Society Top 50: No. 47 – DeAndre Jordan

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DeAndre Jordan
DeAndre Jordan (via: Ryan Cowan)

Name: DeAndre Jordan

Position: 47

Team: Los Angeles Clippers

2016-2017 Regular Season General Stats: 12.7 pts 13.8 reb 1.2 ast 1.7 blk 71.4 FG% 48.2 FT%

2016-2017 Regular Season Advanced Stats: 21.8 PER 67.3 TS% 11.8 WS 1.0 OBPM 3.0 DBPM 3.9 VORP

 

The Breakdown:

This is probably the biggest surprise on our list so far. DeAndre Jordan is universally known as one of the top centers in the league yet we have him at the 47th spot on our rankings. While you might immediately want to dispute that at first, let me try to persuade you.

DeAndre Jordan is known for a couple things:

  1. Rebounding
  2. Defending at the rim
  3. Being a great pick and roll threat

Let’s begin with the rebounding. DJ had a 24.2 TRB% last season which is no doubt very impressive, but that percentage is mostly attributed to his ability to rebound defensively. It’s not hard for a 7’0 center with a 8’0 wingspan to rebound effectively on the defensive end. What impresses me is the ability to get position offensively and be able to grab offensive boards. DeAndre has shown the ability to do this, but not nearly as well as you would hope.

Next is the defending at the rim. This is where DeAndre has drastically taken a step back throughout his career. As noted above, DJ only averaged 1.7 blocks per game this season. You’d have to go back 5 years to find the last time he had that poor of an average. His Block % of 4.3% is also the worst he’s had since the 2009-2010 season, his 2nd year in the NBA. I don’t think it’s Jordan’s abilities that have necessarily wavered, but the fact that players are becoming taller, more athletic, and better outside shooters really hurts someone like DJ’s value. To top it all off, the worst stat that truly shows how DJ’s rim protecting ability is suffering is the fact that he only averaged 0.9 blocks per game in the postseason, which was by far his worst mark in his career.

Finally, the last component of his game that people like most about Jordan is his ability to be a great pick and roll big. There’s no doubt in my mind that he and Chris Paul were a great duo in this regard, but now Chris Paul is no longer there. Arguably the best architect in the game of basketball is no longer running the point in LA which now enables up to see how effective DeAndre really is in the P&R without one of the best passers next to him. I still think DJ will do a fine job in the pick and roll, especially in the HORNS set that the Clippers like to run so much, but there is no doubt that he’ll take a bit of a dip in terms of production.

Still, with all of the negatives that I have mentioned, DeAndre Jordan is still a serviceable center. I just don’t think he is as multi-dimensional as most people think. He has surely worked on his post-game and improved his ability to score with his back to the basket. (Even if the post-move doesn’t look too pretty):

The fact remains that Jordan is just not as good and not as valuable as he once was a couple years back. With all of the negatives that have been mentioned above, the one thing you might have noticed that I did not mention was his atrocious free throw shooting that we all know to well. With Jordan becoming less valuable on the defensive end and remaining a huge liability late in games due to free throw shooting, it was only fitting that we dropped DeAndre Jordan down to the 47th spot on our list.

No. 48: Jrue Holiday 

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