Friday, March 29, 2013

Deconstructing the DeAndre Jordan Dunk

A couple weeks ago during the Clippers vs. Pistons game, Clippers C DeAndre Jordan threw down a MONSTER (yes, all caps is necessary) slam dunk over the helpless and pathetic body of the Pistons’ Brandon Knight. The video of the “homicide” instantly went viral. Within minutes, “RIP Brandon Knight” was trending on Twitter. Blogs, sports websites, and other media news outlets were playing the footage over and over and over. Analysts and commentators on ESPN had a field day on Sportscenter that night, debating and quarreling about whether or not it was the dunk of the year, the dunk of the last ten years, or the best dunk ever.



Here it is.

Notice how even Knight's own teammates crowd around him, not sure to help him up or keep their distance from the evidence.

As a Pistons fan, my immediate reaction was to cringe.

I have deep, deep empathy for Brandon Knight. This isn’t the first time he’s been punked on the hardwood this season. But you have to give credit to him, he's shown that he won't back down from competition. In the All-Star weekend clip, he banked in a 3-pointer after getting his ankles sprained by Irving (figuratively, I mean; he literally sprained his ankle the day after the Clippers game against the Jazz, because, come on, why not add injury to insult?) The ensuing 1:30 of gameplay showcased Irving and Knight going one-on-one against each other, Irving perhaps getting the best of his Central Division rival point guard. But what Knight undoubtedly proves, in my opinion, is his rock-hard resolve. The Jordan dunk, while making a victim of him to the point of mockery, displays that resolve in Knight as well.

Before the dunk happens, you can see how the Clippers set up the play — might I add a brilliant one drawn up by Vinny Del Negro and his coaching staff. Chris Paul takes the ball down the right side of the court; indeed, the right side is the strong side of the play. The Clippers wings, Caron Butler (guarded by Kyle Singler) and Matt Barnes (guarded by Knight) set up on each of the corners, Butler to the right, Barnes to the left, or the weakside of the play. The two Clippers bigs, Lamar Odom (guarded by Charlie Villanueva) and Jordan (guarded by Greg Monroe) approach Paul's man, the newly-acquired Pistons PG Jose Calderon, as if to set a high double-screen for their All-Star floor general. Odom sets what ends up being a decoy screen while Jordan hightails towards the basket as he reaches the three-point line. Villanueva doesn't move off of his man, and rightly so (although I would love the vindication for my hatred of Charlie V.); he's reacting to a potential ball-screen. Instead of taking that screen, however, Paul bypasses it and dribbles toward Butler in the corner. Meanwhile Monroe, perhaps gravitating toward the potential play-making ability of Chris Paul, strays from his man, DeAndre Jordan, leaving Jordan a wide-open lane to the hoop. This is the mistake of the play. If Monroe isn't lulled by Paul, then he can potentially break up the alley-oop attempt by playing the passing lane a little bit tighter; however he isn't fully aware of where Jordan is relative to Chris Paul. The help comes weakside, from Brandon Knight who valiantly — and pitifully — attempts to stop the Jordan dunk.

The brilliance of the play is in its deception and execution. The decoy of the high double-screen (and concentration of Clippers on the strongside of the play) frees up Jordan, a highly-athletic 6-11 265lb. center, and forces the much smaller Knight (6-3, 189lbs.) to rotate defensively. The prospect of Paul either taking a mid-range jumper or driving to the basket allured Monroe to slide back off of Jordan and play a pseudo-zone. Paul's lob is perfect; just far away enough from Knight to ward off a potential steal and just close enough to Jordan for his ungodly wingspan and finely-tuned hand-eye coordination to throw it down with authority.

The dunk will surely be remembered for awhile, cemented in posterity through blog posts like this one and Top-Ten lists.