak-envisions-dangelo-russell-jordan-clarkson-playing-together-in-next-10-12-years/

Mitch envisions Clarkson and Russell backcourt longterm. No idea why yall think he isn't going to be with the Lakers longterm...

[Jakay]

Clarkson isn't a guy who is a make or break talent, nor should he be seen as much. He's a mid second round pick who's contributing well, and that in and of itself is already fantastic. He's one of those guys you magically round out rosters with, and I don't think he's a top flight talent myself, but if he can be that PG/SG dual backup, that's a great role that always needs filling, especially since Lou Will is really just more of a straight up SG these days (Lou's an instant offence black hole, expect nothing less on this team).

[dockingsched]

I also have zero faith in Clarkson being a long term Laker.

Whenever I hear him speak in interviews about anything, he seemingly exudes "checked out", and this year will be a contract year for him. I think he's moved or leaves for more money somewhere else depending on his play. I get the impression he thinks he's a better player than he really is, the Lakers org knows this and is planning to get rid of him.

I definitely don't ever get this feeling when hearing him talk. I always get the sense that he loves the Hollywood limelight and wouldn't give it up for anything.

As far has his long term projection I think right now he benefitted a lot from the big role he played in the second half last year. I think he requires a lot of ball dominance to be effective. I see him as a Jamal Crawford type player. Good enough to be an effective starter but ideally off the bench as a 6th man that can dominate the ball while the starters rest.

[Sofa King]

Yeah, don't sleep on him. He prefers to be on top.

[Kangaroohop]

I wouldn't be shocked if he recieved MIP this season
If just if we loose Kobe again, I can see him being the leader for this team


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[john248]

His ceiling is Monta Ellis, but I don't think he'll be as good as Ellis. If Clarkson doesn't improve dramatically with his 3 PT shot, it's fairly useless off-ball aside from some cuts as we saw him both he and Lin were on the court together. Needs the ball in his hands to be effective especially since his catch and shoot isn't reliable. His playmaking still needs work dispite some of the drive and dish highlights we see. Ball movment, even in summer league, was lacking a bit during his rookie year and in the summer since he was looking to score first it seemed.

Still a starter worthy player for most teams is what he'll likely be so long as he continues to work hard. Glad he's on the team as part of the youth movement. Certainly is a great 2nd round pick who's playing like someone who should've been drafted at the end of the lottery. His read and recognition will improve as he plays more. Whether he turns out to be a poor man's Ellis or Crawford, he's still a good player to have given the state of the roster.

[TyCobb]

You don't have that kind of work ethic and become anything less than a star. Agreed with cash that he loves everything about LA and sees a real opportunity for himself to cash in and he's doing everything he can to take advantage of it.