With the departure of Amar’e Stoudemire and Lou Amundson (who is currently an unrestricted free agent) there is a void at the power forward spot that needs to be filled.  While it is believed that Hakim Warrick will be the one to replace Amar’e as the Suns’ starter at PF, Earl Clark still has a chance to grab hold of the position, if only his game could take the next step.

Clark’s Summer League performance was average at best with a few great plays sprinkled in, showing flashes of what Suns’ fans hope Earl Clark can become with more playing time.  However, for the most part during Summer League, I saw an unwillingness to attack the basket from Clark:

Here Clark grabs the rebound and brings the basketball up the court on his own.  Now, this displays the pretty good ball handling ability of a 6’10″ PF, however Clark needs to either try and get to the basket (and take advantage of his ball handling ability) here or get it to a guard and start the offense.  Even when Clark wanted to try and drive to the basket, he had a tendency to shy away from contact:

Here, Clark makes the catch and decides he wants to attack the basket.  However, he never really takes the ball towards the rim.  He simply dribbles to the open lane and takes a shot falling away from the basket (and the contact).  Finally, this timidness really hurts Earl Clark in the post:

Here, Earl Clark tries to seal and make his catch in the mid-post (Working in the mid-post is something Earl Clark can do to take advantage of his skills, sort of like what Austin Daye was doing effectively earlier in summer league).  However, Clark gives up his position too easily and is allowed to be pushed all the way out to the college three point line before he makes his catch.  As a result, Clark again needs to attack the basket with his dribble, and he does what he did in the previous clip, driving to an open lane and falling away from the basket (he gets bailed out with a foul call this time though.

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All this being said, Clark has shown some things during Summer League that make you think he can excel playing in the Suns system with a point guard like Steve Nash.

At 6’10″, Earl Clark has a unique combination of size and athletic ability.  Clark is fantastic in the open floor, especially without the basketball.  He has a knack for finding open lanes in transition, and even on the secondary break Clark can make himself available for teammates on open spots.  This skill will allow for Clark to pick up a lot of easy baskets in transition playing with Steve Nash.

Clark can also get himself to the rim WHEN he wants to.  When Clark sees a wide-open lane to the basket, he can take advantage of that.  However, when he has to create his own lane, or drive into traffic, that’s when he starts falling away from the basket (like we saw from the videos early in the post).

Finally, Earl Clark has a decent jump shot that makes you believe he can excel when running the pick and pop with Steve Nash.  His shot isn’t good enough for him to explain coming down and hoisting up shots without making a pass, but Clark’s shot will prevent teams from sagging off of him and exclusively cutting off the drive.

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In conclusion, Earl Clark didn’t really wow anyone with his play during Summer League, but Clark could be the type of player that excels with better players playing around him.  Playing with Steve Nash meshes really well with his ability to run the floor and with all the shooters spreading the floor he may be able to attack through the open lanes.

What Suns’ fans are going to need to see from Clark is consistency though.  He needs to be able to run the floor, attack the basket, and take good shots for long stretches before he can take that next step and become the player the Suns think he can be.