Jordan Clarkson says he’s learned to play a ton of different roles for the Lakers

From the moment he was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers, the only consistent thing for Jordan Clarkson has been inconsistency.

After a promising showing in Las Vegas Summer League, Clarkson started the year as a benchwarmer for Byron Scott’s Lakers.

About halfway through the year, the rookie second-round pick began to get some burn for the injury-plagued purple and gold.

By the end of the season, Clarkson was the team’s starting point guard and earned his way onto the All-Rookie First Team.

The next season saw Clarkson shift to shooting guard to accommodate the newly-drafted D’Angelo Russsell, and after signing a four-year, $50 million contract to remain in Los Angeles last summer, Clarkson saw his playing time come as backup combo-guard, shooting guard, and by the end of the year, starting point guard.

Clarkson is a fan of roller-coasters, fitting for a career that has basically doubled as one, and he says it’s helped him improve as a player:

Possibly in part due to the unpredictable nature of where he’ll play, Clarkson wants to focus on multiple things over the summer:

At this point, the type of player Clarkson can be seems fairly clear: a combo-guard who is mostly scoring-focused, but can do a bit of ball-handling and facilitating as well if put in the right spots.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Lakers plan to use him next year, doubly so if they keep their first-round pick and select a player like Lonzo Ball or Markelle Fultz.

Whatever happens, Clarkson will likely be ready to give whatever role the Lakers give him a shot. The only way the Lakers could change things for him is if they didn’t change anything at all.

All stats per NBA.com. and Basketball-Reference.com. Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here, or listen to our takeaways from the season below), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.