Clippers: DeAndre Jordan’s importance to Team USA is rising
By Tom West
Team USA haven’t been dominating the men’s basketball at the Rio Olympics as expected, and their weaknesses only raise the value of Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan.
DeAndre Jordan‘s place with Team USA came with its fair share of criticism. The Los Angeles Clippers highlight machine who “only dunks and shoots 43 percent from the line” isn’t one of the two best centers in the league, according to many. Well, that wasn’t exactly the case after Jordan earned his second consecutive All-Defensive First Team title last season and made the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career.
Thanks to other big men like Anthony Davis missing out and such undeniable defensive talent, Jordan wound up making Team USA for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Now, that early criticism has turned into sheer appreciation. Annoyance has turned into excitement. Obvious flaws have finally been overlooked as terrorizing blocks and unstoppable athleticism allow Jordan to reign over his international opponents so freely in ways that few still can, NBA All-Stars included.
Such impact was at its most obvious in Team USA’s exhibition games against the likes of China and Venezuela. Crushing 40-point wins looked effortless, and despite the nature of this group being a B team at best, similar margins of victory seemed fairly likely as the Olympics got underway. At the very least, scraping past teams by 10, let alone single digits, should have been something far from the realm of possibility.
Yet, to the surprise of everyone, that’s been the case over the last three games.
First, Australia led Team USA by 54-49 at the end of the first half on August 10. Structured offense, sound ball movement, and excellent defensive intensity from the Boomers held some of the world’s top players far below their potential, leading to struggling, often isolation reliant offense that was saved over the night by Olympic-level Carmelo Anthony.
Melo dropped a game-high 31 points, nine threes, and shot 52.4 percent for the game. Without that shooting, Team USA may have lost, falling to startling effort and team defense from the Aussies. Thankfully for America, though, they took over in the third quarter, smothering Australia and holding them to just 13 points.
If such a narrow win wasn’t enough of a shock, Team USA followed up such a performance by scraping past Serbia 94-91 on August 12. Coming off an excellent rookie season for the Denver Nuggets, Nikola Jokic delivered for Serbia with a game-high 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting. Jokic showcased his touch and footwork in the post and range by making his jumpers with a two-of-two mark from beyond the arc.
“I thought personally, we were going to dominate these games and they were going to come easy.” Paul George, per NBA.com
Against Team USA’s bigs, in a game in which DeAndre Jordan played just 13 minutes to DeMarcus Cousins‘ 21, Jokic and Serbia made life far more difficult than it should have been for a host of NBA stars.
To add to the pair of narrow wins, America met a France team without Tony Parker on August 14, and yet again snatched a three-point win, 100-97. Thomas Heurtel led France with 18 points, eight rebounds and nine assists, followed by Nando De Colo with 18 points, Nicolas Batum with 14 and Joffrey Lauvernge with 12 on 60 percent shooting.
Such a result is concerning. Team USA may have incredible talent (albeit second tier by their absurd standard), but they lack role players — such as defense-only wings — who can play within specific roles and compliment the many scorers across the roster.
The issues with coach Mike Krzyzewski’s rotations, team defense with lacking communication, late switches, missing assignments and general awareness and intensity are all issues as well.
This is where the Clippers and their fans will be hoping DeAndre Jordan can receive a few more minutes to address those exact areas.
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Against France, more spells of disappointing play were provided by Cousins, especially on defense when he wasn’t bruising through opponents for put-back dunks to score. His 8.6 points per game through the Olympics so far are even fewer than defensive specialist Jordan (8.8), and defensive issues have been the major factor in Cousins’ detrimental play. Lacking awareness and effort is one such issue, and less rim protection and weak pick-and-roll defense can’t be ignored.
Yet, in that narrow escape against France, Cousins received 20 minutes playing time over Jordan’s 17, when Boogie was providing no such defense or consistency to warrant that time when France’s big men were making a dangerous impact inside.
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More evidence to support that is Cousins’ team-low +/- of -5 from that contest, per FIBA.com. Meanwhile, Jordan recorded a team-high +/- of 12.
Simply put, Jordan gives Team USA exactly what they need as an elite defensive backbone. He offers the support in the paint when he isn’t powering home dunks that they desperately need, not to mention being a far better option to prevent the likes of Lauvergne banging their way past Cousins to score in the post.
“We’ve just got to worry about us and focus on playing USA basketball, playing the right way,” Jordan said after the win over France, per Rowan Kavner of NBA.com. “No matter the opponent, we just got to stick to how we’re playing.”
Playing the “right way” includes more defensive stability, consistent positioning, more intensity, and ideally more minutes for DeAndre Jordan. He can help in all those areas, while serving as the team’s best rebounder and devastating dump-off or pick-and-roll scorer.
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As these struggles continue, Jordan’s value increases as his ability remains a fundamental part of any more convincing gold medal run that may come.