By Charles Jay
When you take a look at most of the numbers, it almost seems ludicrous that DeAndre Jordan, the center for the Los Angeles Clippers, is not a prime candidate for the league’s MVP award. But he can’t even get himself selected for the All-Star Game.
Vietbet customers who enjoy NBA betting had to be duly impressed by the way Jordan came in and filled some of the void when Blake Griffin went out with an elbow ailment that required surgery. He put together a number of 20-20 efforts (20 points, 20 rebounds) and looked unstoppable at times.
He is among the league leaders in a load of categories. Jordan leads the NBA by a wide margin in defensive rebounds. He is second in offensive rebounds, and of course he is the #1 guy in the league with 14.5 rebounds a game. He is fourth in the league in blocked shots per game, and with 71.3% shooting from the floor, he tops the league in field goal percentage. He pulls down 15.5% of the available offensive rebounds and 32% of the defensive rebounding chances that come his way. His overall defensive player rating is fifth best in the NBA. And he is second in offensive rating.
Yes, pro basketball has sabremetric-type stats like baseball does, and Jordan is fifth in the NBA in “win shares,” which measure the number of wins contributed by a player. In other words, he would seem to be the ideal kind of center anyone would want, given the way the game is played at the moment.
The problem is that what Jordan CAN’T do might contribute to spelling the end for the Clippers when all is said and done.
You see, if Vietbet customers want to take a look at those NBA statistics, they will discover that Jordan is eleventh in the league in free throw attempts, but nobody is going to find him very close to the top in free throws made. That is because Jordan is not only a poor free throw shooter, but an historically poor one. According to some more of those fancy statistics, there is no player in the history of the league with more than 1000 attempts who has a lower conversion rate through the age of 26 than his 42%. And he is just 40% this season.
What happens when a guy can’t make free throws, unfortunately, is that the opposition has the ability to construct a strategy around it. NBA basketball bettors are very familiar with the concept of “Hack-a-Shaq,” as teams took advantage of Shaquille O’Neal’s lack of mastery from the line. But O’Neal was not as bad as Jordan.
A few nights ago at the Staples Center, the Portland Trail Blazers sent Jordan to the line several times in a row, and he came up with a goose egg. Such ineptitude not only helped Portland erase a ten-point deficit and eventually win, but also prompted Clippers coach Doc Rivers to take him off the floor in an attempt to avoid the strategy, which at the same time took away all those other good things Jordan does.
Vietbet patrons can rest assured that some team will do this during the playoffs as a way of taking Jordan out of the game. And that will invariably hurt the L.A. cause. A lot of players pay a lot of lip service to the concept of “doing whatever it takes to help the team win.” But the best thing DeAndre Jordan could possibly do to help his team win is to start practicing his free throws and not stop until he can hit at least 70%. If he could do that, there’s no telling how effective he can be.
People like Rick Barry, who was one of the best ever at the charity stripe, have offered to lend their time to players who had trouble making free throws, through the use of his underhand approach, O’Neal was among them. But players think they “look bad” shooting free throws that way. What a sad commentary on the attitude of NBA players.
So how bad do people like Jordan look when they are TRYING to hit free throws at critical times? You can probably answer that question for yourself.
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