Ian Clark

Ian Clark
PG/SG, 6’3, 175lbs, 26 years old, 4 years of experience

A capable and confident scorer who recorded consistent and important minutes on a championship team. Spot-up shooter and timely driver who could probably be a full-time reserve combo guard on any other team in the league. Probably the worst defensive player on the team, however. This is the perfect team to mask poor defence on, yet it was fairly apparently the case that he had to be hidden, which counts against any argument that he can take Livingston’s role should Livingston be too expensive to keep.

Player Plan: Expiring minimum salary. Has now completed four years on the minimum salary and probably out to get his somewhere someday soon. If he gets something between the taxpayer and non-taxpayer MLE amounts on the open mar-ket, then it becomes a choice of he or Livingston, rather than both.

Utah - Ian Clark, Diante Garrett and Mike Harris: Making the team lout of training camp in the unlikely role of seasoned veteran despite his relative lack of NBA experience, Harris, has appeared regularly in the rotation, and played fairly well on his way to 4.2 ppg and 48% shooting. Garrett has also had moments of stable play in a lengthy audition, and while Clark has barely played (spending more time on the court on assignment to the D-League), there seems no obvious reason for the Jazz to waive their de facto second round pick, or indeed any of the three.

Utah -­ Ian Clark: In his three game D-­League career before being recalled this week, Clark tried to do too much. Needing and wanting to prove he is more than just a shooter, Clark's floor games were slightly wild, pressing affairs, as evidenced by his 39% shooting. Nonetheless, he kept the turnovers down, and showed himself to yield the potential of the man whose place in the NBA he is trying to dislodge, John Lucas III.

Ian Clark

Clark is this draft's designated point guard shooter, an efficient one with sufficient size and wingspan to project as a capable defender of the position, even if he hasn't the playmaking skills to ever be a "true" one. It is odd, then, that he was not drafted. The league always needs shooters, and it just passed on one. Just like the similarly overlooked Carmichael, then, Young has to make it in the hard way. And he might.

Belmont have been subtly touted as a possible upset team by national media for much of the season. They shoot a lot of threes; to reaffirm that, they shoot a LOT of threes. They have made 321 on the season in 34 games, second most in the nation (behind only VMI), and 29 ahead of third place Louisville. Their percentage (.381%) ranks third; their attempts (842) ranks fourth. Junior bigs Mick Hedgepeth and Scott Saunders, standing 6'9 and 6'10 respectively, tidy up the missed ones, while pretty much everyone else casts them up. The Bruins go 12 deep on most nights - sophomore guard Ian Clark averages 12ppg on 42% three point shooting (the most dynamic of the bench), the aforementioned centre duo, two 6'7 underclassmen who shoot some threes (Trevor Noack and Blake Jenkins), one slasher (6'1 sophomore Kerron Johnson, who has more FTA than FGA), senior 6'6 defender and offensive rebounding specialist Jon House.....and then everyone else is a shooter. And a presser.

What they don't do especially well is rebound. But there's enough there for some upset potential. It just takes one hot night for that to be enough for an upset. It worked for Northern Iowa.