Kon Knueppel's respect, Jordan Clarkson reinvention and more NBA trends I'm watching

A rookie has earned immediate respect. An old dog is learning new tricks. And a tanker is innovating.Let’s open the notebook to run through three NBA trends that have caught my eye this week.Latching onto KnueppelNot all shooters are spacers. And not all spacers are shooters.The two traits are connected. Presumably, a player has to hit jumpers for the defense to worry about him on the perimeter, which then pulls opponents away from the paint, thus spacing the court for his teammates. And in most cases, the more a shooter misses, the less defenders will care to close out on him.But there are always exceptions — because there is a human element to basketball.Advertisement