Earl Clark

Clark is now 27. This should be his prime. And yet here he is, back in summer league, once again trying to get back in the NBA after a season on its very fringes. The man whose calling card was the fact that he "does so many things" continues to struggle to find a place in the bigs on account of not doing any one particular thing. Occasional shooting and good passing vision for his size are not proving enough, and now in his late twenties, it's getting tougher. There are better shooters to use as stretch bigs, and there are younger unpolished 6'10 athletes.

[...] Few other offseason moves have worked out, either, and the Cavaliers have found themselves off to a disappointing 10-21 start. Most notably, #1 overall pick Anthony Bennett is off to a horrific start to his NBA career, shooting 28% from the field and looking utterly lost and overwhelmed. After his great climax to last season, Jarrett Jack has regressed to his career means with sedate averages of 10 and 4, whilst the other big summer signing, Earl Clark, has gone from being a player who could do a little bit of everything except shoot to a fairly one dimensional (albeit efficient) one dimensional shooter who no longer wishes to use his good passing skills. The efficient, capable, sweet-shooting Matthew Dellavedova has been a good third string point guard pick-up, and Henry Sims has pretty much outplayed Bennett in his limited minutes to date, but with draftees Sergei Karasev and Carrick Felix offering nothing so far, the Cavaliers’ offseason acquisitions have been mostly underwhelming. And because of this, the team has been underwhelming.

Earl Clark

Clark's rookie year was not great, due in no small part to a lack of opportunities. He averaged only 2.7 points and 1.4 rebounds per game, shooting 37% with an 8.5 PER, and not always playing the quality defense for which he (should) be known. The departure of Amare Stoudemire should in theory have gotten him more playing time; however, the acquisitions of Hakim Warrick, Josh Childress and Hedo Turkoglu, plus the retention of Grant Hill and Jared Dudley, and the possible re-signing of Louis Amundson, seem to have snuffed that out again. Where Clark's minutes will come from next year is once again unclear.