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Jordan Clarkson recently finished seventh in voting for Rookie of the Year, a rather large accomplishment for an unheralded second round pick who barely played the first half of the season.
Clarkson is not resting on his laurels however, posting a video previewing a tiny piece of his offseason workouts:
Working on self-improvement is nothing new for Clarkson according to Lakers trainer Tim DiFrancesco, who recently caught up with Mike Trudell of Lakers.com to detail the offseason routines of several of the team's players. DiFrancesco said Clarkson has "gained 10 pounds of muscle since he walked into our doors."
While he emphasized the importance of Clarkson, and all players, getting some rest during the offseason, DiFrancesco also noted "management wanted [Clarkson] to put on some muscle to better deal with bigger guards, and to act as body armor for him when he drives into the paint. We want Jordan to be the one delivering hits, not taking them on a slight frame. And we pushed around a lot of weight in here, a lot of sets and a lot of reps, and he put on the 10 pounds pretty quickly."
DiFrancesco also seems to have a high opinion of Clarkson's work ethic, as he described to Trudell:
I think he'll put on another eight to 10 pounds in the next couple of years, just because he loves to work. He'll do whatever you ask of him, and that's really going to be fun to watch. You can already see him being hard for other guards to keep up with in terms of speed and explosiveness in the stacked Western Conference. When he adds even a bit more mass to really make them feel him, I think that's going to really help. And it'll discourage any other guards that might want to post him up.
Clarkson has consistently displayed the determination, drive, and hyper focus necessary for such a low draft pick to carve out an NBA career. That should excite fans of the Lakers as the team continues to rebuild with Clarkson as a component.