Cleveland Cavaliers guard Jordan Clarkson recently hit on how he’s getting ever more used to just letting it fly from three-point range, and more confidence from there makes him even more dangerous.
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Jordan Clarkson really established himself as a key scorer for Cleveland in the 2018-19 season. Outside of big Kevin Love, who was only active in 22 reported games last season mostly due to reported toe surgery, Clarkson led the Cavaliers in scoring with 16.8 points per game, as noted by NBA.com.
That led to Clarkson and then-rookie guard Collin Sexton taking the reigns as the Cavs’ two primary scoring options, with Clarkson operating in a reserve role.
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This season, though the Cavaliers have been healthier, and most notably, in regards to Love and starting center Tristan Thompson being active on most occasions, Clarkson’s not had nearly the same burden, but he’s still a key piece in Cleveland’s rotation as a bench bucket-getter.
Clarkson has made his mark for first-year head coach John Beilein off the bench, and is currently third on the Cavaliers in scoring with 14.6 points per contest, behind the leader in Sexton and Kevin Love, according to NBA.com.
Though I still am not a fan of Clarkson when he’s occasionally pounding the ball air out of the ball and causing possessions to have stagnant offense, that hasn’t been the case nearly as much this season, and he’s been more decisive. He’s also shown better passing ability this season, too, and that’s been really good to see.
Given the pressure Clarkson puts on opposing defenses, he will always be a tough cover, but an assist rate of 18.7% (as indicated by NBA.com) is a particularly healthy one for his primary role being a perimeter scorer in his minutes on the floor.
At any rate, what’s been especially encouraging from Clarkson thus far in the 2019-20 season is his willingness to just let it fly from three-point range.
Of course, with more players that can make plays for themselves and others alongside Clarkson, such as Love in some minutes, along with rookies Darius Garland and Kevin Porter Jr. more as of late, too, as opposed to most of last year, I can understand Clarkson being more comfortable, off-the-catch even more so, from deep this season.
I understand that it’s only been a 29-game sample size to this point, but Clarkson is hitting 37.1% from three-point range, which would be a career-high for a season, according to Basketball Reference. In addition, that’s come with Clarkson having having what would be a career-best three-point rate of 48.8%.
Again, I’m not saying that rate will stick throughout the entirety of this season, but it is again, encouraging, and it seems that Clarkson’s uptick from deep is due to him being more confident in simply letting it go more based on these recent comments.
https://twitter.com/cavs/status/1209151105583726593?s=20
Clarkson is hitting 41.9% on 3.2 catch-and-shoot three-pointers per game this year, according to NBA.com’s player tracking data. Along with that, he’s had what would be a career-best in terms of frequency on catch-and-shoot triples of 28.5%.
With Clarkson having more willingness to take those looks, it’s enabled him to really take advantage when defenders are going under screens, as he noted, and Clarkson’s been able to get plenty of cuts backdoor when opponents are pressing out, along with get quality off-screen looks to fire away.
That was shown in Friday’s win against the Memphis Grizzlies, when JC had a season-high 33 points on 12-of-17 shooting (including six-of-eight from deep) as shown by Basketball Reference. His chemistry with Larry Nance Jr. continues to be on display, and John Henson has made some nice deliveries to Clarkson and others in recent weeks, too.
Moreover, Clarkson showcasing more catch-and-shoot willingness and being less reluctant to pass up triples to get into the mid-range area is a good sign in terms of the Cavaliers potentially trading him near the 2020 deadline.
The 27-year-old Clarkson would seem to be a prime candidate for contenders to trade for down the road, as our own Tyler Marling highlighted and reporters have often suggested given JC’s expiring contract, and his three-point shooting growth I’d imagine will only get more bites for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Perhaps the Cavaliers could eventually try to bring back Clarkson, but to me, I’d rather them try to move him, given that Garland, Sexton and Porter need to get the majority of guard minutes in coming years, and those pieces need the ball in their hands often to develop gradually under Beilein and company.
Again, though, it’s really good to see Clarkson firing away from three-point range this season seemingly due to him being more confident from there. That makes him even more dangerous and helps open up driving lanes and lob passes for others.