Pacers Emerging As Trade Suitor For Jazz Scorer Jordan Clarkson

The Indiana Pacers have emerged as a strong, upstart team so far this season in the NBA. They hold fifth place in the Eastern Conference with a 19-14 record, and they could be the most explosive offensive team anyone has seen in their lifetime.

Indiana leads the league in assists per game, field goal percentage, points in the paint per game, fast-break points per game, and offensive rating. It’s averaging 126.9 points a game nearly midway through the season, which is an incredible number, even in this age of fast-paced, souped-up offenses.

But good is the enemy of great, and the Pacers likely will not want to settle for being merely a good team, even though they’re young and have plenty of upside. With the trade deadline only about a month left, they’re reportedly a suitor for Utah Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson.

“[Head coach] Rick Carlisle’s preferred style of play is well-suited to Clarkson’s chosen way of playing,” wrote Anthony Amador of Game 7. “And given how the Pacers’ offense seems to lag a bit whenever their star point guard sits, it might be nice to have someone like Clarkson boosting the second unit when he is out.”

The Pacers are about as fast-moving a team there is in the NBA, as they rank second in pace. Carlisle has always liked an offense that maintains a fluid, natural flow, and while Tyrese Haliburton appears to be emerging as one of the NBA’s newest superstars, they do not have a viable, productive ball-handling guard off the bench.

Clarkson, who won the Sixth Man of the Year award just three seasons ago, seems to fit that description. He isn’t exactly an efficient player (he’s shooting an anemic 41.1 percent from the field and 30.8 percent from 3-point range this season), but he’s putting up 17.8 points and 5.2 assists a game, and perhaps playing in such a wide-open offense would boost his shooting percentages a bit.

Interestingly, Indiana does lead the league in bench points per game at 48.6. But that stat is misleading, as the team lacks bench players who can consistently create their own shot off the dribble.