Coming into this season, fourth-year guard Jordan Clarkson will be an extremely important piece to the success of the Los Angeles Lakers. Now firmly entrenched into the sixth man role, Clarkson will be expected to lead the bench unit for this young team.
Over the past year, some questions have come into play about Clarkson’s ceiling after a promising rookie season. He has made only limited improvements on with his jump shot and defense and with the Lakers angling to sign two max contract players, Clarkson’s future with the team is in question.
Nonetheless, Clarkson worked hard this summer to improve his game and after a couple of practices he has stood out according to Chris McGee of Spectrum SportsNet:
Clarkson looks good, motivated, and happy… strength and speed and working really hard attacking w left hand and 3 point shooting
— Chris Geeter McGee (@geeter3) September 27, 2017
This falls in line with what Clarkson said he had been working on most this offseason. At Lakers Media Day Clarkson mentioned improving his left hand as a point of emphasis for him, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Mostly my left hand. The left side of the court… I’ve seen my numbers and how effective I’m not on that side of the floor and I want to get better.”
Clarkson has a ton of talent and is perfect for the sixth man role, even though he is more focused on team success than winning the award. Improvement in those areas will make him extremely difficult to stop, especially when going against backup guards.
His work ethic is outstanding and Clarkson could be the key to the Lakers surprising the rest of the league this year. Whether or not he remains with the team in the future is unknown, but for the time being he is an important player to watch.