UCLA Basketball: Jaylen Clark Wants To Win Major End-Of-Season Hardware With Timberwolves

This would be huge!

The biggest blow to the UCLA Bruins in their 2022-2023 season was definitely seeing Jaylen Clark go down with an achilles injury. He was in the midst of his best season of his collegiate career as he had finally found a big role within the team in 30 minutes per game, he was averaging 13 points, six rebounds and two steals.

Playing alongside other upperclassmen on the team in Jaime Jaquez and Tyler Campbell and also having a young, athletic guard in Amari Bailey, Clark was able to get looks on easy cuts to the rim and more importantly, focus on the defensive side of things before he was ruled out for the season. Time and time again, Clark would personally take on the challenge of guarding one of the top scorers on the opposing side and pressure them majority of the game.

And despite Clark suffering one of the worst injuries possible in basketball, he still was selected number 53 in the 2023 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves. They saw everything that he was able to do his final year at UCLA and decided to bet on him making a full recovery and eventually playing a key role for them in the NBA.

And it looks like Clark wants to continue his defensive dominance in the league as he was actually the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year last season and when speaking to the Timberwolves' social media team, he revealed he has his eyes set on the NBA's version of that trophy.

𝑱𝑨𝒀𝑳𝑬𝑵 𝑪𝑳𝑨𝑹𝑲 😤‼️ #NBABruins https://t.co/RaGiqyDgzd

— UCLA Men’s Basketball (@UCLAMBB) June 28, 2023

"I do all the thing nobody else wants to do," said Clark. "I love playing defense, diving on loose balls, rebounding. I want to win all defensive awards, I put goal in college. I think Defensive Player of the Year in the NBA is probably my top, top goal."

(Via Minnesota Timberwolves)

Let's see if he can get this done!