For years, the premise of a Gilas Pilipinas stint for Utah Jazz's Jordan Clarkson in the 2023 FIBA World Cup hinged on the hope that the world basketball body would allow the NBA guard to play as a local.
It was one teased as a possibility over the years, but an appeal that never really gained a lot of traction despite countless pleas by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) to have him reclassified.
Now any remaining hope of a status change appears to have been completely snuffed out.
Early August, SBP executive director and spokesperson Sonny Barrios said the national federation has accepted the reality that Clarkson can only be fielded as a naturalized player for the Philippines in FIBA-sanctioned tournaments as final appeals to the Central Board fell flat.
Having Clarkson as a local would have been a tremendous benefit in terms of roster composition, as that would have opened up space for a naturalized big man like Ange Kouame, a tremendous backline defender, rim-runner, and lob threat with exceptional size, length, and requisite experience to ably man the 5 at the international level.
Ultimately, the SBP has no other choice but to move forward instead of dwelling over could-have-beens. A naturalized Clarkson is better than no Clarkson, anyway.
As an above-average NBA guard who has career averages of 15.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 0.9 steals on decent shooting percentages of 43.9% from the field, 33.8% from downtown and 82.7% from the line, the 6-foot-4 Florida native is a capable three-level microwave scorer who projects to do even more damage at the FIBA level.
Even as his raw numbers took a step back from his Sixth Man of the Year run in the 2020-21 campaign, advanced stats actually painted Clarkson as a net positive for the entirety of Utah's season, which saw the fifth-seeded Jazz post the league's best offense and a top-11 defense in the regular season before falling in the first round to the Dallas Mavericks.
An already dominant Jazz offense was 1.35 points better on offense with Clarkson on the floor and was 3.46 points worse on defense if he was not on the floor in the previous season.
He was somehow better in the playoffs of the 2021-22 season, where he posted a team-high +14.7 net rating when on the floor for the Jazz during that six-game stretch versus the Mavs.
Shot selection may be an issue at times, but at least he's selective about the type of shots he wants to put up. About 63.8% of his shots for his NBA career have either come at the rim or from three-point line, areas where some of the most efficient shots are generated. He has shot 56% at the rack and 33.3% from downtown over his last two seasons with Utah -- not excellent or terrible by any means, but good enough for a score-first rotation player in the best league in the world.
Clarkson is still way more efficient when finishing off of opportunities set up by his teammates rather than when he creates them for himself, but he has seen a slight increase in percentage of self-created offense (and his efficiency on those types of shots) over his last two full seasons with Utah.
That bodes well for a Gilas team that needs a world-level shot creator to offset the offense's tendency to stall at times.
While he's not an elite defender by any means, Clarkson has improved on defense to the point where he's not a huge liability anymore but actually a valid contributor.
Utah had a 109.3 defensive rating with him on the floor -- a mark which would have ranked 6th in the previous NBA season if extrapolated by an entire campaign, though of course a lot of that was aided by the presence of three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert and his penchant for cleaning up everyone else's mistakes on that end of the floor.
Utah has somewhat shown that it is a blueprint conducive to success for a lineup with Clarkson playing a significant role: pair him with a strong lead guard who can also play off the ball and somewhat hold his own on defense in the backcourt, then add a wing and a four who can space the floor (and create their own offense on the fly as a bonus) while serving as decent-to-good man or help defenders, and play a 5 who can be solid roll-man and play finisher while anchoring a defense in multiple defensive coverages (drop, show, blitz, or switch).
That feels like a formula that Gilas can replicate starting in Window 4 of the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers, where a 13-man pool whose members more or less fit some of those prototypes will see action against Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Clarkson is joined Adelaide big man Kai Sotto; Japan B.League imports Dwight Ramos, Ray Parks, and brothers Kiefer and Thirdy Ravena; University of the Philippines star Carl Tamayo; and PBA standouts Calvin Oftana of NLEX Road Warriors; Chris Newsome of Meralco Bolts; NorthPort Batang Pier's Jamie Malonzo; Barangay Ginebra's Scottie Thompson and Japeth Aguilar; and free agent Roosevelt Adams.
The home game against Saudi Arabia on Aug. 29 should be a walk in the park for this specific Gilas roster.
But Clarkson and the Nationals will first have to pass the biggest test they've had in a long while during a road game on Aug. 25 against Lebanon -- the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup silver medalists, who are essentially bringing in the same roster that came tantalizingly close to an upset of Australia in the gold medal match last month.
Wael Arakji, the tournament MVP with almost no weakness on his offensive portfolio and highly considered as the continent's best guard today, will lead the Cedars into battle in Beirut.
He will be backstopped by stretch big Hayk Gyokchyan, who torched Gilas in Jakarta to the tune of 19 points, eight boards and four triples, and one of two naturalized players in the pool in Jon Arledge or Ater Majok -- one a versatile defender with range from outside, another a traditional big man who blocks a lot of shots and finishes a ton of plays off of plays created by his teammates.
Both games are not merely tests of Clarkson and Gilas' on-court capabilities.
Rather, they're also a bellwether of sorts in terms of Chot Reyes and the SBP's' ability to build a fine roster around Clarkson that can challenge or even take down some of the world's best teams once the World Cup comes around.
With an NBA player and a selection of the country's elite all in tow for the coming qualifying window, the opportunity is ripe for the federation to prove its competence while appeasing an incredibly disgruntled fanbase that ceaselessly clamors for change as the days pass.