Cleveland Cavaliers: How Jordan Clarkson can improve on both ends

Getting the others in the action

Clarkson’s heading into his fifth NBA season and has shown he can be a quality player.

In his post-trade deadline stint with the Cavaliers, he had 12.6 points on 45.6 percent shooting and 1.7 assists per game.  Nonetheless, Clarkson has not always shown he can contribute to winning basketball.

In his seasons prior to coming to the Cavs via trade, he was on a non-contending Los Angeles Lakers team and was among the NBA bench leaders in scoring in a volume/liberal shot-hunting role on a young roster.

Playing winning ball as a guard (particularly one likely playing behind a high-usage starting point man in Collin Sexton) is not always about the individual box score, though.

As has been noted by other KJG writers, Clarkson needs to improve his vision and passing skill. He can get a team 15 points any given night, as he’s a quality pull-up shooter in the mid-range area, uses his athleticism well in transition, and is a career 80.7 percent free throw shooter.

That being said, Clarkson’s trigger-happy style (22.1 shots per 100 possessions for his career) does not win games on a consistent basis.

He’s a career 33.9 percent shooter from three-point range, and he wastes too many possessions with contested perimeter shots over length or highly contested drives into the teeth of the defense that isn’t there, often leading to opponent run-outs.

With more time around George Hill and no longer standing on the perimeter watching LeBron, Clarkson will need to show he can make winning decisions via passing and even being a screener at times for Hood, Kyle Korver, Kevin Love or Cedi Osman.

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Off-ball ability allows players to be more efficient in their movement and does not allow opponents to help off Clarkson (who has still not shown enough of a sample size with spot-ups).

If Clarkson does get better there, it’ll open him up more for free throws and layups from drives after close-outs.

When he does drive to the rack, though, he needs to keep defenses more honest. Clarkson has shown nice chemistry with Larry Nance Jr. in pick-and-rolls, and he can find him on lobs after penetration.

He should do that more often with Nance, Tristan Thompson, and at times Ante Zizic. Once defenses react to that, he’ll be able to find the spot-up threats in Love, Osman, Hood and others, or have between-the-legs step-backs himself, a move he’s displayed consistently.

Moreover, he just needs to show he’s a more willing passer in a half-court setting. He is not a consistent enough perimeter shooter to be exclusively be a shooting guard.

Next up: the defensive end.