Jordan Clarkson using Knicks’ title aspirations to quiet biggest concerns around game: ‘Locked in’

MIAMI — Winning has done wonders for Jordan Clarkson’s efficiency and defense.

Coming off consecutive seasons of decline in those areas, there were questions about Clarkson’s trajectory as he joined the Knicks: Was he struggling because of his age (33), or was it the tanking environment in Utah?

Through his first 12 games with the Knicks, Clarkson has demonstrated that all he needed was a little more motivation.

“It’s a level of focus. I’m glad to be back in this and part of this and back contending, be in the playoffs and know that we’re playing for something,” Clarkson said. “That changes a player’s mindset. It’s just a bunch of focus that goes into it and I’m locked in.”

In his final three seasons with the Jazz, the franchise was terrible and mostly tanking — the product of unloading the best two players, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, for rebuilding pieces.

Clarkson missed 93 of his last 246 games with the Jazz, and his shooting percentage dipped to under 30 percent on 3-pointers and just 41 percent overall during the 2023-24 campaign.