DeAndre Jordan is still learning how to block shotsDeAndre Jordan leads the NBA in blocks per game (3.0). He’s already got an 8-block game to his credit this year, good for best in the league. He’s also had a game where he blocked six shots and another where he turned back five, both of which are top 20 single game performances. Through the first three years of his career, Jordan is averaging more blocks per 36 minutes than Dwight Howard, who’s a 3-time reigning Defensive Player of the Year.
But the scary thing is that he’s still learning to block shots.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTinJ9StWQ8[/youtube]Well, that’s scary for NBA players. DeAndre Jordan is blocking all these shots and he just learned that what he was doing in high school isn’t the best strategy in the NBA. Now that he’s in a post-19-year-old shot-blocking mindset, things can only get better.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp3Kt5xLd2c[/youtube]So yeah, if DeAndre Jordan without block shot knowledge is this incredible, imagine when he actually learns what he’s doing.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKxETjoOG9U[/youtube]
Trey Kirby, The Basketball Jones
NBA shot blocking is part art, part science, and all about denialIt's 2012. The Clippers' DeAndre Jordan, in his fourth season in the NBA, is leading the league with three blocks a game. He's fine-tuning that technique too.
"I'm working on it now, like Bill Russell did, blocking [to keep the ball] inbounds or blocking to a teammate," says Jordan, 23.
About every element of a blocked shot can be traced back to Russell, the patriarch of every swat, denial and rejection, who won 11 championships in 13 seasons with Boston."A good shot-blocker will deny the other team within 10 feet of the basket, even if he doesn't block a shot" because of intimidation, says Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose 3,189 blocks rank No. 3 in NBA history.
Abdul-Jabbar says he learned about blocked shots in high school in New York by watching Russell play against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden."I call it action, because it's not a reaction," Russell once said. "When you block a shot on reaction, then you're lucky. In other words, it's just jumping ability. There's more to it than that."
Length and height help, says Jordan, who's 6 feet 11 with a 7-6 wingspan. His size really helped in high school when he could easily block 10 shots a game.
But in the NBA, he's learning that a successful block often depends on timing. "I didn't realize until later that I could jump after people released a shot," he says."Forcing the opponent to take a bad shot, that's the real skill," says Walton, who blocked 1,034 shots and led the NBA with 3.2 per game in 1976-77.Wallace says even star players become deflated after a block, because "you took something away from them.""Psychologically, you have to make the offensive player question what he's doing," Russell once said. "'Will this work? And can I make this shot?' And you have to create doubts."
The blueprint hasn't changed.
Baxter Holmes, LA Times
