Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. Currently writing for SB Nation and FanSided, he has covered theUtah Jazz andBYU athletics since 2024 and graduated from Utah Valley University.
Walter Clayton Jr is piquing my interest as of late.
Diving to the basket before violently braking, smashing his foot into the hardwood, Utah’s Walter Clayton Jr collects just enough open air to veer around the screen man and take control of the basketball. Clayton pounds the rock, putting it to the floor and maintaining his trajectory. Right hand. Left hand. A quick step and he’s gone.
Defender plastered to his backside, this point guard weaves a cat’s cradle with the ball’s path. Lying low, but laser-focused, more of a crouching panther stalking his prey. Sensing an impending opening, searching, searching, searching.
There it is.
A glimpse of weakness. A taste of uncertainty. Deep within the adversary’s soul, he already knows that he’s at the mercy of the ball handler. A quick ball fake confirms as much, as the helpless victim to his game of strings becomes little more than a powerless marionette: strung up in the air.
The disparity between hunter and prey couldn’t be more distinct, with the former confidently approaching his target and the latter watching horror-struck at his imminent demise.
Step-through. Scoop. Basket.
Utah snapped up Clayton 18th overall, offloading a cluster of second-rounders to leapfrog from their original spot at 21. Collecting lasting talent is an oft-overlooked aspect of selecting outside the restrictive lottery barriers, as many gifted and well-equipped hoopers have fizzled into oblivion before getting a chance to sign their second NBA contract.
After just a few Summer League appearances, would it be premature to predict he’ll be playing NBA basketball for at least the next decade?
After just a few Summer League appearances, would it be premature to predict he’ll be playing NBA basketball for at least the next decade?
Creating advantages for himself and his teammates with “How did he see that?” types of passes and “In what world does he make that *again?*” types of buckets. In a desperate attempt to comprehend the Walter Clayton Jr. experience and calculate his career trajectory at this early stage, I need to put together a cloud of comparison to visualize a proper player profile for Utah’s newest point guard.
Behold, the Walter Clayton Jr. Archetype Cloud (patent pending).
You do the math, bud.
Please note that these comparisons are far from all-encompassing, and no two players’ talents or style of play are exactly alike. That said, I’m picking up hints of the following names fitting — to various degrees — within WCJ’s bandwidth.
Jalen Brunson
Calculating. Deliberate. Precise. Jalen Brunson nearly led the New York Knicks to the NBA Finals this year, and likely would have had it not been for Haliburton and those meddling Pacers right in the middle of their whirlwind tour through the playoffs.
Brunson was never supposed to be the All-NBA talent we know him as today. Up until the past few seasons, he was still toiling away as Luka’s understudy. He broke out during the 2021-22 season, as the hobbled Slovenian recovered from injury. Then, he torched Utah in a first-round series during the 2022 Playoffs — Jazz fans remember — to the point of earning a bonkers payday courtesy of the New York Knicks in the following free agency period.
A player capable of knocking the wind out of any adversary, Jalen Brunson always seems to hit the right shots at the right moment. He’s got a bag of tricks rivaling Batman’s utility belt; he’s got the right tool for the right moment and has an inescapable quality of “just making it happen.”
I see a great deal of that potential in Clayton, if he can solve the 12-sided Rubik’s Cube that is navigating an NBA career.
Jamal Murray
Ok, this is the popular pick. Maybe it’s the hairstyle. Maybe it’s the shotmaking. But everyone seems to be aboard the Jamal Murray comp train. I’ll say my piece.
Murray has been an exceptional shotmaker for years now, and the perfect complementary piece to Nikola Jokic (when healthy). I’d give this Kentucky product an honorary Ricky Rubio award for drawing attention away from the more serious threats on the roster (shoutout, Jazz legend Russell Westbrook). He opens the floor for his MVP teammate and takes the pressure off just enough to keep the machine operating at full capacity.
But when the opposing game plan strays from Murray, he’s got the capacity to rip your heart right out of your chest, Mola Ram style. Clayton is a dangerous player, and Murray would be an exceptional outcome.
Damian Lillard
“Dame Time” exists in a space all its own, untied from its tether, drifting into the endless aether. From the hand of Lillard, no attempt is contestable. No outstretched obstacle can dissuade. No defense is safe.
Just because his highlight reel hasn’t graced your TikTok feed for a few years doesn’t mean he hasn’t been one of basketball’s most transcendent long-range scorers for his entire career. Off the catch and off the dribble, neither Dame nor Walt is afraid to let it fly.
Disinterested in conforming to basketball convention, Clayton Jr. has taken a liking to an unhealthy diet of 3-point jumpers. On the move, off the dribble, fading away, and with a hand in his grill, he’ll put up a jumper. Simply unbothered by what basketball experts believe to be a good shot, he puts the ball in the basket.
Keyonte George/Jordan Poole/Coby White
Maybe it’s not always graceful, but these players see a scoring opportunity like a shark smells blood in the water. All encompassing, all-consuming, once one of these hoopers gets an appetite for buckets, very little will stand in their way, their own ability notwithstanding.
Clayton has a shooter’s DNA and a jaw-dropping ability to the basketball through the cylinder from anywhere and by any means. But as he’s already demonstrated in Summer League play, he has intriguing upside as a playmaker and distributor. Just as Keyonte has shown, just as Coby White is displaying, and yes, even Jordan Poole can get in on this discussion.
Watching WCJ discover a path all his own will be something to watch moving forward. Though his ceiling is likely below that of many names in the cloud, few believed the best on this list would reach the heights they stand on today.
We’ll be watching your career with great interest.