Tag: wows

At first, Jaylen Clark didn’t realize Chris Finch was calling for him to go into the game.

“When he said my name, I’m like ‘Jaden (McDaniels) already down there,’” Clark said after the Timberwolves’ eventful win over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night. “He said JayLEN. I was like ‘Oh!’ It was dope.”

Clark made his NBA debut earlier this month and had appeared in garbage time at the end of four comfortable wins. But when Finch put the 23-year-old in the game in the second quarter, it marked the first time he was playing real, competitive, rotational minutes in the league. Clark played the final 4:35 of the first half and acquitted himself well, especially on the defensive end. So assistant coach Micah Nori went back to him after Chris Finch was ejected midway through the third quarter.

Clark finished the game with nearly ten minutes played off the bench. His box score stats won’t stand out: 1 for 3, 2 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist. But Clark, who is known for his defense, was as impressive as advertised on that end of the floor. He battled like crazy against Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and the Suns, showing off his energy and activity as an on-ball defender.

The Wolves won Clark’s minutes by nine points. During that time, the Suns went 6 of 19 from the floor, 1 for 9 from deep, and committed four turnovers. He was all over the place.

“Jaylen Clark, that’s what he does,” Nori said. “College defensive player of the year, and give credit to Tim Connelly and that group finding him. That’s one thing that translates, is defense. He’s not afraid of the moment by any means. Very, very physical guard, and he makes life rough. I think our guys were excited to see an opponent have to feel that, as opposed to themselves like they feel it every day in practice.”

Clark won the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award as the best defender in college basketball in the 2022-23 season. He averaged a Pac-12-leading 2.6 steals per game that year. Despite tearing his Achilles late in the season, the Wolves drafted him towards the back of the second round (53rd overall) and were patient as he missed his entire rookie season while recovering from the injury.

Subscribe to our free YouTube channel for fresh Timberwolves content

After completing his rehab, Clark played in the summer league last year and has been on a two-way contract this season, playing four games for the Iowa Wolves in the G League. On Wednesday, with the Wolves missing Naz Reid in addition to Donte DiVincenzo, Clark finally got his opportunity. And he was ready for it, in part because of all the time he spent guarding Anthony Edwards in training camp before the season.

“Guarding (Ant), that’s the hardest dude I’ve ever (played), between speed, power, jump shooting ability,” Clark said. “So practicing that all training camp — ’cause I was on the third team, so we went up against them every day, we was basically practice dummies — got me really prepared for pretty much everybody I’ll see out there if I get more opportunities.”

At one point during each of Clark’s two stints, the Wolves were running the nightmarish defensive lineup of Clark, Edwards, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, McDaniels, and Rudy Gobert. That’s about as scary as it gets, even for a Suns team with three accomplished scorers.

After an impressive showing, it’ll be interesting to see if Clark gets additional chances to play, perhaps as soon as the second leg of this back-to-back on Thursday night against the lowly Utah Jazz. It’s difficult to crack the Wolves’ rotation, but Clark has arguably earned the right to be in the mix for bench minutes over a struggling Josh Minott, at least while DiVincenzo remains out.

Offense is a question mark for Clark, who averaged 13 points as a junior at UCLA but shot 30 percent from deep in his college career. In his four games with Iowa, he averaged 16.3 points and did shoot over 44 percent from deep on a small sample size, though he was below 38 percent on twos. How much he can bring on that end at the NBA level remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: Any time Clark gets into a game, it’s going to be a pleasure to watch him compete on defense.

“He was impressive today, man, on defense,” Edwards said. “He was impressive, I’m not gon’ lie.”