Heat taking a close look at versatile Clarke
Brandon Clarke wasn’t quite a household name for most of his lone season with the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Even though he was an All-American, Clarke was under-appreciated because of the late start times of the West Coast Conference, untested by the competition of the mid-major league and overlooked because of his place next to Rui Hachimura in the Gonzaga frontcourt.
It all changed in the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs were a No. 1 seed in March and dominated through the early rounds, and their four-round stay in the NCAA tourney turned into a showcase for their star post player.
“Blocking shots is pretty obviously something that I’m pretty good at,” Clarke said Thursday at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago. “With that being said, I think I’m only going to get better at it, so I think it’s just something that I can bring to any team that I get drafted for pretty quickly.”
Their second-round win against the Baylor Bears made sure he wouldn’t be overlooked anymore. The redshirt junior poured in a season-high 36 points to go along with eight rebounds, three assists, five blocks and two steals.
It was exactly the sort of all-around performance which has NBA teams considering Clarke with a firstround pick. The Miami Heat is one of them — Clarke said he has a workout lined up with the Heat in the lead-up to the NBA Draft in June.
However, for him to prove he’s worth the No. 13 pick, Clarke needs to prove offensive eruptions like he had throughout the postseason can be more than a rare luxury to go along with his defensive prowess. Clarke, who began his career with the San Jose State Spartans, wants to shed the label of being just a defensive specialist.
“They’re really just trying to ask me about my work ethic and ask me about how much better I’m going to get,” Clarke said of his meetings in Chicago. “They all know the stuff that I can do well, they’re just trying to ask me if I’m going to get better at the stuff that I don’t do that well and I try to tell them I’m here to get better every day.”
WHAT ARE THE MOCK DRAFTS SAYING?
Clarke is firmly in the Heat’s late-lottery range right now, although prognosticators have a bit of a consensus as to where Clarke is most likely to wind up. Mock drafts at ESPN.com, CBSSports.com, NBC Sports, The Sporting News and The Ringer all project Clarke to the Minnesota Timberwolves with the No. 11 pick in the first round.
Another CBS Sports mock draft pegs Clarke to the Boston Celtics at No. 14, while Sports Illustrated’s mock has Clarke dropping a bit further to the Utah Jazz at No. 23.
The difference between those two parts of Clarke’s draft range depends on how much he can prove himself offensively.
Age (22) will probably keep Clarke from having any realistic shot of climbing much higher, but he provides real value for a late-lottery team looking for someone to help immediately in a playoff push. At this point, the odds of Clarke being off the board before Miami picks are just as good as of him falling.