Jordan Clarkson was reportedly “happy” to be traded by the Cleveland Cavaliers in what was back in December.
Jordan Clarkson was quite the bench bucket-getter for the Cleveland Cavaliers, most of which came during the 2018-19 campaign and some in 2019-20 as well. In 2018-19, in what was Clarkson’s first full season with the Cavaliers after he was acquired near the 2018 trade deadline from the Los Angeles Lakers, Clarkson led Cleveland in scoring.
Then he had 16.8 points per game, and excluding Kevin Love, who was only active in 22 games then, mostly due to toe surgery, Clarkson again the Cavs regular rotation players in scoring. In his time as a Cav, Clarkson fully leaned into a bench scoring role, and had plenty of success in doing so for the Wine and Gold.
With the Cavaliers, Clarkson averaged 15.5 points per game, to go with 2.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists per outing in 138 appearances. While Clarkson’s first postseason experience of his career back in 2018 with LeBron James, Kevin Love and others with the Cavs was an especially rough one, Clarkson often played well in what he was asked to do following that.
As the Cavs shifted to a rebuild, he provided quite a scoring punch off the bench, and in his play with Cleveland in 2019-20, did show signs of growth off the ball and as a passer. In any case, due to Clarkson being on an expiring contract, seemingly in large part, he was eventually traded to the Utah Jazz in December by Cleveland in exchange for what were two future second-round picks and Dante Exum.
In relation to that, Clarkson was “happy” to be traded by the Cavs, per a recent report from The Athletic‘s Joe Vardon (subscription required), and that’s not completely shocking, really.
Postseason action/being on a quality team seemingly plays into Clarkson enjoying being dealt by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers do have promising young pieces in Collin Sexton and Kevin Porter Jr. while still having Kevin Love, and Larry Nance Jr. and Andre Drummond, realistically, for instance, are quality bigs to have. It is still clear, though, that Cleveland is rebuilding, and again, postseason action I would imagine plays into why Clarkson was happy to be traded by the Cavs.
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Albeit the novel coronavirus-induced hiatus happening after Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 reportedly complicated things between Gobert and Utah’s Donovan Mitchell, who tested positive following Gobert.
But in terms of Clarkson’s perspective, though he is on an expiring contract and is set to be an unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason, I can understand why he was a fan of being traded by the Cavs and postseason action now plays into that.
Now the Jazz being without Mike Conley, who left the NBA bubble for the birth of his son, per a report from ESPN’s Eric Woodyard, and being set to miss at least the first two games of Utah’s series against the Denver Nuggets, won’t be easy for Utah. Conley missed Game 1, for further context, albeit his absence is more than warranted.
Utah not having Bojan Bogdanovic due to prior wrist surgery a few months back didn’t aid their postseason chances, either, though.
In any case, Clarkson being able to play on a postseason club and not being involved in a rebuild still with the Cleveland Cavaliers wasn’t a surprise to hear from Vardon’s report. Vardon then noted how though he was “apprehensive” about the Utah move before, Clarkson has “loved” it, and in 42 appearances thus far with the Jazz, he’s averaged 15.6 points per game as a bench sparkplug.
Clarkson has been a productive catch-and-shoot player to go with his on-ball creation, too, and has hit a pretty respectable 36.6 percent of a healthy 6.0 three-point attempts per game with Utah.
Now, Clarkson, Mitchell and the Jazz have their work cut out for them against Nikola Jokic and Denver, who is leading that series 1-0, and is so deep. But to reiterate, from Clarkson’s perspective, I can understand why he was happy to be traded by the Cavs when he was and go to a quality club.
It’ll be interesting to see what plays out in regards to Jordan Clarkson’s impending free agency a few months down the road.