Jazz show how big of a favor they did Jordan Clarkson with a blowout loss

The Utah Jazz faced Jordan Clarkson for the first time since the team waived him this offseason. Clarkson and his new team, the New York Knicks, proved exactly how much of a favor the Jazz were to him when he and his current teammates defeated his former Utah teammates on the backend of a back-to-back.

This game was over just moments after it had just started, as the Knicks had jumped out to a 23-0 lead. While the Jazz kept it within reach for the rest of the first half, the embarrassment only piled up in the second half. That 23-0 run early in the game sealed Utah’s fate.

That’s not entirely surprising because it was an away game, the Jazz were playing for the second night in a row, and they were playing a team that many believe is one of the top teams in the East. It would have been fair to chalk this up as a scheduled loss for our guys in Utah.

Clarkson didn’t light up the box score. He certainly had a standard Clarkson performance, with 16 points on five-for-13 shooting, including two threes and four-for-six shooting from the free-throw line. The Jazz alum also had five assists and four rebounds.

So he certainly did his part in destroying his former team, showing that Utah treated him well, even if the outcome wasn’t exactly what the team would have preferred.

The only way it could be worse

Look, it’s already been talked about, in retrospect Utah screwed up by giving him that extension. They did this with the belief that Clarkson would either be part of their next playoff team or they could pick up one or two signings for him. With the rebuild taking longer than they expected and players like Clarkson not being highly valued, simply buying out was the best option.

The alternative was to keep him, which could have prevented Keyonte George from exploding like he did this season. It would have created a huge logjam that the Jazz already struggled with last season. The writing had been on the wall for some time that Clarkson was on his way out.

So even if the Jazz get humiliated every now and then like they did tonight against the Knicks, it’s pretty clear that this was what was best for all parties here. Whether Clarkson gets championship glory as a Knick is certainly up in the air, but at least the Jazz gave him a chance to get some.