The NBA has become no country for old men. The league-wide obsession with speed and cheaper rookie scale contracts has pushed aging role players out of the league. Bruce Brown, who is looking for work after not cracking the New York Knicks roster out of training camp, is a good example of this, and he’s only 30 years old.

Older guys who can only put the ball in the hoop, long like Jordan Clarkson, are dinosaurs on the brink of extinction. The 34-year-old's score-first, small-combo guard playstyle was likely going to get him out of the league soon, so he completely reinvented himself as a defensive and rebounding demon, ready whenever coach Mike Brown calls his number.

The team's elder statesman only saw action in 16 minutes across the team's first four games and even logged a DNP-CD in one of them. Some nights Brown mothballs Clarkson until the second half, but he’s become quite the break-the-glass emergency spark plug in the early going of the season.

The Knicks are getting the best version of Clarkson

Back in Cleveland over the weekend, Clarkson chipped in nine points on five shots in 15 minutes. His +58 leads the team. He's connected on 6-of-9 three-pointers after not being able to buy one during the final weeks of last season, making 4 of the last 29 three-point attempts from March 20 on.

Clarkson's one of only six non-centers averaging 3+ offensive rebounds per 36 minutes this season, per Knicks insider Tommy Beer. The other five guys are Scottie Barnes, Amen Thompson, Brayden Burries, Dyson Daniels, and Keldon Johnson. Even when he doesn’t secure the board, the work and physicality are there every play.

The cagey veteran brings an element of unpredictability and fight that gives the bench a different look. Clarkson is shooting 67% from long range, which is third among bench players and seventh in points per 36 minutes.

Last week, Clarkson scored his 8,696th point off the bench in his career, surpassing Thurl Bailey for seventh all-time. Only Lou Williams, Jamal Crawford, Dell Curry, Eddie Johnson, and Ricky Pierce have more bench buckets.

Being a career-long sixth man is about sacrifice, and we've seen that with the 2021 Sixth Man of the Year, whom Brown dubbed the best teammate he's seen in his nearly three decades on NBA sidelines.

Clarkson had his moments last year. His second-half heroics in the NBA Cup Final, a 25-point outburst on Christmas Day, and a season high of 27 points during his return to Salt Lake City. But in the first 11 games coming out of the All-Star break, he didn't see a second on the court six times and only saw 27 minutes. He was yanked from the rotation following the acquisition of Jose Alvarado at the trade deadline.

Despite averaging a career-low 17.8 minutes and 8.6 points across 72 games, watching Clarkson redefine himself as an offensive rebounding and do-the-dirty-work pit bull was one of the more fun aspects of the championship run.

The Knicks' overall OREB% was 3.2% higher with Clarkson on the floor during the regular season, and he sported the highest OREB% of his career. The Knicks were 10.3 points better per 100 possessions with him on the floor in the playoffs, and their offensive rebounding rate was 16.9% higher, per NBA.com.

While most of the Knicks offseason buzz was centered around the futures of Mitchell Robinson and Landry Shamet, there was little talk about Clarkson returning. On the Knicks' tight cap sheet, the 6-foot-5 microwave scorer counts as a $2.45M cap hit. However, he's been one of the better bargains in the league and so much more than just a bucket-getter.