The New York Knicks labored to beat a 7-win Washington Wizards team 113-109 on Thursday, January 18, at Madison Square Garden in a game their bench only produced 7 points.
Their front office is busy looking for a scoring punch off the bench to fill the Immanuel Quickley void. According to Marc Stein, a former 6th Man of the Year is on the Knicks’ radar.
“Word is that the Knicks have a level of interest in Utah’s Jordan Clarkson as well as a trio of guards they have been linked to previously: Portland’s Malcolm Brogdon, Charlotte’s Terry Rozier and Detroit’s Alec Burks (a recent Knicks alumnus),” Stein wrote in his January 18 substack newsletter.
Clarkson won the Sixth Man of the Year in 2021, his first full season with the Jazz, averaging 18.4 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 0.9 steals off the bench. The Filipino-American guard averaged a career-high 20.8 and 4.4 assists as a full-time starter last season. This season, he’s putting up 17.9 points and a career-high 5.2 assists per game.
Jordan Clarkson’s Strong Knicks Ties
The 31-year-old Clarkson has strong ties within the Knicks organization, most notably former Jazz VP for player personnel Walt Perrin, who extensively scouted him leading to the 2014 NBA Draft. Perrin’s player notes and Clarkson’s pre-draft interviews helped convince the Jazz to trade for him from Cleveland in 2019.
Perrin is now one of the Knicks’ assistant general managers.
Clarkson also played with Julius Randle and Josh Hart with the Los Angeles Lakers at the start of their NBA careers.
Randle (8th pick) and Clarkson (46th pick) came into the NBA together in 2014, spending their first three seasons together in LA. Josh Hart joined the Lakers in Clarkson’s final half-season with the team.
Jordan Clarkson’s Team-Friendly Contract
Before Clarkson played for the Philippines in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, he signed a team-friendly $55 million, three-year extension with unlikely bonuses to remain in Utah.
He will earn a guaranteed $23.5 million this season and will descend to a little more than $14 million each in the next two seasons.
If the Knicks trade for Clarkson this season, they could still flip him down the road with his value contract.
According to TNT/Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes, Clarkson is available for “the right package, the right deal.”
What that means is up for debate.
The Knicks have a surplus of draft capital and Evan Fournier’s expiring salary to dangle. The Jazz are interested in Knicks’ third-year wing Quentin Grimes, per SNY’s Ian Begley.
Potential Deal-Breaker
A potential deal-breaker is Clarkson’s representation, Klutch Sports, and Jazz CEO Danny Ainge’s penchant for squeezing every ounce he can get in a trade.
According to the New York Post, Klutch Sports, helmed by CEO Rich Paul, “has made it clear it’d prefer not to do business with the Knicks front office.”
On the other hand, Ainge, known as “Trader Danny,” is so savvy at the negotiation table that the Knicks lost out on Donovan Mitchell two summers ago. Ainge has a history of pulling off heists from his time in Boston — the Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn — to the start of his Jazz tenure with the massive Rudy Gobert and Mitchell trades.
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Knicks ‘Have Level of Interest’ in Ex-6MOY, 3 Scoring Guards: Insider