Clark has looked fantastic over the last couple of games. But his season averages don't look good yet (and probably can't be fixed by the end of the season) and I don't know how much he was on any radars. Barring an incredible tournament that makes him un-missable I can't imagine he won't return for one more year just to get some eyes on him. No reason to come out and go in the 50s if you can spend another year and get taken in the first round. And you know, this kid plays hard, he hustles, he leaves it all on the floor, and he's a good defender and at least a decent passer. Still needs to convince me on his three ball but it's getting a lot better. He's the kind of guy I can see sticking but scouts may want to see a full year.
Selfishly, I hope he returns for another year, but I think he skyrockets after the pac 12 tourney and the ncaa tourney. Russ was rated as a second rounder at the beginning of his soph yr, then was slotted to go at the back of the lottery to mid teens before the ncaa tourney then skyrocketed to a top 5 pick after the tourney. Have a feeling Clark is going to climb as well as scouts see the point of attack defense in a power wings body and connector skills on both sides of the ball. We’ll see.
From Tracy’s article:
“First and foremost: UCLA's struggles all season have greatly come from playing spotty defense. so what UCLA needed most was a lockdown defender.
Voilà, there's Clark, an elite-level defender who can transform UCLA's defense from a mostly decent one to a very good one.
UCLA's pretty potent offense has a tendency to get bogged down by too much one-on-one play, not enough passing and movement away from the ball.
Voilà, there's Clark, who is an offensive catalyst with his basketball I.Q. and vision. His movement and extra pass can enhance UCLA's already-good offense to a thing of beauty…
In fact, all of your collective Bruin prayers have been answered to the extreme. You might have just been asking for another primary contributor, but what you got was a guy who might be the best player on the team and one of the best in the Pac-12...
Clark, in the last three games he's started, is averaging 19.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 2.3 assists (and by the way, the statisticians have cheated him out of some assists). If those stats were for the season, he'd be leading the team in points, rebounds and steals. Those are first-team all-Pac-12 Conference-level numbers. To put it in perspective, Arizona's Bennedict Mathurin, who is the leading candidate for Pac-12 Conference Player of the Year, is averaging 17.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1 steal and 2.3 assists per game…
And those are just the numbers. If you trust your eyeballs, Clark's impact is even more pronounced. Basketball is a game of five players whose success isn't determined by merely each individual achievement but also how well each individual contributes to the overall achievement of the team. There hasn't been a UCLA player that makes the team as a whole better at UCLA since Lonzo Ball, and Ball's impact was only on the offensive end. Before, that, not since Arron Afflalo.
Clark makes the team better defensively, clearly. Of course, the fact that Myles Johnson stepped into the starter role at center also greatly enhanced UCLA's defense, too. Adding Clark and Johnson to the lineup pushes UCLA across the line of being an inconsistent defensive team to a consistently very good defensive team.“
). I fear he's going to get obliterated guarding NBA guys in space. A Jackson St. guy got two steps on him going to the basket before he knew what hit him. If he's guarding someone like Lyles, he should be fine. If he's guarding most 3s in this league (forget about 2s and 1s) he's not going to be in their zip code. If the Kings did draft him, would he big a big difference maker on the Kings next year? I doubt it.
