Jordan Clarkson Trade Scenarios: A deal with every Western Conference team
By Keith Rivas
Northwest Division
Minnesota Timberwolves
There’s a lot to like in this deal, but mostly if you’re Minnesota. Sure, the Lakers find a center in Cole Aldrich they can work with for now and some potential in Tyus Jones, but imagine what a second unit with Jordan Clarkson and Jamal Crawford could do for this team in the postseason. Lakers only pull the trigger here if they absolutely need to in order to avoid making a pointless trade for a guy like Clarkson.
Portland Trail Blazers
If the way for the Trail Blazers to feel like they can hang with Golden State and get past them should they meet in the playoffs is through guards, guards, and more guards then they will do this deal. It’ll help the Lakers tremendously to pick up a decent guard in Napier and a forward like Aminu. Not likely, but hey — we’ve seen weird stuff go down before.
Oklahoma City Thunder
At first glance, you might think it’s a bit ridiculous for Oklahoma City to give up four players while only getting one back, but is it? All they’d need for this trade to start getting talked about is assurance from Paul George that he’s not going to leave in the summer to LA or somewhere else. The Thunder have picked things up nicely since a shaky start, to say the least, but this deal won’t even be born into thought unless OKC gets that guarantee.
Denver Nuggets
This trade works out for Denver only if they want to really go a different direction from Jamal Murray. Trey Lyles and Juan Hernangomez add a nice touch to this for Los Angeles, especially if two other power forward in Larry Nance Jr. and Julius Randle really are on the move.
Utah Jazz
Donovan Mitchell is something special, and he’s probably a player the Lakers wish they would’ve looked a little closer at, but they can’t fix that now. Utah is going to need a young point guard that can play well with Mitchell and if it costs them a backup guard in the process, so be it.
Next: Why It's Okay To Trade Lonzo Ball
Alec Burks brings nine points and three rebounds on average to LA while Clarkson would possibly become the primary point guard if Utah opts away from Ricky Rubio.