Clark bides his time, finds his place in NBA with Lakers
Earl Clark is sitting next to the man who can make him happy.
Clark was known through college as "E5," because he wore No. 5 at Louisville. But he couldn't wear the number in Phoenix, which drafted him in 2009; it was retired in honor of Suns great **** Van Arsdale. In Orlando, where Clark was traded in 2010, that number was worn by veteran guard Quentin Richardson.
Now, famously, Clark is with the Lakers, wearing No. 6. The man who currently wears No. 5, Steve Blake, changes clothes next to him in the locker room.
"I've been trying to get that number for a while," Clark said last week. "It's funny you should mention that."
The way this normally works? A player has to apply to the NBA six months in advance to change jerseys -- unless he's on a new team, in which case he can take a new number right away. In other sports, a small contribution is made to the bank account of the person who wears the number you want, in exchange for the jersey number. Sometimes, jewelry is exchanged. A meal can be bought.
Those things can be expensive. This is where Clark is fortunate, as he is probably going to have a pretty nice payday this summer.
Who had Andre Iguodala, Clark and Nic Vucevic as the best players coming out of the Dwight Howard-Andrew Bynum deal?
At least Iguodala was an All-Star last season, now playing on a team in Denver that suits his skills perfectly. Vucevic is third in the league in total rebounds while playing for a rebuilding Magic team. But Clark's ascendancy in Los Angeles is the unlikeliest development one could imagine.
He was a throw-in in the four-team deal that sent Howard to the Laker and Bynum to the 76ers. But Clark has suddenly become an important piece in the Lakers' increasingly desperate season. Now that Pau Gasol is out at least six weeks after partially tearing his plantar fascia, and that Howard continues to gimp along with a bad shoulder and still-recovering back, the Lakers need Clark. So far, he has delivered.
"He keeps it real simple," Coach Mike D'Antoni said. "He's got a simple game."
Simple is good for the Lakers these days, what with Kobe Bryant and Howard continuing their staredown, and Howard's father jumping in the mix, and Gasol grousing before his injury about being benched, and D'Antoni being roasted locally and nationally, and the losses piling up like kindling in a Vermont fireplace. The Lakers need simple.
An afterthought the first two months of the season, Clark started getting regular minutes in January, with D'Antoni desperate to find someone who could defend. Even though Gasol is a four-time All-Star who helped the Lakers win two championships, D'Antoni was convinced he and Howard didn't work together on the floor, and sent Gasol to the bench for Clark.
Clark has eight double-doubles since his minutes have increased, including a 22-point, 13-rebound performance in a Jan. 9 loss to the Spurs. Two days later, he had 10 and 10 against the Thunder, and he just missed two more (12 and 8; 11 and 9) against Chicago and Memphis, respectively. On Feb. 5, Clark was sensational in the fourth quarter, en route to a 14-point, 12-board showing -- all while doing nothing fancy.
When the Lakers finished their road trip Sunday in Miami, that was Clark guarding LeBron James in the fourth quarter, in a game where Clark finished with 18 points and nine boards. It wasn't for nothing that Bryant said the Lakers would be "in deep crap" without Clark.
"He's been consistent since we put him in the lineup against San Antonio," Bryant said. "He's just been consistently playing well. When that happens, you just have to say the player is good. He's good. He does it on a nightly basis with rebounds and knocking down jumpers and handling the ball and defending."
Earning Bryant's trust is normally a years-long process. Trust is easier to earn in the regular season, but for Bryant to truly bless you as a Made Man, you normally have to go through the playoff gauntlet like Gasol and Metta World Peace have. Clark seems to be short-circuiting the process.
Clark knew that, after failing to make an impact in Phoenix or Orlando over three seasons, he was in danger of becoming stereotyped -- the skilled-but-positionless big, a 'tweener who didn't do enough offensively to stay on the floor.
But in today's NBA, where the Heat eschew traditional positions and simply put their best five players on the court, a player like Clark has value.
"The biggest thing was finding a position," Steve Nash said. "At the four, he has certain assets; at the three, he has certain assets. The thing you have to do with Earl is you have to take advantage of his versatility."
It also helps that small ball has become an NBA constant.
"There's teams playing all over the league that are downsizing," my Turner colleague and analyst Steve Kerr said. "You have to be able to downsize defensively without giving up your interior defense. That's the key. That's what Earl really brings."
In D'Antoni's system, Clark is a reasonable facsimile of a stretch four. He doesn't shoot it as well from deep as Antawn Jamison, but since Jamison is shooting just 32 percent from 3-point range, there are minutes for a young guy who can defend multiple positions.
"That's why we drafted him, really," said Kerr, who took Clark with the 14th pick in 2009 out of Louisville when Kerr ran the Suns.
There were questions about Clark's consistency before the Draft, as well as his conditioning -- the phrase Clark remembers in his years at Louisville from Rick Pitino more than any other is "get on the treadmill!" -- but he still was a lottery pick.
"It's rare to find a guy with that kind of size and foot speed," Kerr said. "He's 6-10, a legit 6-10, but he's got incredibly quick feet. Knowing these days you have to be able to guard pick-and-roll. That's the toughest thing for bigs, and you have to be able to guard 50 of them if you're playing. That's the modern day defender.
"That's Taj Gibson, that's Kevin Garnett. They played a lot of zone at Louisville, but we weren't sure about his defensive acumen. We knew he had the talent level, but would he be able to adapt to the sophisticated NBA defenses? Calling out pick and rolls, playing on a string defensively?"
With L.A., Clark's defensive versatility has been put on display. His length and quick feet put one in mind of Shawn Marion during D'Antoni's run in Phoenix, or Horace Grant during the Bulls' championship days, though Grant was more capable than Clark of banging with opposing power forwards.
Against the Nets, Clark spent the first part of the fourth quarter guarding Joe Johnson. Down the stretch, he guarded All-Star center Brook Lopez. And he was smart enough to change things up; he crowded Johnson, figuring his quick feet could keep Johnson from driving and that he could contest shots late with his length. But he backed off of Lopez, knowing he gave away about 30 or so pounds, and made him shoot jumpers.
And Clark made all the right decisions in the last four minutes. He knocked down two free throws, then goaded Lopez into shooting an air ball. He then stepped right into a jumper from Nash -- who had no problems giving a kid with 13 career starts to that date a shot that big -- and put the game away.
"He plays hard, he keeps his mouth shut, he accepts his role," Nash said. "When he wasn't playing he didn't sulk. He gets in early, he gets his work done."
That is a recurring trait Clark has displayed at every stop in his career so far.
"After games in Phoenix he would actually go back down to that little practice floor and get another hour in with one of our assistant coaches," Kerr said. "He always puts the work in ... I didn't think he'd be much of a 3-point shooter for the Lakers, but he's making a few now."
Howard says Clark did the same in Orlando after being traded there as part of the deal that sent Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat and Mickael Pietrus to Phoenix for Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson and Clark in December, 2010.
"He worked hard on his game, didn't complain," Howard said. "I've always been a big, big fan of Earl, especially on the defensive end. Early in the season, I used to tell Coach (Stan Van Gundy), 'hey, you might want to put Earl on this guy, because he can guard him.' And then when he got the opportunity, he really blossomed."
Clark got some time here and there when Howard was hurt in Orlando, including the Magic's first-round playoff loss to Indiana, after Howard's season-ending back surgery. With the Magic trading Ryan Anderson in the summer, Clark might have gotten a chance at more playing time this season if he'd stayed in Orlando. Of course, it wasn't his call.
The Lakers would love to keep Clark, who'll be an unrestricted free agent this summer. But L.A.'s luxury tax issues may make that impossible. Re-signing Howard to a five-year max deal would push the Lakers' team salary above the $100 million mark, with a luxury tax that could hit another $90 million or so on top of that. Keeping Clark may be a luxury the Lakers can't afford.
Clark wants to stay in L.A., but he also thinks he's earned the right to regular minutes. There will certainly be bad teams with cap room that will offer him a lot of loot, but after all the false starts he's had in his career, Clark wants to play for a winning organization. Does that even describe the Lakers any more? It's one of many things up in the air about Clark's future.
"One of the things you really love about Earl is that he works really hard," Kerr said. "He really loves the game. He comes from a good family. His mom and dad were at home, and his sister. They were a pretty close family. Good hard working family, a lot of skill, you hope he can figure everything else out."
