The Cleveland Cavaliers will likely be involved in trades in the coming weeks and months, and Jordan Clarkson continues to be show why he’s one of their best trade pieces.
The Cleveland Cavaliers appear to be sellers the rest of this season, and with the February 7th NBA trade deadline nearing, the team will continue to have rumors surrounding them with trades. One of the key pieces that could be involved is Jordan Clarkson, who has been Cleveland’s leading scorer this season with 16.9 points per game.
Cleveland is probably going to be picking in the high lottery in the 2019 NBA Draft, and with the Cavaliers having Collin Sexton and Matthew Dellavedova (and potentially Rodney Hood) next season in prominent on-ball roles, trading Clarkson seems to be a logical move.
The Cavs and general manager Koby Altman do need to keep acquiring assets, such as a combination of a developmental piece and a draft pick or two from a team with postseason aspirations.
The Athletic’s Joe Vardon (subscription required), touched on if Clarkson, “the leading scorer on a rebuilding team,” would be a player contenders would have their eyes on, and later said “the right offer would probably pry him from Cleveland.”
Clarkson has been stellar this season for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ bench, as our own Eli Mooneyham demonstrated recently.
"“If the Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t buried in the league standings, Clarkson might be flirting with Sixth Man of the Year considerations.”"
Clarkson is not on one of the league’s best teams, so it’s understandable for some to potentially say that his scoring production is a bit overblown. That’s a reasonable take, but it’s also fair to give Clarkson credit for continually to play hard every night and do his best in leading the bench scoring output.
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While he’s had a career-high in usage of 29.5 percent (showing he’s not been shy in shooting the ball), he’s also had a career-best mark in offensive box plus-minus (1.7) and PER (17.4, per Basketball Reference).
Clarkson is a guy that can create for himself well, as we’ve hit on countless times here at KJG, and that ability is something contending teams would always welcome in spurts off the bench, as we highlighted earlier in the season.
The aforementioned Vardon said how Clarkson is “making the most of a bad situation.”
With Clarkson continually leading the Cleveland Cavaliers in scoring even with not many pieces around him that can create for themselves, one would have to think it could be easier for him with more spacing and playmaking on a better team.
Jordan Clarkson is 26, and his contract expires after the 2019-20 season (per Spotrac), so I would think Cleveland should get some bites from other teams. Considering they reportedly got future draft picks for older veterans in George Hill from the Milwaukee Bucks and Kyle Korver from the Utah Jazz, Cleveland should definitely get more future picks for Clarkson.
With Clarkson having a good year and him probably not getting nearly the same usage next season, his trade value is likely at its highest right now for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They should strike while the iron is hot.