The Cleveland Cavaliers won yesterday over the Chicago Bulls, and Jordan Clarkson reportedly playing with the flu says a ton about him in this lost season.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I, more than anybody, really, am all for that. When it comes to Cleveland Cavaliers guard Jordan Clarkson, I still am not convinced the dude is really able to consistently run an NBA offense. That’s fine, though, and he’s proven time and time again in his NBA career that he can be a bench microwave. This season, Clarkson has led the Cavs’ qualified players in scoring, and yes, off the bench, with 16.5 points per game, per NBA.com. He’s competed well all season, and Clarkson reportedly playing with the flu yesterday against the Chicago Bulls (per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor) in a lost year bound for a high lottery pick speaks volumes about Clarkson as a teammate and overall competitor.
I still don’t believe Clarkson has the best basketball IQ, and that’s evidenced by him not making the best decisions when it comes to getting his teammates the ball in their sweet spots quick enough consistently, but that’s something I can live with, considering his primary job is to score.
More from Opinion
- Regrading the Donovan Mitchell-Lauri Markkanen trade
- Seat Index: Rating the 9 NBA head coaches in danger of being fired
- What would a successful 2023-24 look like for Cavaliers’ Ty Jerome?
- A crucial year in The Land: 3 bold predictions for the Cavs this season
- How many teams from the Cavs’ Central Division will make the playoffs?
When Clarkson is on the floor for the Cleveland Cavaliers, he has a huge workload, and that makes sense, considering there’s not many players off the pine that can make things happen for themselves often.
The Cleveland bench needs that production from Clarkson nearly every night, and for the most part, even though it hasn’t resulted in many wins, Clarkson has put up his end of the bargain.
Him having 18 points on eight-of-11 shooting, seven rebounds and six assists in 22 minutes against Chicago (per ESPN) is not too shabby with him being under the weather, and the Cavaliers needed all of it.
I admit, I still question Clarkson’s shot selection as much as anyone, but even with that being the case, he does make difficult shots on a number of occasions game-to-game, and the results do speak for themselves in that way. He’s a hustler on both ends as well, and his on-ball defense has improved.
Overall, Clarkson only missing one game in this miserable season (per NBA.com) is impressive, especially with how much the Cleveland Cavaliers have suffered when it comes to injuries this year. Now was Clarkson’s flu the absolute worst thing in the world? I’m going to say probably not, but him being out on the floor means a lot, and he played well anyhow.
This sort of thing may go unnoticed to a certain degree, but one’s best ability, to an extent, is availability, and I would imagine that contending teams around the NBA are noticing this from Clarkson.
Young players such as Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, Deng Adel, Kobi Simmons and Ante Zizic have to be noticing that kind of work ethic, too, and with the way Clarkson is balling this season, you might think those young pieces are probably looking up to him to a certain degree. With the way he’s been playing this year, though, I’m not sure if he’ll last through the upcoming February 7 NBA trade deadline.