Brooklyn Nets: Did DeAndre Jordan get lucky with this team?

The Brooklyn Nets, in building their new superstar-packed team spearheaded by point god, Kyrie Irving and 6’10” anomaly, Kevin Durant, needed a third option and they knew they needed something big. In this, the two superstars found former LA Clippers dunk machine, DeAndre Jordan. The former teammate of Chris Paul seemed fitting for the two superstars fully aware of their own duties and goals, looking for a teammate to complete their own idea of a superteam.

Everyone was probably wondering when the big deal happened if the Nets were going to add another dimension to complete a Big 3 or remain a “Big 2” with Kyrie and KD. The question, which initially caught my attention then was, “Why DeAndre Jordan?” The acquisition of DeAndre Jordan, also known as “DJ,” happened in the same deal as Kyrie and KD, and the deal came as sort of a pleasant surprise.

Did DeAndre Jordan get lucky with the Brooklyn Nets?

Of course, DeAndre Jordan has the credentials and reputation to complete a building team led by two of the league’s highest superstars. He’s done it before in Los Angeles with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, even coining a new brand of basketball called, “Lob City” that set the second LA team in a new era. “Could DeAndre Jordan bring ‘Lob City’ to the Nets” was my next question, as I sat as a fan and sports writer watching the new Brooklyn Nets take form in 2019.

Credentials are central to DeAndre Jordan’s success. Reputation is even better. When Jordan played in Los Angeles with Paul and Griffin as a part of the Lob City Clippers, he fulfilled his primary duties then and with excitement. The role of the big man was to assist the offensive talents of his two teammates, which were then refined for Paul and building for Griffin. The way in which he would do this would be to use his basketball gifts and natural knack for dunking on opponents and grabbing rebounds with ferocity. Griffin, a big man, also would pick up the intangibles on the offensive end with his all-around scoring talent. DeAndre Jordan would be known as a central part of this Big 3. He was the definition of it. He would be known for handling his duties and doing his job as a part of a superteam every night.

The Brooklyn Nets mirror that Clippers team and it’s hard to imagine how they don’t. It’s hard to escape the cliche comparisons between the two teams, albeit the obvious differences. Of course, the ceiling for the Nets is probably higher with two players who have championships behind their skills and not all hype that the Clippers team carried, but the similarities are striking. That Clippers team had legend Doc Rivers as their head coach after taking over for Vinny Del Negro and the Nets have Steve Nash as their head coach, who got the job ahead of other head coaches. The similarities for DeAndre Jordan are striking also.

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The similarities in the superteam are good for DeAndre Jordan, and in it, he has found success. Not only is the similarity in the teammates and coaches, but it’s in the ingredient that DJ himself has put in for the success. Whether on purpose or by sheer coincidence, DJ’s role as a part of a big 3 serves him well. He’s even better because his reputation is beyond the big 3 and his newfound role with the Nets proves it. Jordan was the last to stay with the Clippers team after Paul and Griffin departed, so that shows his loyalty and ability as a team player.

DJ’s skills are standalone anyway, so it isn’t as if he needs a big 3 specifically. His talent of dunking is unlike anything we’ve seen in the NBA, making the highlight reel nightly and his game, although recognizable, is still on the underrated and underappreciated side of the spectrum in today’s NBA. It’s fair to say that, perhaps, with the Clippers the making of the Big 3 was purposeful, but with the Nets, it has been pure coincidence. The formation would have to be by coincidence because the pairing of Kyrie and KD took all the media attention and that is nothing against the big man from Houston, Texas, and went to Texas A&M who came in unexpectedly.

Although it wasn’t billed as a “Big 3,” one can’t help but think that the addition of DJ came out of the creative thinking of Irving and Durant, who most likely thought of the Clippers Big 3 and that’s how they together thought of their friend Jordan, so it isn’t purely coincidental, but for lack of a better word, it is sorta coincidental this time around. Considering this, the simple, nearly lackluster question “Why DeAndre Jordan?” moves into a smoother, more developed hypothesis, “Did DeAndre Jordan Get Lucky?”

The spontaneity and coincidence of DeAndre Jordan joining the Nets makes the deal better. His performance, so far, with the Nets this season proves that DJ needs no introduction and surely doesn’t need coincidence to play alongside other superstars in the league. Jordan’s in-game activity is focused mainly on his force inside the paint, which he is still good at. His role with the Nets is plain and simple as an interior force and initiator on offense, something Jordan is one of the best at when watching him snatch rebounds out of the air and block shots of players on the opposing team.

His dunking, too, is now a more controlled power that awaits the pass inside and lends a hand instead of hyper-jumping up and down the court for an overhyped rim rocker, which sometimes bounces off the rim and makes a young star look inexperienced. Nets games are fun because of DeAndre Jordan, especially as he plays behind not just Kyrie and KD, but James Harden now, and a host of other talented players compiled around the league through free agency and trades, including Jeff Green, Joe Harris, Bruce Brown, and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot.

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It’s hard to imagine that Jordan is now 32 years old and not a 20-year-old rookie lucky enough to play his favorite sport for a favorite team under a favorable head coach. That’s exactly what he is now and that’s what makes Jordan most special and more deserving than anyone to play with Irving and Durant in their new experiment. A 32-year-old basketball gem who still has the gift that started him on his journey and it shows in the stats, also. While DJ is mostly fun to watch, his success hasn’t been all qualitative. His success has been quantitative. The 6’11” Center is averaging 7.4 points per game this season, the same as his average his fourth season in the league with the Clippers.

Jordan’s reputation isn’t all qualitative talk either, and that’s interesting considering a conversation of reputation is one of quality and can’t normally be measured by data, but it actually can. DeAndre Jordan has spent 14 seasons in the NBA, 10 of which were spent with the Clippers organization (the other two, Dallas and New York) and he’s averaged double-digit points per game in 8 of those seasons. Those are the facts. When trying to answer the question, “Did DeAndre Jordan Get Lucky?” it’s hard to overlook the facts when answering that question. Looking at his career and stats, the once hypothetical, philosophical basketball question becomes a more solid, serious question that is answerable.

In further answering the question, “Did DeAndre Jordan Get Lucky?,” we can’t look past the thing that is most evident in the other talent across the league. The Nets could have chosen someone else to play alongside their superstar pair.

When the Kyrie, KD, and the Nets were building this team, they found and settled for DeAndre Jordan, a player who could have used his gift as a big man and free agency somewhere else, and it worked. They really didn’t settle, but they found a solid piece that could probably bring more surprising upsides to the two of them than anything. Signing DeAndre Jordan was creative and smart.

DeAndre Jordan is just a basketball player pure at heart and fun to watch. He’s proven his worth in remarkable ways for such a young player as a team player and gifted star on his own with tenure and experience. DeAndre Jordan is an experience, not an experiment and it is full of more blessings than luck. Perhaps, DJ did get lucky with the Nets signing on his career that’s naturally dwindling down, but it’s a good kind of luck that has an up-your-spine spiraling upside.

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