To tell you guys the truth, I don't see many similarities, besides playing the same position. For instance, throught his career, Clarkson always could shoot well from midrange (.438 on shots taken between 10 e 16 feet) and was competent on long 2s (.404 on shots taken between 16 feet and the 3 point line). Burks, in comparison, was never able to do both even decently (the percentages are .361 and .359), except during the current season (.426 and .452). Burks, though, has been near the league average from 3 point range throught his career (with an average of .357), while Clarkson has been bad (.338). Curiously, though, 33% of Clarkson's shots came from 3 point range, while that was the case with only 25% of Burks' shots. Burks attacked more the basket -- 29% of his shots were taken between 0 and 3 feet, while for Clarkson this number stands at 24%. Curiously, though, Clarkson was better from this range, at a healthy .624, while Burks shot at slightly subpar (for a player of his size) .594.
Both players, thus, had some difficulties with shot selection and some holes in their offensive games, but those were different holes. Clarkson probably should have relied less on 3 point shooting, while Burks should have been used much less as a creative scorer (due to his below average percentage from close range and bad percentagens from mid range and long 2s).
Clarkson was better at shooting from any range except from 3 point range and did so while creating his on shots most of the time. He created for himself 72% of his 2 point attempts and and 23% of his 3s. Burks, on the other hand, struggled from all ranges except from 3 point, while creating for himself slightly less often: 62% of this 2 point attempts were created by himself as 24% of his 3 point attempts.
The moral behind these numbers, I think, is that they were (and are) quite distinct players, used in distinct ways by their coaches.
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P.S.: Numbers by basketballreference.com .
