That's about the way it goes, and recently, Salt Lake City Tribune columnist Andy Larsen reported that Jazz player Jordan Clarkson was surprisingly uninterested in the trade market.
"Clarkson needs a rebound season because he didn't play well last year and as of now, no other NBA team is interested in trading him," said Andy Larsen. ”
Everyone knows the situation of the Jazz, since sending away Mitchell and Gobert two years ago, the team has entered a rebuild, but their rebuild is not complete, and there are two main reasons for this:
1. Markkanen's sudden outburst makes the future uncertain, the record is high or low, and the team cannot be completely rotten
2. Anji's vision is too high to find a young person who is suitable to be the cornerstone, especially this year, a historical-level draft boy
But in this case, it may be immediately different.
Next season, Markkanen will enter a contract year, and at the same time, due to the participation of the likes of Flagg and Cameron Boozer, the next two years will be draft years, and the Jazz may completely turn to the swing, so how to deal with some role players and collect draft picks has become key.
So you're going to see the discussion about Markkanen's next home get really lively this summer, with the Warriors and Spurs all likely to get him, and a trade could happen before August 6.
But Clarkson, it's true that no one wants it, and if you want to say why, there is probably only one reason: the ability is too poor, and the contract is too big.
Now when it comes to Clarkson, the first impression of many fans may be that last year's World Cup, he scored 24 points in a single quarter, handed over 34 points in the whole game, and then led the Philippine men's basketball team to defeat the Chinese men's basketball team for the first time in history.
It is no exaggeration to say that Clarkson was indeed magical in that game, almost one person broke through the Chinese men's basketball team, and a sentence from netizens was heart-wrenching: Clarkson only took 4 minutes to make the Chinese men's basketball team wait for 4 years.
Putting aside the World Cup, objectively speaking, Clarkson's performance in the NBA in the 2022-23 season was also very good, when he played 61 games for the Jazz, averaging 20.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, a career-high in scoring and assists.
It was also because of the outbreak of the contract year that the 31-year-old Clarkson received a three-year, 55 million contract extension from the Jazz until the end of the 25-26 season.
However, after signing this contract, Clarkson's level dropped a little bit last season, and he played a total of 55 games, averaging 17.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game, shooting only 41.3%/29.4%/88.1% from three, and the true shooting percentage was as low as 52.1%.
Three-pointers should have been Clarkson's biggest move, but his shooting percentage was less than 30 percent, and his breakaway finishing was not great, resulting in inefficiency.
Or rather, Larkson has never been an efficient player, even in '22-23, he shot just 44.4%/33.8%/81.6% from three, and 55.8% true shooting, which is already his highest efficiency in the last four years.
Clarkson's advantages must be known to many people, his handling ability, excellent projection ability, and strong independent offensive ability, so the scoring explosion is amazing, and he has also practiced a little passing in the Jazz in the past two years;
But his shortcomings are also very obvious, poor defense, many turnovers, inefficient scoring, and strong nerve knife attributes.
This kind of player is very suitable for being a sixth man, and when the team is behind, he may be able to blow up the substitute on the opposite side, but there is a certain probability, or more often than not, he may blow himself up.
If you recall, a year ago, the Jazz sold Clarkson for a first-round pick, but with an inefficient year and a somewhat premium contract, he's now unpopular in the trade market, and to be honest, it's not surprising.
However, the Jazz may not be in a hurry to trade him, after all, Markkanen's presence may affect the swing, but Clarkson's continued play may only accelerate their rebuild.
As for Clarkson himself, despite the poor market conditions today, his career can be said to be very good, from a second-round pick to a career of 10 years, he has averaged double-doubles per game every season, a total of more than 10,000 points, won the best sixth man, has averaged 20+ seasons per game, and has more than one contract with an annual salary of 10 million, which can be said to be very good.
Of course, the eyes should be looked backwards, and I personally feel that Clarkson will still be the Jazz's main guard next season, and Angie may actively sell him at that time.
However, in the next year, I personally feel that Clarkson's status may be greatly reduced, even if he can still average points per game, he can still get a double-double, and the decline may be very rapid - look at Jamal Crawford and Lowe, both of whom were the team's main substitutes in the first two years, and suddenly there is no ball to play.
Clarkson of the same type may not be much better, he is now 32 years old, at this age, in this era, with this style of play, I am afraid that day will not be too far away.