Rookie Jordan Clarkson is quickly turning into a solid NBA player for the Los Angeles Lakers with the first-year point guard coming into his own in the second half of the 2014-15 NBA season. Clarkson has progressed so much as of late that head coach Byron Scott compared him to a certain NBA MVP candidate.
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Scott has seen the similarities between Clarkson and Westbrook saying the following about the Lakers rookie, according to Francisco X. Rivera of TWC Deportes:
B. Scott said on our #Lakers show on @TWCDeportes that Jordan Clarkson has some things of R. Westbrook: explosiveness, attacking the basket
— Francisco X. Rivera (@FX_Rivera) March 27, 2015
Westbrook has been setting the league on fire as of late with nine triple-doubles while becoming a legitimate threat to win the MVP award. Clarkson recently went head-to-head against Westbrook and actually outscored the veteran point guard 30 to 27.
Although Clarkson came out on top in the scoring department with a career-high 30 points, the Lakers suffered their first blowout loss in about a month at the hands of Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder.
Back in January, Clarkson admitted taking some of aspects of Westbrook’s game and implementing into his, according to Shahan Ahmed of NBCLA:
“I watch Russell a lot,” Clarkson told NBCLA.com. “I watch him a lot. I take some stuff from his game, the way he’s aggressive at all times.”
Before taking on the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, Clarkson averaged 14.4 points, 4.4 assists and 3.9 rebounds per contest in 27 games as a starter. Even though the Lakers have struggled all season, Clarkson has been one of the few bright spots and may have a bright future in Los Angeles as a result.
Coach Scott will continue to evaluate Clarkson as well as the other young players on the roster for the rest of the season. Clarkson is currently on non-guaranteed contract for next season and the consensus is he’ll be back with the team wanting to develop the 22-year-old moving forward.
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