Fratello’s Fantasy Pick

The 18-9 Los Angeles Clippers are enjoying a 3-game winning streak after beating the Pelicans at home on Wednesday 95 – 108. A big part of the Clippers’  success this season, as well as the past few years, is 25-year-old, 6’11” center DeAndre Jordan, who had 14 points and 20 rebounds against New Orleans.

Now in his sixth professional season, the Houston native was selected in the second round of the 2008 NBA Draft by the Clips. Jordan came into the league possessing great athleticism, but needed to refine his game. To his credit, the young man has shown steady improvement each year at both ends of the floor. As a result of all his hard work, Jordan has turned himself into one of the upper-tier centers in the NBA.

Jordan is second on the team in minutes with 35 mpg, behind only Blake Griffin’s 36.4 mpg, and he’s played in and started all 27 Clipper contests so far this year.  In fact, over the past two seasons LAC’s high-energy spark plug hasn’t missed a single game, including the regular season and playoffs.

The one-time Texas A&M Aggie is averaging 9.9 ppg, 13 rpg, 1 spg and 2.2 bpg while shooting 65% from the field, a significant improvement over his career averages of 6.9 ppg, 7 rpg and 1.5 bpg. Jordan has season highs of 17 points (2X), 21 boards, 9 blocks and 3 steals (2X). In addition, for a player so focused on defense, it’s impressive that #6 has yet to foul out of a game this year.

Jordan would be a great holiday pickup for any fantasy GM. Throw in the fact that the Clippers play six games over the next ten days, and a DeAndre addition looks to be even more impactful than a team of amateur reindeer on a rickety rooftop. Even if your Fantasy team is loaded with bigs, Jordan is a player in the midst of a statistical breakthrough. So grab this holiday bargain before his price tag blows up!