LA Clippers Roundtable: What has been most impressive so far?
By Tom West
DeAndre Jordan’s free throw improvement – By Andrew Miller
“DeAndre Jordan’s free throw shooting.”
A sentence that has haunted LA Clippers fans for the last nine years, until now.
A career 42 percent from the line, Jordan finds himself amongst the very worst our game has ever seen. Unable to play in the fourth quarter of crucial games without the game being forced to a halt as opposing coaches employ the “Hack-a-Shaq” strategy of intentional fouling.
But not this season. At least less so. This season, something is different.
His scoring has taken a slight dip which was to be expected with the return of Blake Griffin until his recent knee surgery, but Jordan’s confidence on the offensive end has gone nowhere but up. From a more polished looking touch, to the occasional post move (seriously), something has changed. This new Olympic gold medallist DJ just has an edge that we’ve never seen before.
And the best part? His free throw shooting.
54.5 percent on the season, the highest of his career.
56 percent through 16 games in the month of November.
59.6 percent so far in December.
He’s never going to be 80 or 90 percent from the line like his backcourt teammates, but it’s progress. And that’s all Clipper fans have ever wanted to see.