If you’ve followed my work at Knicks X-Factor this season, you know that Jordan Clarkson’s name has come up about as frequently as any other Knick.
It’s rarely in a laudatory fashion, though.
For much of the year, Clarkson has been arguably the most significant net-negative contributor on the New York Knicks. Over the first half of the season, he had the worst on-off net rating among the team’s regular rotation players (outside of future trade bait Guerschon Yabusele), culminating in a late-January benching.
That benching immediately sparked a turnaround of the Knicks’ play on both ends, specifically on defense. In fact, it could have been considered a season-saving benching, as New York was spiraling the drain before Clarkson’s benching directly coincided with the beginning of a 20-7 run that the team still finds itself in.
For a while, the Knicks cruised along with Clarkson on the bench. They continued to play so well with him off the court that I cited his presence on the pine among the top three reasons why New York’s recent defensive turnaround is sustainable.
Over the past week, however, Clarkson has again found himself involved in a potential season-saving lineup change. Except this time, his positive impact has occurred on the court.
Although the Knicks are still winners of four straight and 20 of their past 27, the going has gotten tough recently. They’ve had to scratch and claw against teams they are clearly better than.
After suffering a two-game sweep in Los Angeles, the Knicks headed to Utah for what was expected to be a “get-right” game. But 12 minutes in, they trailed by 15.
A horrifying losing streak was staring New York in the face. Gone would be the progress that was made over the previous 23 games.
Someone had other plans, though: Jordan Clarkson.
Yes, the same man whose removal from the court prompted New York to go from a sinking ship to an unstoppable destroyer.
Desperate for a spark with his team trailing the lowly Jazz by 9 points at halftime, Knicks head coach Mike Brown turned to Clarkson for 16 second-half minutes. The results: 19 points on 7 for 8 shooting, a +21 plus-minus, and a desperately needed comeback victory.
Okay, okay, fine. Clarkson is plenty capable of having one sizzling game off the bench. We’ve seen this countless times before. It doesn’t make him a viable rotation player on a nightly basis, though.
Right?
Three games later, Clarkson has yet to cool down, and Brown has yet to stick him back in the doghouse.
Over the last four games, Clarkson is averaging 14.8 points per game in 21.8 minutes off the bench, while shooting 54.5% from the field, 46.2% from three, and 58.1% from two. His plus-minus over this span is a whopping +35. New York outscored their opponents by 19.3 points per 48 minutes with Clarkson on the court, compared to 9.2 points per 48 minutes with Clarkson on the bench.
This is the type of positive all-around impact that was missing from Clarkson’s game early in the season.
Of course, it is a small sample. Clarkson’s 61.4% effective field goal percentage from the last four games will not be sustained over the long haul. That red-hot shooting on a high volume is a major reason why his on-off impact has been so substantial over these past four games.
The concern is whether Clarkson can make that kind of impact when his shots aren’t falling.
Because when Clarkson’s shots don’t fall, his impact swings in the opposite direction. As a player whose primary skill is high-volume scoring, his shooting efficiency has a major effect on his overall impact, more so than most other NBA players.
If Clarkson is shooting a low percentage, he is racking up more bricks per minute than almost anybody else in the league. That makes him a difficult player to count on, considering he doesn’t offer much as a rebounder, passer, or defender.
So, what’s the takeaway from Clarkson’s recent hot streak? Has he earned his way back into the rotation? Or is this a flash in the pan?
The answer lies in the middle.
New York shouldn’t immediately thrust Clarkson back into the rotation after his four-game surge against a quartet of bottom-feeders. After all, even with his recent production, he remains one of the Knicks’ most negatively impactful players this year.
According to Databallr, New York’s net rating is 4.0 points per 100 possessions worse with Clarkson on the court (+3.0) than when he sits (+7.0), which is still the worst mark among Knicks players with at least 400 minutes this season.
At the same time, it cannot be denied that Clarkson has almost single-handedly saved the Knicks from falling into a brutal cold stretch against a weak slate of opponents. That counts for something.
It shows that, when the Knicks are desperate for an offensive spark, Clarkson remains a fantastic emergency option. He still shouldn’t be counted on as the type of player who logs ample minutes on a nightly basis, but if New York is struggling, Clarkson has the ability to pull the team out of a rut.
That’s just the nature of Clarkson’s game: It’s high-risk, high-reward.
Over a large sample of minutes, the negative tends to outweigh the positive. But if you throw him out there in a situation where the team already has nothing to lose, the risk is essentially negated, which makes his high ceiling a valuable asset for a team trying to climb back into a game.
Clarkson can always be trusted to happily jack up plenty of shots. He is a talented shot-creator and shot-maker who can get hot with the best of them. When the Knicks can’t buy a bucket, he is the kind of guy they can count on to generate his own offense. New York has sorely lacked that type of player on their second unit over the last three playoff runs.
As we march toward the playoffs, Brown would be wise not to fall for Clarkson’s recent hot streak and suddenly make him a key rotation player. Clarkson’s overall tendencies, habits, and efficiency are not strong enough to deliver a positive impact over extended minutes on a nightly basis.
What he can do, though, is save a fledgling offense. He’s proven it multiple times this year, and never more prominently than over the last few games. For that reason, Clarkson should never truly be in the Knicks’ doghouse.
While he isn’t the ideal rotation player in today’s NBA, Clarkson is far from unplayable. There is a role for him on this team, and that role has been identified over the Knicks’ four-game win streak:
The “break in case of emergency” last-ditch savior.
