Jordan Clarkson – Most underrated player in the NBA?

Clarkson has some pretty nice stats for a guy who’s getting consistently snubbed from player rankings. (Craig Mitchelldyer via sltrib.com)

Far too many players are considered underrated or overrated, when in reality the majority of players are properly rated. For example, when every media outlet universally is saying a player is underrated, is he really? To realistically be considered underrated, people outside of your own fan base are almost completely obliviously to the work you are doing. There are always a handful of players that are legitimately underrated, and the Utah Jazz may have the most underrated player in the NBA on their roster.

Since joining the Utah Jazz, Jordan Clarkson has averaged 17.5 points per game, won Sixth Man of the Year in the 2020-2021 season, and impressively got even better last season by averaging a career high in points (20.8), assists (4.4) and rebounds (4.0). Despite this impressive stretch of his career with the Jazz, Clarkson has continued to be left off of most all of the preseason player rankings that many of the major sports outlets vote on and release yearly. We are still waiting on The Ringer and ESPN, but so far Clarkson has been not ranked by The Athletic, Bleacher Report, and CBS Sports in their annual rankings. 

Look, you have to draw the line somewhere, and there is probably always going to be arguments for those players right on the line, but Clarkson has an argument to be nowhere near the line. From across those websites listed above, here are the players that barely made the cut:

• Grant Williams
• Gary Payton II
• Markelle Fultz
• Bruce Brown
• Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
• Alex Caruso
• Nic Claxton

On both The Athletic and Bleacher Report they also included “Honorable Mentions” or players who just missed the cut, and Clarkson was not included there either. All of these are a projection for this upcoming season. So unless everyone is projecting a major fall off in production by Clarkson, it seems as though he has just been forgotten in Utah. Perhaps he has been overshadowed by the emergance or Lauri Markannen, the trade for John Collins, and the rise of Walker Kessler (all players who have been included in these rankings).

The Utah Jazz stayed relatively competative compared to the expectations to start last season, and many will point to the jump into stardom for Markannen, but they fail to recognize the jump that Clarkson made as he transitioned into not just a starter, but a player being asked to run the offense. He responded to the additional responsability by averaging over 20 points per game for the first time in his career, and becoming a much better facilitator, with 4.4 assist per game. Up from his career average of 2.5 assist coming into the season. Clarkson has evolved his game to become one of the smoothest scorers in the league. Someone who is truly capable of scoring at every level, while also continue to grow as a player who can lead an offense under Will Hardy.

The Jazz had a positive 3.3 differential overall, and were 4.7 points per possession better on offense when Clarkson was on the floor. The Jazz also had a 120.7 Offensive Rating when both Clarkson and Markkanen were on the floor and a plus 4.8 overall. Needless to say, he was a major part of the positive play we saw from the team last season, and there is no reason to believe that won’t continue into this next season. 

There were 57 players last season who averaged over 20 points per game. Of those 57 players, only three didn’t make multiple rankings: Clarkson, Kelly Oubre Jr., Terry Rozier (included in 1 of 3). If you increase the qualifiers to be players who averaged over 20 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assist last season, the list is only 32 players long, and Clarkson and Rozier are the only players being unranked. There are roughly 450 players in the NBA each season. Being on a list that only includes 57 players is reason enough to be included. Being on a list that is only 32 players long, or roughly 7 percent of the league, and then not getting included in any of the major media outlets player rankings of the top 100 players just doesn’t compute.

To be clear, I’m not going to argue that Clarkson is one of the top 32 players in the NBA. I don’t think I could argue that he is one of the top 57 players. That said, how does Clarkson continue to get left off of all these list being written by staffs from across some of the largest media outlets out there?

The answer: Jordan Clarkson is the most underrated player in the entire NBA.

ESPN and The Ringer will likely be next to release their rankings for the upcoming season, so keep an eye out. Last season, ESPN had Clarkson ranked at 85, and The Ringer, whose list stretches to a top 125, had Clarkson at 104.