Article: Lakers' Luke Walton encouraging Jordan Clarkson to blend scoring and playmaking

[crazyeights]

“I just wanted to encourage him,” Walton said, “to get back to that.”

In his latest effort to end his inefficient shooting, Clarkson spent the beginning of the Lakers’ seven-game trip this week working on his craft. As soon as the Lakers landed in Sacramento late Monday morning last week, Clarkson, Brandon Ingram and D’Angelo Russell worked with Lakers assistant coach Theo Robertson in the gym until about 3:30 a.m.

“We’re just trying to get back to winning,” Clarkson said.

Clarkson averaged 19.9 points on 49 percent shooting to go with 7.2 assists in the last ten games he played in that season, compared to 14.5 points on 43.5 percent shooting and 2.2 assists this year.

The “advanced” numbers paint an even clearer picture. Clarkson assisted on 33.8 percent of his teammates field goals while on the floor in the last ten games of his rookie year, compared to 12.6 percent this season. It was less of an issue of raw usage (Clarkson is using 23.8 percent of the Lakers’ possessions while on the floor this season as opposed to 24.6 percent during the aforementioned ten game span), so why is Clarkson assisting his teammates so much less this season?

Most of the time it’s because Clarkson is looking more to score. He is averaging 1.2 more shots per-36 minutes this season than he did during that stretch, but even that doesn’t fully explain Clarkson’s drop-off as a playmaker.

http://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2016/12/18/14004176/la-lakers-news-luke-walton-jordan-clarkson-rookie-year-stats-playmaking-scoring-analysis

“We know he’s capable of doing it. We also know he’s a very capable scorer,” Walton said. "We kind of just want him to be in attack mode, but be ready to make the right play each time. Sometimes that’s a shot. Sometimes that’s a pass.”

“I never think I’m in a shooting struggle; you’re going to miss shots,” Clarkson said. “Coach wants me to be aggressive. That’s what I try to do every night when I’m out there on the floor. But at the same time, I have to figure out what’s a good shot and a bad shot.”

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/clarkson-738836-lakers-walton.html

Discuss.

[Kilroy]

Our problem isn't offense. We need one of the guards to focus on perimeter stops, not FG%... We get stops, we'll win a lot more games and with out youth, that should be no problem for us. But right now, our perimeter is a free zone for opposing teams... Especially opposing guards.

So I'm glad Luke's encouraging JC to play better, but I just wish the message was more about the other end of the court. JC may have the most skills out of any of our young guys to become a lock down defender but he's pretty bad at D. Which just makes it that much more frustrating.

[ALL HAIL]

Going back to college, he's never really been a "playmaker".

He's no more a playmaker than Luol Deng, IMO.

If you want to make Clarkson more unselfish, tell him he's the lead guard, and tell him to get everyone involved. If not, if you make him just another guard, he'll always be in his more natural "get mine" mode.

[BEazy]

Glad these guys are at least trying to correct their mistakes. We got a good bunch of kids, even if the fans (myself included) have been harsh on them.

[miggs]

That trade value though if he does improve there...

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[Dr Aki]

luke walton tells clarkson to stop doing his impression of kobe-ball

[john248]

Clarkson can be a bit of a black hole...

[Up-And-Coming]

Glad they did the comparison between Clarkson now and the end of his rookie season. I noticed the difference as well. I had so much expectations for Clarkson as a point guard after his rookie season. He seemed to make excellent decisions in the pick and roll by both knocking down the mid-range jumper (his mid-range jumper seemed near automatic) and also creating for others. I don't know why he's gone away from that and it's clear his playing style has changed.

[tugs]

Because they made it clear from day one that the messiah Russell will be the lead guard and LO version 2 will also share a large part of the cake.

[Slava]

That's a very nice way of asking him to stop ball hogging.

[crazyeights]

The fact that a head coach went out of his way to mid-season watch 10 games of a player's rookie year is fascinating to me (and told the press about it).

Jordan's too early in his career, too naturally gifted, and too hard of a worker to settle for being a gunner.

Dude needs to remove his head from his ass and start hitting the wide open dudes on all of his drives. He needs to make the easy pass to the open man, rather than freeze out Ingram and force it into Lou. It's sort of like how Randle needed to vary his game and stop trying to do it all himself.

Jordan Clarkson has graciously accepted coming off the bench, but he shouldn't accept that his development can remain at a bench-level player.

He's done a nice job turning around his defensive effort, now leading the team at Diff% (percentage points different players he's guarding shoot from their normal averages). This year he's holding guys to -3.3%. Last year they were +3.5%. A 6.8% difference is impressive. It shows when he puts his focus on something, that he can improve.

Jordan should have taken D'Angelo and Nick's injuries as a time for him to shine. Instead he laid a huge egg. He's gotta know that we needed improved guard play to help keep balance offensively. Instead he was chucking.

I don't think it's a mistake that this year, when we win he averages 3.0 assists in fewer minutes than in losses when he averages only 1.7. Move the ball to the open man. Don't settle.

[Kilroy]

I have a bit of a conspiracy theory on Clarkson... I think the team figured Young would be gone by now, and even if he wasn't was going to be a basically useless, end of the bench player. They figured Russell would be tearing it up at PG and they'd have Huertas, Calderon and Lou to back up at 1... So I think they told JC to prepare to be the primary scorer off the bench and play SG... It seemed like that was what he was working on this off season.
He may have been trying to play next to Russell too. So personally, I'm not that upset at JC shooting all the time. Like I said though, I think he's the right person to be focusing on Perimeter D... I wish that was the directive.

[ALL HAIL]

I have a bit of a conspiracy theory on Clarkson... I think the team figured Young would be gone by now, and even if he wasn't was going to be a basically useless, end of the bench player. They figured Russell would be tearing it up at PG and they'd have Huertas, Calderon and Lou to back up at 1... So I think they told JC to prepare to be the primary scorer off the bench and play SG... It seemed like that was what he was working on this off season.
He may have been trying to play next to Russell too. So personally, I'm not that upset at JC shooting all the time. Like I said though, I think he's the right person to be focusing on Perimeter D... I wish that was the directive.

That's not a conspiracy theory at all. I'm pretty sure everything you stated ACTUALLY happened.

[Kilroy]

I have a bit of a conspiracy theory on Clarkson... I think the team figured Young would be gone by now, and even if he wasn't was going to be a basically useless, end of the bench player. They figured Russell would be tearing it up at PG and they'd have Huertas, Calderon and Lou to back up at 1... So I think they told JC to prepare to be the primary scorer off the bench and play SG... It seemed like that was what he was working on this off season.
He may have been trying to play next to Russell too. So personally, I'm not that upset at JC shooting all the time. Like I said though, I think he's the right person to be focusing on Perimeter D... I wish that was the directive.

That's not a conspiracy theory at all. I'm pretty sure everything you stated ACTUALLY happened.

Yeah... I know, but people like to call my basic observations, 'crazy theories'... So what the hell.

[Laker_Kid]

Jordan should have taken D'Angelo and Nick's injuries as a time for him to shine. Instead he laid a huge egg.

exactly this. he let an opportunity slip. hate to admit it but I've been most impressed by Young and Lou than JC.


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[crazyeights]

I have a bit of a conspiracy theory on Clarkson... I think the team figured Young would be gone by now, and even if he wasn't was going to be a basically useless, end of the bench player. They figured Russell would be tearing it up at PG and they'd have Huertas, Calderon and Lou to back up at 1... So I think they told JC to prepare to be the primary scorer off the bench and play SG... It seemed like that was what he was working on this off season.
He may have been trying to play next to Russell too. So personally, I'm not that upset at JC shooting all the time. Like I said though, I think he's the right person to be focusing on Perimeter D... I wish that was the directive.

That's not a conspiracy theory at all. I'm pretty sure everything you stated ACTUALLY happened.

Yeah... I know, but people like to call my basic observations, 'crazy theories'... So what the hell.

I agree with that Kilroy. It's probably why Jordan came off the bench so willingly. They probably really pitched him on being 6th man, and I think actually Lou's play started getting to him. Rather than being the starting SG for the Los Angeles Lakers, or the 6th "starter" he's essentially been relegated to the 5th wheel status.

I think Jordan definitely seems to be making a choice here with his style of play. What's been frustrating is he shouldn't be coming in with June's mentality in December. Things changed and it didn't take a rocket scientist to see his role needed adjusting.

I get the sense that Luke has spent the first season easing into critiquing his players, focusing more on building trust--which is a completely justifiable management style. I just think maybe that should have happened after, you know, the 4th loss in a row.

[The Prodigy]

The fact that a head coach went out of his way to mid-season watch 10 games of a player's rookie year is fascinating to me (and told the press about it).

Jordan's too early in his career, too naturally gifted, and too hard of a worker to settle for being a gunner.

Dude needs to remove his head from his ass and start hitting the wide open dudes on all of his drives. He needs to make the easy pass to the open man, rather than freeze out Ingram and force it into Lou. It's sort of like how Randle needed to vary his game and stop trying to do it all himself.

Jordan Clarkson has graciously accepted coming off the bench, but he shouldn't accept that his development can remain at a bench-level player.

He's done a nice job turning around his defensive effort, now leading the team at Diff% (percentage points different players he's guarding shoot from their normal averages). This year he's holding guys to -3.3%. Last year they were +3.5%. A 6.8% difference is impressive. It shows when he puts his focus on something, that he can improve.

Jordan should have taken D'Angelo and Nick's injuries as a time for him to shine. Instead he laid a huge egg. He's gotta know that we needed improved guard play to help keep balance offensively. Instead he was chucking.

I don't think it's a mistake that this year, when we win he averages 3.0 assists in fewer minutes than in losses when he averages only 1.7. Move the ball to the open man. Don't settle.

You're right on the money here. Russell, Clarkson, Lou and Young seem to look for each quite a bit, often ignoring other open guys. Ingram is probably the main victim of this. His shooting has been far from impressive, but if he's open, he should still get the ball.

[Landsberger]

To me our problem is the offense at times. We rely on 4 guards to do the bulk of our scoring from 15' and out. That will always be up and down. We see it in every game. The offense works well if you have the tools like GS does but we don't have any one player the caliber of their 4th best player so I think the emulating of others success is a little to blame.

If you play great defense and create easy transition buckets it's one thing but when you don't and the 4 guards do all the scoring then you have to live with inconsistent scoring and clutch scoring issues.

It would help if we had a consistent front court scorer of some sort. Ingram is supposed to be that guy but his shooting performances leave little to be desired so far. Moz isn't that guy and Randle is sometimes however he's more of a "broken play" score rather than a go to post scorer. Maybe Zubac can be that guy in a year or two.

I think it's growing pains for both the players and the coaching staff.

To Clarkson specifically, when his shot is not falling he needs to trust the offense. The second unit will get 80% of it's scoring from him and Lou.... so I'm not sure what Walton is really getting at sometimes. Passing to Black or Nance 18 feet away from the hoop isn't really as productive as some may think. Even setting Ingram for easy looks has not been productive. Passing offenses work when you can break down defenses for easy looks. It seems that we only get easy looks when we are in transition or individually break down defenses. When we do make 5 passes or more we still get 20 to 25 foot looks. That's an issue to me. If you make 5 or more passes on the offensive end to shoot a 3 that's not passing to increase shot efficiency IMHO.

When he was scoring and playing much the same way in the first 15 games he was the difference maker in several wins. Now that he's not shooting well and making bad decisions he again is the difference maker it seems. That in of itself may be the issue. Why isn't our starting group the difference makers for us on a consistent basis is a better question. He needs to be much more selective in his shot selection and play within the offense more than he's been doing of late but I think neutering his aggressiveness risks taking away the good in the good/bad we're seeing. He's the only guard we've got that can get to the hoop and finish with some level of effectiveness. Luke needs to find a way to play to his strengths while preserving the offensive integrity.

Overall the team is a work in progress. Without the early success the fan base would be seeing this differently IMHO. Jumping from 17 wins to 35 is historic and typically only associated with a superstar coming back from injury. To me this team is ahead of schedule not in trouble.

[LakerCrunch]

Whoah... Walton providing some validation that Scott's offense worked. lol
problem with this is that Walton's offense is not really similar to Scott's... Clarkson was able to probe and make plays with Scott's offense.

[Ballerhogger]

Defense and shooting needs the most improvement . Rather trade him to be honest