Some of the moves made at the trade deadline took many by surprise, but many none more than new Cleveland Cavaliers guard Jordan Clarkson.
Clarkson, who was traded to the Cavaliers from the Los Angeles Lakers, said recently that on the day of the trade deadline, he was just hanging out and resting. It appears he even almost ignored the calls from Lakers executives trying to inform him of the trade, per David Aldridge of NBA.com.
Clarkson didn’t believe he’d be traded. The Lakers had given him a $50 million deal in 2016. He, Nance Jr., Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball were going to be the core of a new Lakers team that just needed a star player to be the spoke of the wheel.
The morning of the deadline, “I was sleeping on the couch,” Clarkson said. “They was calling me — Rob (Pelinka, the Lakers’ GM) and Magic (Johnson) and them was calling. We had shootaround; we had a game that day. So I kind of was like pushing the phone to the side. I was still trying to get some sleep. But I woke up and callled them back and they gave me the news.”
Trades can happen that quickly, and the Lakers-Cavaliers one seemed to appear out of nowhere. Clarkson had played well for the Lakers all season long, and had been one of the longest-tenured players on that team.
But it was no secret that the organization wanted to create as much cap flexibility as possible, and moving Clarkson was one of the only ways to do it. The Lakers got what they wanted with the trade, and so did the Cavaliers, who desperately needed a shakeup in the locker room and also got younger in the process.
Maybe next time, if there is one, Clarkson will answer the phone more quickly.