Jordan Clarkson scored two points Thursday, and I wouldn’t use that number to argue he suddenly forgot how to score. He took two shots in 10 minutes, 46 seconds. The Knicks didn’t give him much of an offensive audition in their preseason finale.
I also wouldn’t reserve a nightly role for him because of what his name usually promises. New York has enough different reserve guards that the job should follow the need, whether that’s creating an attempt late in a possession, adding shooting or handling the ball.
Miles McBride and Jose Alvarado scored nine apiece against Toronto. Landry Shamet added 13. Clarkson’s two points belong beside those performances, but the players didn’t receive identical minutes, opportunities or assignments, so this isn’t a fair scoring contest to decide the rotation.
The Knicks have choices, not one universal sixth man
The useful question is what a particular group needs when the starters sit. If it needs someone willing to create a shot, Clarkson can have a purpose. If it needs a different combination of shooting, ball-handling and defensive assignments, another guard may fit better. There is no rule requiring Mike Brown to pick the same answer against every opponent.
Clarkson also finished Thursday with two steals and no turnovers. That matters because his shift wasn’t simply two points followed by nothing useful. It doesn’t prove he was an excellent defender, either; counting steals is a poor substitute for evaluating all the possessions he had to guard.
A smaller role doesn’t mean he has no role
The temptation with an established scorer is to treat a reduced assignment as an insult. I’d treat it as a chance to be more specific. Clarkson shouldn’t have to manufacture an offense on a night when somebody else is providing it, and the Knicks shouldn’t keep him on the floor simply to make the minutes look familiar.
That approach cuts both ways. If the bench can’t get a good attempt and Clarkson is the player who can create one, refusing to use him because another guard had a better preseason line would be just as stubborn. Current performance should be allowed to change the order.
There is not enough in two shot attempts to predict his season or diagnose a slump. Thursday is useful because it showed the staff using several guards with different contributions, not because it supplied an easy player to blame.
Give Clarkson the assignment when the offense needs his kind of scoring. On the nights it doesn’t, the Knicks should be comfortable giving those minutes to the player whose skills the game actually requires.
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