Los Angeles Clippers: DeAndre Jordan in the post-Chris Paul era

DeAndre Jordan set field goal percentage records with Chris Paul alongside him. This season, Jordan’s role and success on offense have both diminished.

After a hot start to the season, the Los Angeles Clippers are 5-8 after a brutal six-game losing streak. Their defensive and offensive efficiency numbers are well below their full-season marks from last year.

While injuries have played a role in the team’s struggles, their production is down across the board. Blake Griffin has cooled down significantly on offense after an MVP-caliber first five games. Danilo Gallinari is shooting 35.5 percent from the field, and Austin Rivers is shooting 39.1 percent.

When looking at the offensive efficiency of the three players who average more minutes per game, DeAndre Jordan‘s 60.2 percent shooting looks pretty efficient. However, Jordan’s offense has declined precipitously in the absence of Chris Paul. After leading the league in field goal percentage for five straight years, Jordan is not even in the top five so far this season.

DJ is still one of the scariest players in the league near the rim. However, he has lost much of his bite without Chris Paul to feed him for lobs.

Before: Breaking records

DeAndre Jordan played a key role in turning the Los Angeles Clippers into Lob City. However, Chris Paul was the engine that drove the team forward. After all, Griffin and Jordan could not score on lobs without someone to throw them. Paul threw lob passes better than almost anyone in the league.

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With Paul to set him up, DeAndre found his way into the record books. Jordan was not a prolific scorer, averaging 12.3 points per game over the last three years. However, he shot better than 70 percent from the field in each of those three seasons.

Wilt Chamberlain holds the record for field goal percentage in a season with his 72.7 percent mark in the 1972-73 season. The next three seasons in the record books all belong to DeAndre Jordan, and all of them came in the last three years. Chris Paul led the way, assisting Jordan on 104 of his 412 field goals.

The Clippers did not need to rely on DeAndre Jordan to score with two other All-NBA players in the fold. Jordan was able to leverage the space his teammates created for him into some historically efficient seasons, but none of that could’ve happened without Chris Paul in the fold.

After: Stuck in the middle

The season is still young for the Los Angeles Clippers, but the team has certainly suffered without their former franchise player. Even though he is still highly efficient on that end, DeAndre Jordan may have suffered more without Paul in tow than anyone else.

Jordan is shooting 59.5 percent from the floor this season. That would be the lowest field goal percentage of his career if he stayed at that level for the entire season. After four straight years of averaging double figures in scoring, Jordan is averaging just 9.4 points per game.

The buckets that Chris Paul created for him have disappeared, and nothing has come in to replace them. Blake Griffin assisted Jordan on 68 baskets last season, the second-most on the team and at an average of 0.839 per game.

This year, Griffin has averaged 0.846 assists per game to Jordan. However, he now leads the team in assists to DeAndre. Blake might be the primary option on offense now, but he has not been able to take advantage of DeAndre’s talents any more than he did last season.

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It is entirely possible that Jordan could experience an offensive revival. After all, the team’s best passer (Milos Teodosic) has only played 32 minutes all season. Milos could revive the Lob City connection once he re-joins the team. However, he will need to develop instant chemistry with DeAndre Jordan for Jordan to return to the record books.