After the best season of his career and new experience with Team USA at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, DeAndre Jordan sees himself as a star, according to his LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers.
DeAndre Jordan has had the best year of his career. Last summer, he made a wise decision to stay with the talent of the LA Clippers in free agency, and he’s been delivering ever since. Making the All-Defensive First Team for the second straight season and making the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career, Jordan’s personal accolades couldn’t have been much better.
He was an explosive force to be reckoned with, and he was vital in keeping the Clippers afloat during Blake Griffin‘s absence. Then, to finish his year on a major high, Jordan added a gold medal to his resume at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Jordan knows what a year he’s had, and LA Clippers head coach Doc Rivers believes that Jordan sees himself as a star because of it, per Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe:
"“He sees himself now as a star. As good as he is, I don’t think he’s ever seen himself as one. He’s always been the third guy so he’s looked at himself as a role player in some ways. Now he knows how good he is and I think any time you’re around winning, it’s important, and I think DJ now knows what winning looks like.“Of all our guys, I think he’s the most important guy this summer for us.”"
While winning in the Olympics isn’t the same as going through multiple long series in the NBA playoffs, it’s still experience that can help Jordan. More minutes and playing against different international competition is always a good way to test a player over summer instead of their typical workouts.
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Doc added that he expected Jordan to dominate defensively, and that coach Mike Krzyzewski starting him over DeMarcus Cousins helped him further:
"“Actually the international game is more physical at times; I knew he’d be dominant defensively and I knew he would fit that team. That team had a lot of guys that wanted to shoot, so you put the one guy that doesn’t really want to shoot with the four shooters. I think the change that [Mike Krzyzewski] made starting him was a big change.”"
Heading into next season, we can expect the same powerful performance from Jordan. Whether he’ll be able to make the All-NBA First Team again is more uncertain, but there’s no doubt he’ll be in the conversation if the Clippers can win close to 60 games and he replicates the same level of defense and devastating pick-and-roll play.
Next: DeAndre Jordan's offensive game is way too underrated
If he takes a post Olympic leap as other players have been known to in the past, whether it’s from a confidence standpoint or he actually tweaks his game, maybe Jordan can be a little better.