Jordan Clarkson had a really nice rookie season for the Los Angeles Lakers. After being drafted in the second round by the Washington Wizards and sold to the Lakers, Clarkson took advantage of the fact that the Lakers were pretty horrific to earn himself a nice bit of playing time during the season and perform well enough to be viewed as one of the Lakers few assets.
When the Lakers drafted D’Angelo Russell this season though that meant that Clarkson needed to learn to work off the ball more often after playing point guard as a rookie, so he was sent to summer league to work on it. In Vegas, Clarkson has continued to play well, posting 18 points per game which is good enough to rank in the top 20 in Summer League.
Clarkson does it mostly by attacking the paint with help from his great athleticism and size that makes it hard for opposing point guards to consistently deal with him. As Jack Cooley learned tonight it isn’t just guards who have trouble with Clarkson either:
(vine via Harrison24)
Poor Cooley. It will be hard for him to make the NBA now considering that Clarkson destroyed him that badly. At the very least it leaves a good reminder for future opponents. When Jordan Clarkson gets a step on you and gets a head of steam going towards the rim, you should probably get out of the way.
It should also be pretty easy for Lakers fans to get excited about Clarkson playing next to Russell. With moves and dunks like that you can probably play with just about anyone.