As my thread last week mentioned, I was a big believer in doing something with Exum other than what we were doing. I didn’t oppose trading him for Clarkson, but I found it curious because the fit seems unclear as well as why we tossed two second rounders into the deal. The bigger issue is that Exum’s salary may be needed as trade filler in a move that brings us a 4/5 like an Aminu or so, and now all our moves to round out the roster are more limited solely from a cap standpoint. I also wasn’t certain about a bench combo of Mudiay and Clarkson (still not), however, looking at some larger context here, I think this is a really good move for our competitiveness this year, even if we still have a gaping hole large enough to be more briefly termed “goatse” [don’t google that if you don’t know the reference].
First, his role as a bench scorer:
Clarkson could be considered a high volume scorer/shooter [chucker] who has put up bigger numbers on bad teams. Obviously that idea doesn’t engender hope for him in our rotation. However, Clarkson has yet to earn the title of being a sixth-man scorer, two titles which, in many cases, are merely semantics. The three examples I will give are Lou Williams, Jamal Crawford, and Jason Terry. All three of these guys would be considered combo guards with questionable defense who shoot high volumes at okay-ish percentages. Early in their careers, and perhaps midway through, these guys weren’t hyped or respected because of the idea of them being low efficiency guys in comparison with starters and compared to your main core guys you would build around. But as each of these guys aged into large roles coming off the bench, each of them saw their hype significantly pick up as now they were considered super bench guys that produced often starter-like numbers. The most recent example being Lou Williams, who would be highly sought after now, but had only mild-moderate value just a few years ago.
With regard to each of these comparisons, though, if you follow their scoring numbers through their careers, their points per minute started to pick up after they’d been in the league for 5-6 years. This is currently Clarkson’s 6th year in the league. He’s currently averaging 22.9 points per 36. That’s nearly 2 points more than Bogey per 36 and 2.5 points less than Donovan. It’s absolutely fair to say these are big numbers on bad teams, but each of those other three guys were putting up the big numbers on bad teams until they ended up in better situations where they contributed to winning teams. Clarkson, at this point in his career, is scoring more than each of them were at this point in their careers. For the past three years, he’s been putting up over 20 points per 36.
Peripherally, Clarkson is way ahead of where Williams and Crawford were at this point in their careers with regard to body tattoos. His current tat composition rivals their total career tats.
In short, the leading per minute scorer of our awful bench is Mudiay at 16.2 (I’m not counting Bradley). It will be nice to have a real scoring option from the second unit, as well as not require us to have starters play with the bench as much, which is a good segue to...
Second, this keeps Joe off the bench.
As I’ve always been against the argument of the bench needing production and therefore we should have Ingles there, we now see the drastic difference of Joe starting vs. Joe on the bench. It’s night and day. Also as mentioned, the lineups with any of our top 6 are good, it’s just the lineups with less of those guys that kill us. Clarkson affords is the ability to play those main 6 guys together much more often without having to reduce their total minutes together to help buoy a ****** bench. It also reduces their collective energy they have to expend being larger focal points of bench units. The bench had no legitimate volume three point threat, and it does now. This may mitigate, in some fashion, how bad someone like Ed Davis may look on offense. This will also allow Royce to fit in better amongst the bench units as there is less scoring pressure on him, in addition to Niang, as now they can be open shooters to space the floor and allow Clarkson or Mudiay to create, with Ed cleaning up the garbage.
Third, this helps survive the Conley hamstring issue.
Going without Conley has proved problematic, especially with how much our bench becomes depleted. Having Clarkson gives us a better patch for withstanding Conley out of the lineup, especially with being able to reduce Mitchell’s minutes that would add up in compensation. It puts less pressure on Conley returning before able. Likewise, it will also help withstand any issues should Donovan miss games.
Fourth, cap issues.
We now are no longer on the hook for Exum’s $10M next year.
Now to the bad...
First, we still have a goatse on the bench.
We don’t have any size, rebounding, or defense at the four spot. Exum’s contract could have helped us land a PF/C like an Aminu, or at least a Portis who could rebound and score. Assuming we keep Clarkson (I think we will), it leaves us very limited options in terms of both assets and contract filler we can use to upgrade that. If you want to invoke G league names, have at it, but none of those guys are proven in those regards and trying to have them proven-by-proxy of O’Neale and Ingles is quite silly. I’m willing to give a chance, though. But anyway, our pieces we can use for minor trades now consist of Mudiay, Bradley, NWG, and perhaps Davis (don’t see that one happening). Some small but meaningful targets could be DMC, Markieff Morris, Christian Wood. Then you have the potential buyout market and I hope DL is willing to waive NWG, because he is very expendable, both before the Clarkson trade and now especially because of it.
Second, the fit with Mudiay.
This is quite unclear. I have no idea what this will look like. I would assume it looks like what it does when Donovan plays with him. Mudiay is a strange fit for a lot of lineups. I suppose having Clarkson makes moving Mudiay, if needed, an okay option.
First, his role as a bench scorer:
Clarkson could be considered a high volume scorer/shooter [chucker] who has put up bigger numbers on bad teams. Obviously that idea doesn’t engender hope for him in our rotation. However, Clarkson has yet to earn the title of being a sixth-man scorer, two titles which, in many cases, are merely semantics. The three examples I will give are Lou Williams, Jamal Crawford, and Jason Terry. All three of these guys would be considered combo guards with questionable defense who shoot high volumes at okay-ish percentages. Early in their careers, and perhaps midway through, these guys weren’t hyped or respected because of the idea of them being low efficiency guys in comparison with starters and compared to your main core guys you would build around. But as each of these guys aged into large roles coming off the bench, each of them saw their hype significantly pick up as now they were considered super bench guys that produced often starter-like numbers. The most recent example being Lou Williams, who would be highly sought after now, but had only mild-moderate value just a few years ago.
With regard to each of these comparisons, though, if you follow their scoring numbers through their careers, their points per minute started to pick up after they’d been in the league for 5-6 years. This is currently Clarkson’s 6th year in the league. He’s currently averaging 22.9 points per 36. That’s nearly 2 points more than Bogey per 36 and 2.5 points less than Donovan. It’s absolutely fair to say these are big numbers on bad teams, but each of those other three guys were putting up the big numbers on bad teams until they ended up in better situations where they contributed to winning teams. Clarkson, at this point in his career, is scoring more than each of them were at this point in their careers. For the past three years, he’s been putting up over 20 points per 36.
Peripherally, Clarkson is way ahead of where Williams and Crawford were at this point in their careers with regard to body tattoos. His current tat composition rivals their total career tats.
In short, the leading per minute scorer of our awful bench is Mudiay at 16.2 (I’m not counting Bradley). It will be nice to have a real scoring option from the second unit, as well as not require us to have starters play with the bench as much, which is a good segue to...
Second, this keeps Joe off the bench.
As I’ve always been against the argument of the bench needing production and therefore we should have Ingles there, we now see the drastic difference of Joe starting vs. Joe on the bench. It’s night and day. Also as mentioned, the lineups with any of our top 6 are good, it’s just the lineups with less of those guys that kill us. Clarkson affords is the ability to play those main 6 guys together much more often without having to reduce their total minutes together to help buoy a ****** bench. It also reduces their collective energy they have to expend being larger focal points of bench units. The bench had no legitimate volume three point threat, and it does now. This may mitigate, in some fashion, how bad someone like Ed Davis may look on offense. This will also allow Royce to fit in better amongst the bench units as there is less scoring pressure on him, in addition to Niang, as now they can be open shooters to space the floor and allow Clarkson or Mudiay to create, with Ed cleaning up the garbage.
Third, this helps survive the Conley hamstring issue.
Going without Conley has proved problematic, especially with how much our bench becomes depleted. Having Clarkson gives us a better patch for withstanding Conley out of the lineup, especially with being able to reduce Mitchell’s minutes that would add up in compensation. It puts less pressure on Conley returning before able. Likewise, it will also help withstand any issues should Donovan miss games.
Fourth, cap issues.
We now are no longer on the hook for Exum’s $10M next year.
Now to the bad...
First, we still have a goatse on the bench.
We don’t have any size, rebounding, or defense at the four spot. Exum’s contract could have helped us land a PF/C like an Aminu, or at least a Portis who could rebound and score. Assuming we keep Clarkson (I think we will), it leaves us very limited options in terms of both assets and contract filler we can use to upgrade that. If you want to invoke G league names, have at it, but none of those guys are proven in those regards and trying to have them proven-by-proxy of O’Neale and Ingles is quite silly. I’m willing to give a chance, though. But anyway, our pieces we can use for minor trades now consist of Mudiay, Bradley, NWG, and perhaps Davis (don’t see that one happening). Some small but meaningful targets could be DMC, Markieff Morris, Christian Wood. Then you have the potential buyout market and I hope DL is willing to waive NWG, because he is very expendable, both before the Clarkson trade and now especially because of it.
Second, the fit with Mudiay.
This is quite unclear. I have no idea what this will look like. I would assume it looks like what it does when Donovan plays with him. Mudiay is a strange fit for a lot of lineups. I suppose having Clarkson makes moving Mudiay, if needed, an okay option.
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