Cleveland Cavaliers: Jordan Clarkson must adjust to double-teams

Jordan Clarkson is one of the more enigmatic players on the Cleveland Cavaliers, and as the year progresses (and his career in general), he must welcome double-teams and make proper plays out of that pressure.

Objectively looking at it, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Jordan Clarkson is one of the better bench scorers in the NBA. He’s averaging 15.5 points on an effective field goal percentage of 50.6 in 24.3 minutes per game, and that point total is tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Derrick Rose (who has a 50 point-game and is killing it this season). Clarkson being able to score as a reserve is nothing knew, though, and what will be crucial for him as his career progresses is whether or not he can be a better passer when defenses key in on him. We’ve addressed that ad nauseam here at KJG, but as Clarkson gets double-teamed more frequently, how he handles those situations is massive for both his and Cleveland’s ceiling in the near future.

For the most part, Clarkson has been able to attack mismatches this season in pick-and-roll situations, with a combination of Larry Nance Jr., Tristan Thompson and Ante Zizic as screeners. That’s the main reason that Clarkson has placed in the 82nd percentile as a pick-and-roll ball-handling scorer (on a frequency of 36.1 percent, per Synergy Sports Technology), this season.

Nonetheless, he’s a career 14.2 points-per-game scorer, and he’s proven he can mismatch-hunt for some time now. At this point, I’d imagine head coach Larry Drew wants to see Clarkson keep getting better as a passer, in particular, when he’s doubled as the focal point of the second unit offense.

On the season, he’s averaging 2.1 assists per game and 3.0 assists per 36 minutes, per Basketball Reference. Ideally, though, as we’ve noted here at KJG, Clarkson needs to start delivering better entry passes and start ball swings more consistently, instead of probing the defense, and elevating in mid-clock situations off-balance and shooting mid-range jumpers over length.

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While he will make those shots at times, I can’t imagine Drew is loving those plays; unfortunately, much like J.R. Smith, Clarkson loves his contested jumpers. For a combo guard that is in his fifth season, though, he needs to pass a bit more to open up more scoring opportunities for himself. Clarkson is a scorer that loves the mid-range J, and he’s been burying it.

On shots 10-16 feet from the rim (on a frequency of 16.5 percent) and 16 feet to the three-point arc (on a frequency of 14.5 percent), Clarkson is shooting 59.5 and 45.9 percent, per Basketball Reference. If that’s in the flow of the offense, that’s okay, but Clarkson has tunnel vision too often, and doesn’t move the ball to his teammates as much as he should as the second unit primary ball-handler.

Clarkson is not a player that’s going to turn it over a ton for a guard (with a turnover rate of 10.8 percent), as Cedi Osman does for example, but Clarkson doesn’t have the passing vision of an Osman, Andrew Harrison, Nance and/or Kevin Love.

In Cleveland’s last game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Clarkson only had five shot attempts, and credit Minnesota for taking his aggressiveness away from him. Clarkson wants to get his shots up (he’s putting up 13.4 per game), and often going against second unit backcourts, he’s been feasting; to his credit, he’s been pretty efficient this year.

Still, he’s not a player who’s been exactly known to adjust in his career; the dude’s going to shoot and not affect the game in other ways, I’m just calling it how everyone sees it to this point. If Clarkson can effectively pass out of double-teams and find the proper ball reversals to attack the opposing blitz, he’ll be able to use his scouting report to his advantage and then return to his ultra-aggressive form. Drew touched on that and how Clarkson can grow going forward, per Basketball Insiders’ Spencer Davies.

It’s early in the season, so I’ll give him and Drew time to flip the script. The fact of the matter is, for Cleveland to score enough, they need Clarkson to impact the game with his shot-making off the bounce in the halfcourt and in transition. Games where he only gets five shot attempts aren’t going to be wins, whether I like him shooting as often as he wants to or not.

However, if Clarkson is going to be playing 22 minutes as a combo guard in his fifth season (Collin Sexton is a rookie), I’d expect Clarkson to have more than two assists with how much he controls possessions.

That’s something I’d like to see him develop as the Cleveland Cavaliers’ rebuild continues. I’m not 100 percent giving up on his passing potential, but if this trend continues for a rebuilding team, you have to strongly consider trading Clarkson. He can definitely help contenders with his scoring spurts and with his contract expiring after 2019-20, he should have some suitors.