Summer Plans: DeAndre Jordan

[mkwest]

Every student needs a sensei, and luckily for Jordan, he didn’t have to search far for one this offseason. Hakeem Olajuwon, one of the greatest centers to ever play, will be working with Jordan in Houston this summer.

When Del Negro was asked about what he hopes Jordan can learn from Olajuwon, the answer came quicker than a Dream Shake:

“Anything.”

“Everybody wants it now,” Del Negro said. “Everyone thinks they can go and do ten things. They can’t. You have to give young players one or two things; you have to let them develop because what happens is they become very mediocre at a lot of things.”

In their first year with Jordan, Del Negro and his staff vowed not to overload him. They wanted things to be simple to build Jordan’s confidence and to keep him from getting discouraged when everything didn’t come to him right away.

“The key for young players is to find areas that they have to get better in and drill those one or two areas,” Del Negro said. “You get them better so they’re really good and they understand it, and then move on. And that takes time.

“What happens to a lot of young players that aren’t successful in this league is they try to come in and do a lot of different things, and they’re average. In this league, you can’t be average. You have to find something you can do great, and you have to do it every night.”

Jordan may not do a lot of different things on the court, but what he does, he does well. The coaching staff wanted Jordan to focus on defending and rebounding, while remembering to always run the floor. With those objectives in mind, the results Jordan put forth were excellent.

DJ Foster, Clippers.com

[mkwest]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mArHU1ewSog[/youtube]

Here's some footage of the Dream working out with Dwight Howard.

[DangerCurtis]

While it's impossible to know how much DJ will benefit from his time spent with Olajuwon, it's great to hear that DJ's play this year has caught the attention of one of the greatest big men in the game. I'm liking where this team is heading, and I stand stern that the Clippers will be sorry if they don't do everything they can to keep DJ.

[thanumba2clippersfan]

I'm glad that DJ is taking advantage of Hakeem this summer, I wish he would have worked with him last year though. I hope that he learns a lot and really improves.

[madmaxmedia]

Just the fundamentals- defense, positioning, blocking out, using your size, and the benefits of always hustling on the court. It would be nice for DJ to learn a bunch of fancy post moves, but to be honest that's never going to be how DJ best helps the team anyway.

[mkwest]

Just the fundamentals- defense, positioning, blocking out, using your size, and the benefits of always hustling on the court. It would be nice for DJ to learn a bunch of fancy post moves, but to be honest that's never going to be how DJ best helps the team anyway.

Some of it depends on how much time they spend together. Dwight spent 3 days, Kobe was a couple hours and I'm not sure on Josh Smith or Hasheem Thabeet. DJ showed some improved footwork towards the end of the season from his work with Iavaroni. I'm not expecting a DJ Shake or anything like that. If Hakeem showed him a move or 2 and give him some pointers on the defensive end, then I'd be happy. He can stand to learn how to better utilize the physical advantages that he has and to use his body better on both sides of the ball. DJ recently said he wanted to be the defensive player of the year. Sure, it's talk, but it's good that he knows that defense is going to be what gets him ahead in this league.

[TheNewEra]

Anything will help Chris Kaman should go as well learn how to dribble