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Many general managers and coaches have fallen in love with bigs that have the kind of skill set Earl Clark has, but the results have been decidedly mixed. They typically have been riddled with inconsistency, whether it’s Lamar Odom, Al Harrington or Antawn Jamison.

Like those three, Clark has remarkably pure basketball skills considering his height. He is a potential matchup nightmare, as he will be able to bring big power forwards out to the perimeter and shoot over the top of smaller wings.

Clark’s offense is predicated on how effective he is creating his shot off the dribble. Before he puts the ball on the deck, Clark will frequently employ shot fakes and ball fakes and defenders must guard him close because they respect his shot.

He has good balance with the dribble and does a good job of staying upright with his upper body, taking advantage of his length. Clark likes to bump off his man and then put up his mid-range jumper or runner with that space he creates.

He isn’t a great athlete in the air, clearly not a high-riser, but he is fairly nimble, elusive and controlled.

Clark’s shooting percentages (45.7% FG, 64.7% FT, 32.6% 3P) are far from excellent, but he should eventually be one of the more accurate shooters at his position. He has a high release and although not a ton of lift in his lower body, he won’t get his shot blocked or even altered too frequently. Occasionally, his motion becomes a little jerky and his misses increase in line, but when he is in a fluid motion and rhythm, he becomes a knockdown shooter.

Clark also works well moving without the ball. He has excellent court awareness where he could turn to the basket with a blindfold when flashing to the ball for a catch and shoot across the lane.

He’ll frequently catch the ball in the mid-post, where he has a lot of moves at his disposal and has great touch off the glass. Clark is truly dangerous in this area when he is able to establish his faceup game this low with a reverse pivot. There are just too many ways for him to score or dish off to an open teammate for defenders to neutralize him here.

The book on his low post game hasn’t come back yet since the vast majority of his floor time has been on the wings and elbows.

Clark will be an excellent option on the pick and pop and pick and roll, something Rick Pitino didn’t call for him nearly enough. Many of the screens Clark set at Louisville were off the ball, but his footwork and mechanics are very sound.

Clark has good fundamentals defensively in regards to his stance and spacing in help defense. He won’t be a great on-ball defender and needs to toughen up in the post, but he will be a more than adequate team defender.

Click here to read RealGM's draft reports on other members of the '09 class.