Jordan Clarkson's days with the Los Angeles Lakers appear to be numbered as the team reportedly plans to trade him off in 2018.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the LA Lakers is looking to deal Clarkson to help free up their salary-cap space. This will allow the team to sign two max-free agents from a class led by icons Paul George and LeBron James.
Currently, they do not have that cap space just yet. The LA Lakers still owe $36.8 million to Luol Deng and $25.9 million to Jordan Clarkson over the next two seasons. Power forward Julius Randle's cap is also still at around $12.5 million.
The team has to trade at least two of those three to reach the desired cap space, and word has it that Clarkson is on top of the list. They are, however, willing to wait until after the ongoing season, as the 25-year-old Filipino-American guard gives them great hopes for more wins.
"Clarkson has helped them win games this year, and because they don't have their pick, they want to win as many games as they can," Wojnarowski said at ESPN's Full Court Press special. "So I think there's some confidence there that they can find a deal for Clarkson after the season, to get his money off."
Clarkson has had a good season in the earlier months, averaging a career-best 22.5 points per 36 minutes, with 33.7 percent shooting from the three-point range, according to Basketball Reference.
This, however, has dropped to an average of seven points on 32 percent shooting in the team's last five games.
If Clarkson could revive his earlier productivity, he will not have a hard time getting picked by a good team come off-season. However, if he continues with his current average, teams will more likely be less-inclined to give up any of their valuable members just to get Clarkson on board.
