NBA Trade Deadline 2018: 5 trades to save Jordan Clarkson from the Lakers

The NBA Trade Deadline is rapidly approaching and things are getting ugly for the Lakers. Jordan Clarkson is on the trading block and here are a few teams who could make better use of him.

Jordan Clarkson, now in his fourth season, has continued his solid play for the Los Angeles Lakers. This season he’s averaging 21.8 points, 4.8 assists and 4.3 rebounds per 36 minutes. However, his minutes per game are down to 22.7, the lowest of his career.

Things seem to be getting increasingly ugly behind the scenes and the Lakers have reportedly made Clarkson available for trade. The team seems to prefer more offensive primacy for Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram and Clarkson’s $11 million a year salary could be an impediment to attaining the cap space to sign two max players this summer.

It seems like Clarkson’s time in Los Angeles is near its end, but here are five other teams who could certainly use him.

The Memphis Grizzlies find themselves in the somewhat weird consideration of bottoming out while still holding onto their two stars — Marc Gasol and Mike Conley. If they continue at the current pace they have a very good chance of being able to land a top-five pick and an elite talent like Marvin Bagley or Michael Porter Jr.

Over the past few years the Grizzlies have struggled to find consistent shot creation on the wing and Clarkson might be an ideal answer. He’s young, long, can create his own shot and while his salary is somewhat large it’s unlikely the Grizzlies might be able to sign someone better at a similar price. Clarkson is not much of a defensive player but he could have potential at that end in the right system.

The Lakers are clearly looking to dump salary for the grand plan of signing Paul George and LeBron James this summer. Memphis could send Brandan Wright, Tyreke Evans and James Ennis to Los Angeles, all three of whom will be free agents at the end of the season and wouldn’t add any long term salary to mess up the Lakers cap.