DeAndre Jordan ranked 20th in NBA by Sports Illustrated
By Tom West
The LA Clippers’ Big 3 have all been ranked among the NBA’s most elite players by Sports Illustrated, and DeAndre Jordan has been placed at 20th in the league.
The LA Clippers‘ Big 3 have done well for themselves in the Sports Illustrated NBA Top 100 players for 2016-17. Following on from J.J. Redick at 59, DeAndre Jordan, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin have all been ranked as top-20 players.
Jordan kicks things off at 20, and while we haven’t seen the order of the final 10 players, the absence of Paul and Griffin until this point obviously means that they have made the top 10.
Here’s an extract of Rob Mahoney’s reasoning for Jordan’s excellent ranking at 20:
"Every year, Jordan seems to clarify his understanding of when and how to use size to his advantage. It’s more difficult to bait him out of position now than it was a year ago—his bad tendencies whittled down through experience. Jordan will never be the picture of defensive discipline, but slowly he’s grown into the kind of consistent interior presence that can carry a contending-level defense. His influence begins with the fact that players prefer not to challenge him. Clippers opponents attempted 3.5 fewer shots at the rim per 36 minutes last season when Jordan played, according to Nylon Calculus—one of the widest margins in the league."
The final statistic from Nylon Calculus is particularly interesting, indicating just how much Jordan’s aerial presence deters opponents from even trying to take the ball inside against him.
With his 2.2 blocks per game, improved positioning, post defense and the quickness at which he can explode across the paint, Jordan’s (two-time) All-Defensive First Team level of play anchors the Clippers inside and took him to SI’s top 20. And rightfully so.
Then again, it’s still somewhat surprising to see Jordan ranked five spots ahead of Kyrie Irving, despite the point guard’s amazing playoff run. Jordan also finished one spot ahead of Damian Lillard, which is sure to startle and confuse some NBA fans.
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He led the league in field goal percentage for the fourth straight season in 2015-16 at 70.3, adding a career-high in points per game (12.7) to go along with 13.8 rebounds and 2.2 blocks, both of which ranked 2nd in the league.
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To go along with that, Mahoney also referenced Jordan’s immense pick-and-roll threat and just how valuable it can be to an offense, both for his explosive finishing ability and how him rolling inside can pull multiple perimeter defenders out of position to cover.
For reference, here are some players who closely trailed DeAndre Jordan in SI’s rankings:
Kevin Love (30), Andre Drummond (29), Kyrie Irving (25), Carmelo Anthony (24), Marc Gasol (22) and Damian Lillard (21). That’s some pretty elite company for Jordan to beat out for his top-20 spot.
As for a few big men who beat out Jordan, Al Horford came 18th, Paul Millsap came 15th, Draymond Green came 13th, DeMarcus Cousins came 12th and LaMarcus Aldridge came 11th.
Next: NBA Player Rankings: Top 10 small forwards for 2016-17
So, do you agree with DeAndre Jordan’s ranking? Last year, he came 29th, and an improvement after last season seems more than fair. For the first time in his career he was named as the All-NBA First Team center, and such a ranking was warranted for his elite two-way impact.