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The Warriors used one of the NBA’s best tricks to get Jordan Bell.
And one has to wonder, with the rookie’s success, if the league’s other 29 teams will let them pull off that trick again in the future.
Yes, the jig might be up — done in by how well it worked — but at least the Warriors nailed their last hurrah: Bell, a second-round pick out of Oregon whose rights were purchased on draft night, has been a near godsend to Golden State this season.And on Friday night, Bell had his best game as a professional, scoring 20 points and pulling down 10 rebounds — his first of what could be many 20-10 games in his career — in nearly 25 minutes in the Warriors’ 113-106 win over the Lakers at Oracle Arena.
Bell was a game-best plus-22 in Friday’s contest — making an impact on both the offensive and defensive end against the plucky Lakers.
Again, all the Warriors had to do to land this guy was pay.
Without a draft pick last season, and given the team’s tight salary cap situation, the Warriors needed to add some young, cheap talent to the roster, so they bought a second-round draft pick off the Chicago Bulls for $3.5 million — the maximum amount allowable for such a transaction under the NBA’s rules.
With that purchased pick, the Warriors selected Bell.
A great deal of luck has factored into this record-setting run the Warriors are currently on, but a tremendous amount of skill has been in play too. Bell is the latest example of that skill — the Warriors added an impact player using only the money that the team made in the time it’s taken you to read to this juncture of the article.
Thanks, in part, to Bell’s emergency, the Warriors have now won 11 straight games and 26 — count ‘em, 26 — games in a row when either Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant has been out of the lineup.
Take a moment to process those numbers.
When you’re done, I’ll tell you what we learned in the Warriors’ win Friday:
“I believe Jordan Bell is our future, teach him well and… let him lead the way”
[If you don’t get that reference, culture yourself.]
Bell is the Warriors’ future — no doubt — but he’s a big part of the present, too. He showed that off against the Lakers.
Bell was superb on Friday. His rookie season has been a bit up-and-down — as all rookie seasons are — but frankly, there have been a lot more peaks than valleys and Friday’s game represented the highest peak in Bell’s career to date.
Bell’s defensive ability has stood out since he came into the league — he was viewed as a possible 1-through-5 defender coming out of Oregon and he’s so far lived up to the billing.
That alone would be enough to recoup the $3.5 million the Warriors spent to add him this past summer.
“It didn’t shock me,” Kerr said after the game. “With that kind of speed, with the spacing… The way the league is, it’s getting smaller and faster, and more and more 3-point shooting. There’s still a place for the big centers, and we need all of ours and there’s going to be games where we need to battle big guys down low, and there’s going to be a lot of games — more games — like tonight, where there’s 3-point shooting everywhere, and it’s a drive-and-kick game and you need that smaller center.”
Bell showed a particular symbiosis with Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. Together, the law firm of Durant, Green, and Bell played 20 minutes on Friday and posted a net rating of 33.
That’s bonkers.
“I wanted to play him with KD and Draymond to see [how he’d fit in],” Kerr said.
The verdict? He was “tremendous”.
“I think the reason he had 20 and 10 is because he had so much space. He was just roaming and had plenty of easy hoops — that’s what we were waiting to see with that combination.”
Don’t be shocked if Friday’s success means more of those minutes with KD and Green for Bell — when Zaza Pachulia comes back, he will be the team’s starting center, but Bell could see earlier first-quarter action as the season progresses, particularly when the Warriors are playing a smaller team.
Bell has already taken JaVale McGee’s rotation spot. As he continues to improve, he looks poised now to cut into Pachuilia’s.
Is there any reason to think that Bell won’t be the Warriors’ starting center next year?
In the playoffs?
Bell’s arrow continues to point straight up — the sky is the limit (or the ceiling is the roof) for him.
And for a talent that undeniable, it’s foolish to write any kind of success of for No. 2.
Why the Lakers give the Warriors problems
It’s a two-pronged issue — each equally difficult to counter.
The first reason why the Lakers have given the Warriors trouble this year is that L.A. coach Luke Walton knows what’s coming from Golden State.
Remember, Walton was this team’s head coach for long stretches — if there’s anyone who knows the Warriors’ sets and when they run them, it’s him.
Walton is the perfect advanced scout, and his team put his knowledge to good use on Friday. The Lakers seemed capable of going stride-for-stride with the Warriors on defense, something that few, teams — even the best defensive teams in the league — have a hard time doing.
That’s because it’s really easy to defend when you know what’s going to happen next.
Take, for instance, Draymond Green’s four turnovers in the fourth quarter. Two of them came when he posted up — twice Green (still trying to get up to game speed after time off) tried to make the same back-door bounce pass, and twice the Lakers sniffed it out and turned the ball up court in the opposite direction, bringing L.A. back into the game.
The Lakers coaching staff isn’t mentally intimidated — at all — by the Warriors. That counts for something. You could see exactly how much on Friday.
The second reason is that Kyle Kuzma is a dude.
The Lakers have a fun, young, talented roster and frankly, if they were wearing any other jersey, they’d have a cult following as the next big thing in the NBA.
Lonzo Ball might not be able to shoot a lick (against any team but the Warriors) but he has tremendous court vision and plays the game with an infectious zeal. He’s going to be a solid pro — and that counts for a lot — though I’m still having trouble seeing him become the superstar he was touted to be (by more than just his father).
Brandon Ingram needs to put on about 35 pounds, but he’s going to be a solid NBA player as well. (As soon as he realizes that he cannot isolate.)
Julius Randle is a strong player too — it’s a shame the Lakers are likely to move on from him this offseason. Every other team in the NBA would be well-served by signing him.
Josh Hart has been a good draft pickup, and I’m a fan of Larry Nance Jr.’s game — despite his posterization of Durant Monday and his poor performance Friday).
The Lakers have some talent.
But forgive me if I believe that Kuzma is going to be the ace of this staff.
The 27th overall pick in last year’s draft is special and he put on a show on Friday at Oracle, scoring 27 points and pulling down 14 rebounds.
There were stretches where Kuzma seemed like the best player on the court. He is 22, but for a rookie, he has no business being that polished on the offensive end.
I don’t know what the Lakers do this upcoming offseason — if they add one or two big-time free agents — but Kuzma has a real chance to not just be a star, but a superstar.
In a game where Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Lonzo Ball were all on the court, Kuzma was arguably the standout performer.
That says a lot.
Frankly, if Kentavious Caldwell-Pope didn’t try to shoot his way to freedom on Friday, Kuzma was poised to lead the Lakers to a win.
Either way, this guy is going to be a pain for Golden State for a long, long, long time.
No joke: Kevin Durant deserves DPOY consideration
It’s time we take this water-cooler conversation — this sport-talk radio topic — and take it mainstream (that’s what we do here, right?):
Kevin Durant is the best defender in the NBA right now.
Yes, I’m dead serious.
And if he keeps this kind of form up, he not only deserves Defensive Player of the Year votes, he deserves the entire award.
The Warriors are on pace to set the NBA record for most blocks per game in a single season with 8.7.
A large portion of that is coming from Durant, who is second in the NBA in blocks at 2.2 per game (Myles Turner leads with 2.3 per contest).
If Durant is able to lead the NBA in blocks per game this season, he’ll be the third non-center to do that in NBA history: Serge Ibaka, who is now a full-time center but was then a power forward, did it for Oklahoma City in 2012 and 2013, and Andrei Kirilenko led the league (with 3.32 per game) in 2005.
Durant might be 7-foot, but he’s no center — he’d be entering rare air.
Add in his on-ball abilities and particularly his weak-side defense this season, and I believe there’s a more-than-compelling case to make for Durant as DPOY.
Now he has to keep it up for another 50 games.
Read Again https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/23/golden-state-warriors-vs-lakers-los-angeles-lonzo-ball-jordan-bell-kevin-durant-stephen-curry-injury-kyle-kuzma-score-highlights-video-schedule-news/Bagikan Berita Ini
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