The Jaylen Clark torture chamber does not appear to be a fun place to reside. I am not envious of any player who enters, as they will immediately be greeted by one of the best young defenders in basketball — a title that not many fans outside of Minnesota are hip to yet, but will be in pretty short time. But Clark being a major if you know, you know is fun for Wolves fans in the meantime.
Clark is already in the 93rd percentile of Defensive Estimated Plus / Minus, a stat that estimates a player's defensive impact. It's not the end-all, be-all of defensive metrics, but when the top five players in a defensive stat are Alex Caruso, Draymond Green, Chet Holmgren, Wemby, and Rudy Gobert, there's probably some validity to it.
For Clark to be relatively close to that crop of players after just 52 NBA games is astounding. It might be too early to jump to conclusions about Clark's future upside, but right now, he looks like the kind of draft steal that changes the complexion of a franchise fighting to reach the mountaintop of the league.
Jaylen Clark is the type of prospect NBA teams dream of
Picked No. 53 overall last season, Clark fell nearly completely out of the draft because of a torn Achilles in March 2023, and he doesn't have tons of offensive upside. At UCLA, where he was the 2022-23 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, he never averaged more than 13 points per game and shot just 30.2% from deep in three college seasons.
The injury and the offensive limitations didn't stop the Wolves from taking a swing, and it's the exact type of swing teams like the Wolves need to take. One of those problems — the injury — is a thing of the past, as Clark has clearly not lost a step defensively. The other problem, the outside shooting, might be a non-issue, too.
He'll never be a playmaker in that regard, but he has shot over 40% from 3-point range in his 52 career games, so the sample size is getting larger while the production stays impressive.
The Timberwolves have a future defensive stopper in Jaylen Clark
Plus, even if that shooting ticks down, the best teams in the league should be able to compensate for a player who provides elite on-ball defensive value but not much offensive consistency. The aforementioned Alex Caruso is a perfect example; only once in his career has he averaged over 10 points per game, but his value has never been a question.
Through 52 games — not even a full season — Jaylen Clark has been one of the 30ish best (at least) defenders in basketball, has shot over 40 percent from downtown, and has an on/off of plus-2.3 per 100 possessions. If he never gets any better than he is right now, he's already the kind of player that every team in the league hopes to find in the back half of the NBA Draft.
And I'm pretty confident Jaylen Clark isn't done getting better after 52 games.