At the start of last year’s training camp, former head coach Byron Scott singled out Jordan Clarkson as the Laker who got into the best shape over the offseason.
Clarkson has steadily improved his frame in his two years as a Laker, causing him and Strength and Conditioning Coach Tim DiFrancesco to find a humorous look back at the University of Missouri product that showed up in Los Angeles in 2014.
“He and I laugh about it together,” DiFrancesco said. “He came in as — for lack of a better term — a scrawny college kid. Athletically, he could always get up and down and up in the air and compete at the NBA level from day one. Physically, he lacked initially.
“If you go back and look at some of the pictures of him in his first Summer League uniform: He does not fill out that uniform in the way that he does now. So that’s been an ongoing process with me and him.”
Clarkson is clearly one of the most athletic players on the Lakers’ roster, as well as among his peers from the 2014 draft class. His desire to build physically stems, in part, from his experiences getting bullied by bigger guards as a rookie.
“Because of how competitive he is, that bothered him,” DiFrancesco said. “Then it’s a matter of me and him making sure we get some meat on his bones. That, for him, happened quickly. It’s a perfect storm for him.
“Genetically, he’s got a gift of being able to almost walk through the weight room and start to gain weight practically; where some people have to just grind it out for hours and months and years. But then he also has this (mind set) of: 'Who’s working the hardest, and can I outwork them?’ You combine those two skills … and that’s where you get some quick results.”
DiFrancesco calls Clarkson “deceivingly strong,” which has a lot to do with the 24-year-old spending plenty of time in the gym this offseason.
According to the coach, Clarkson simply doesn’t stop working on his build.
“You can’t get this kid to sit still,” DiFrancesco said. “That’s why he’s in the best shape, because he can’t stop. He has no dimmer switch.”
However, DiFrancesco also cautions not to expect Clarkson to come back next season looking like a cross between Dwayne Johnson and Usain Bolt.
Clarkson, he says, is already at his optimal point of athleticism, and now the goal is to maintain that and use it to his advantage on the floor. To this end, Clarkson has spent plenty of time on the court, including with noted skills coach Drew Hanlen.
“I’m not going to take Jordan Clarkson — a high-end, way-above-average athlete — and worry about trying to somehow get him to some other notch that isn’t even necessary,”DiFrancesco said. “He’s already where he needs to be from that standpoint.”