Brandon Clarke knows he won’t have the same bounce in his step for a while.
But it could be worse. An Achilles injury often signaled the beginning of the end for some NBA players who endured through the long road to recovery, only to come back a shell of their former selves. Even with advances in medical technology and accelerated rehab schedules in recent years, there’s no guaranteeing a successful career after suffering such an injury.
For Clarke, his athleticism has played a major role in his game. His tremendous bounce coupled with his length makes him the prototypical rim-running post player who’s a constant lob threat on offense. Clarke’s highlight-filled rookie season, in which he averaged 12.1 points and 5.9 rebounds, earned him a spot on the NBA All-Rookie First Team.
Now, the 6-foot-8 Canadian likely faces a choice — either he continues to rely mostly on his leaping ability and athleticism on the court, or he sacrifices parts of both and retools his game to become an improved outside shooter.
Take Kevin Durant for example. After suffering a torn Achilles in the 2019 NBA Finals, the former league MVP and four-time scoring champion came back two seasons later and posted the highest true shooting percentage of his career (66.6%) and the best 3-point field goal percentage of his career (45.0%) while relying mostly on his incredible shotmaking and less on his ability to get to the rim.
Rudy Gay is another player who adjusted his game to remain an efficient and productive role player into his mid-30s. Going back even further, Dominique Wilkins was one of the first players who made a full recovery after tearing his Achilles. The commonality among players who tore their Achilles and bounced back to enjoy a successful second act of their career is that they often had to sacrifice parts of their old game and develop new tendencies to accommodate for their past injuries.
That’s not saying Clarke will never throw down a putback dunk again in his career. But part of retooling his game will require him to develop his outside shooting, an area that showed promise during his rookie season but has since dropped off drastically.
After he made 23 of 64 (35.9%) of his 3-point attempts in 2019-20, Clarke has made just 27 of 111 (24.3%) outside shot attempts from 2021-2024. His shot form often appears slow and clunky, which was not the case when he first came into the league. Perhaps it’s time to go back to the methods that worked in order to take a step forward.
The Memphis Grizzlies look to get back to the postseason again after going through a myriad of injuries that resulted in a 27-55 season. With Ja Morant back, Desmond Bane and Marcus Smart finally healthy plus a projected $45 million in cap space, there’s a lot of potential for the 2024-25 campaign. Clarke’s rehabilitation will play a key role in the Grizzlies’ future success.
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