Does Jordan Clarkson continue on his upward trajectory?
Cavaliers guard Jordan Clarkson is fresh off a career year, and factoring in that Kevin Love only appeared in 22 games mostly due to reported toe surgery last season, I’d consider Clarkson, who had a career-high 16.8 points per game, Cleveland’s leading scorer in 2018-19.
More from King James Gospel
- 3 possible starting lineups for Cleveland Cavaliers in 2023-24
- The Cavaliers may have snagged a hidden gem in Craig Porter Jr.
- 4 players the Cavaliers should pursue in 2024 free agency
- 6 players Cavaliers might replace Jarrett Allen with by the trade deadline
- This stat is one to keep an eye on for Cavaliers’ Max Strus in years ahead
With Love hopefully healthier this season, and likely re-establishing himself as Cleveland’s number one option on the offensive end as an inside-out security blanket for Garland, Sexton and others, he should be Cleveland’s leading scorer.
Love’s ability to go to work in the low and mid-post, and of course, shoot three-pointers at a relatively high clip, as evidenced by a career hit rate of 37.0% on 4.4 attempts per game (per Basketball Reference), is the reason for that.
Anyhow, Clarkson did showcase his ability to get buckets all throughout last season for the Cleveland Cavaliers and was one of the NBA’s best bench scorers, and that was with pretty limited spacing around him in considerable stretches of games.
With seemingly better spacing, and with Clarkson on an expiring deal and appearing to be arguably the Cavs’ best trade chip this season, I’ll be excited to see if Clarkson working out with legendary guard Kobe Bryant this offseason (as reported by Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor) can pay dividends for his overall game.
Plus, this game against the Magic, who had the league’s eighth-best defensive rating in 2018-19, and who have a ton of length, could be a solid measuring stick for Clarkson, who also reportedly could play the small forward position some in 2019-20 for Beilein.
In addition, with rookie wing Dylan Windler, who was a natural replacement for Osman in some minutes, likely to miss a bit of the start of the year due to a stress reaction in his leg, I’d expect to see JC at the 3 some right at the season’s outset, too.
Defensively, that could be tough, as our own Corey Casey highlighted, but Clarkson could get some favorable matchups against the likes of Fournier and/or the Orlando wing Terrence Ross, who is undoubtedly an offensive perimeter player (though a good one, too).
So, again, though, seeing if JC, who reportedly worked a ton on improving his catch-and-shoot and off-ball/cutting ability (per Fedor) can keep on an upward trajectory and start well will be intriguing to me in this one.