The development of Deandre Jordan
There are so many ways in which this 2012 Clippers team is different than any other Clippers team before. One of the major differences is that serious talks about the Clippers being championship contenders have emerged. In the past week, the Clippers have accomplished feats just short of miracles: beating the Nuggets in Denver (first since 2006), blowing out the league-leading Thunder on the second of back-to-back games, and winning in Salt Lake City after a million years.
There was one key moment in last week’s game against Utah that stopped everything. It wasn’t a lob; it wasn’t CP3’s no look reverse lay-up in the fourth; and it wasn’t Mo Williams’ 3-pointer with the shot clock running out from 5 feet behind the line; it was DeAndre Jordan going down in pain holding his knee in the first. Jordan eventually stood up and walked off the pain. He soon went out after picking up his second foul, but he would go on to play a respectable game of 8 points and 11 rebounds.
Yet, having Jordan down in pain felt very familiar. It felt like the Clippers of old. It felt like maybe, things had not changed. It felt like “the curse” was still in play. The timing for this was horrible. The Clippers had been on a roll, and while everybody’s talking about CP3’s brilliance or Griffin’s power dunk, it has been easy to be distracted away from this young man’s development. Every game that DJ plays, it seems like he shows us something new. Yesterday, he made two free throws in a row. But, it wasn’t the fact that he made them, but the confidence that he made them with. DJ is beginning to look a lot more comfortable at the line. This may have much to do with him making that very important free throw in Denver last Sunday to help put the game away. Another thing that DJ did in yesterday’s game was the in-game defensive adjustment on Al Jefferson. In the first half, AJ torched the Clippers going 9 for 11. DJ could simply not stop AJ’s incredibly beautiful, lightning fast, right handed baby hook. Yet, DJ in the second half came out and stopped being DJ in a good way. He stopped trying to block everything he could, which meant he stopped going after AJ’s fake-pumps. He also started to take away AJ’s right handed baby hook by pushing him to his left where it was expected that Griffin would come help from the weak side. Of course, this only worked until Blake picked up his 5th foul and stopped being able to go for blocks. At the end of the night, DJ had no blocks, but this was actually not a bad sign because would limit Jefferson’s field goals to 3 for 9 second half.
DJ showed his ability to make a very important in-game adjustment in a game that felt like a playoff game (suddenly every time the Clippers play anybody in the top 8 of the west it feels like a playoff game).
Some of the very important improvements he has made the past two weeks include not blocking everything into the stands and being able to retain possession more often; moving more fluidly on defense; finding himself a lot more useful on offense; starting to develop a baby hook and playing more mindfully when he finds himself in foul trouble.
A lot of the talk around DJ’s contract of 4 years for $43 million suggested that the Clippers overpaid. Now we have to reassess the whole thing and start wondering if the Clippers underpaid the league-leader in blocks whose development is only being eclipsed by the larger miracles Griffin, Paul and this Clippers’ season.
-Julio
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