Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
I enjoy watching him dunk on random civilians.
You may see him more on SportsCenter highlights than on many fantasy highlights, but DeAndre Jordan is vastly underrated in fantasy circles. I get it. He dunks, he rebounds, he misses free throws. What’s the appeal? To tell you the truth, there isn’t much fantasy appeal with Jordan. A guy who is averaging less than 10 points per game and is shooting an atrocious .394% from the free-throw line isn’t exactly a household name in fantasy circles. However, because of the volume he is seeing, Jordan warrants more attention than he has been receiving this season.
Rebounding
It’s his bread and butter.
The league’s second-best rebounder, Jordan is hauling in 13.4 boards per contest, just 0.3 behind Kevin Love for first in the NBA. In fact, Jordan has actually grabbed the most rebounds out of anyone in basketball this season (443). As usual, I always tend to look for volume and opportunity in fantasy, and Jordan has certainly seen his fair share of opportunity on the glass. This season, only Love is seeing more rebounding chances per game than Jordan’s healthy 18.9. Also, 8.2 of his rebounds have been uncontested, which means he’s doing a terrific job of boxing out, as well as positioning himself in the right places. What’s more impressive, however, is the fact that he is converting on 71 percent of his rebounding chances, which is by far the most among all qualified rebounders. His 13 double-doubles ranks 14th in the NBA, and if he were more of a consistent scorer, he’d easily be inside the top-10. I mean, this is a guy who has posted double-digit rebounds in 28 of his 33 games this season, and hasn’t notched fewer than 10 rebounds since December 11th. He’ll continue to see plenty of rebounding opportunity, as he’s logging over 35 minutes per game, and Clippers opponents are shooting just 44 percent from the field, the eighth-lowest in the league. He’ll dominate the paint.
Blocks
Welcome to his block party (party).
Jordan is almost as elite at blocking shots as he is grabbing boards. His 2.27 blocks per game ranks fourth in the league, while his 75 total blocks ranks second-most in basketball. Jordan has been fairly disciplined, too, blocking almost 0.70 shots per fouls this year, which is among the top-10 in the league. Jordan has blocked at least one shot in all but four games this year, and hasn’t failed to do so since December 9th. Clippers opponents are averaging a healthy 84 shot attempts per game (13th-most), so Jordan should continue to see shot-blocking opportunity.
Sure, many owners fear his atrocious free-throw shooting and tend to shy away from Jordan at times. However, if you can afford to live with that disgusting percentage, Jordan makes for one of the better fantasy assets in all of basketball. Bryan Mears of numberFire points out that if you punt the free-throw category, Jordan ranks as a top-10 fantasy player. Not center, but overall player, based on his dominance in other categories.
Adam Pfeifer is a featured fantasy sports columnist for Rant Sports.
You can follow him on Twitter @aPfeiferRS.
