Rookie Jordan Bell is ready to contribute off bench after a season of ups and downs
OAKLAND >> The text message captured Jordan Bell’s nearly season-long frustration with persistent ankle injuries and fluctuating playing time.
“Maybe I need to sit this whole season out,” Bell wrote. “I can get healthy.”
Sharrief Metoyer, Bell’s former high school coach at Long Beach Poly in Los Angeles, first received a text hinting at Bell’s wanting to sit out the rest of the 2017-18 season when he rehabbed a left ankle injury that kept him sidelined for 14 games from mid-January through mid-February. Then, Metoyer told Bell “he had time to heal the injury.”
After rolling his right ankle on March 27 against Indiana, Bell fired off another text message suggesting once again he should sit out.
“It was me being mad and irritated and spur of the moment. I was so frustrated. It kept reoccurring,” said Bell, who wore different shoes in hopes to keep his ankles healthy. “I thought maybe I should let it go fully and let it get back to 100 percent.”
Through Bell’s frustrations, Metoyer said he “tried to stay positive with him and keep him focused on the long term as
opposed to the short term.”
“You guys might be playing until June,” Metoyer recalled telling young center. “The season is so long. Things can change in two or three times. You can go from being the star, to not playing, and back to being the hero again.”
Bell has since gotten his ankles to 100 percent. Even if Bell has only played in seven out of 10 postseason games in 4.9 minutes per game of mop-up duty, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Bell “could definitely play a role” when the Warriors play the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference finals beginning with Game 1 on Monday in Houston.
“The thing I have to learn the most this year is being professional about it,” Bell said, “and understanding even if you’re not playing, you still have to try to get better each day.”
Bell showed that when he played in what appeared to be a forgettable 35.6 seconds left in the first quarter of the Warriors’ eventual Game 3 loss last week to New Orleans. Nearly 11 seconds later, Bell set up veteran teammate David West for an assist. That small snapshot convinced Kerr that Bell understood the big picture.
“I appreciate that you’re ready,” Kerr told Bell. “It really shows that you’ve been a professional about everything and maturing.”
The 23-year-old Bell has become that way after experiencing
what he called “a lot of ups and downs and a lot of changing roles” during his rookie year.
After the Warriors paid the Chicago Bulls $3.5 million to the buy the rights to the 38th pick used to select Bell, he immediately impressed the Warriors with his athleticism and passing.
After showing mixed results with both mastering his fundamentals and NBA personnel, Bell then suffered a sprained left ankle that kept him sidelined for
14 games from mid January through late February.
After missing three more games with a right sprained ankle, Bell then fell out of Kerr’s rotation because of Kevon Looney’s emergence as a more dependable defender and decision maker.
“That’s one of the hard parts about being an NBA player, especially a rookie. Once you’re out of the loop, it’s hard to get in the loop,” Kerr said. “He’s done a really good job the last few weeks with working hard
and staying engaged.
Kerr added, “It wouldn’t shock me if he got back into the mix at some point during the playoff run.”
Some of Kerr’s reasoning stems from his want to keep his center rotation spot fluid for matchup purposes.
The Rockets, coached by Mike D’Antoni, run an offense that predicates on versatile frontcourt players, 3-point shooting and fast pace. Therefore, the Warriors would likely counter
with similar players. As Warriors guard Stephen Curry said about Bell, “he would be a guy in a fastpaced, small-ball type series where it would really favor him.”
Some of Kerr’s reasoning also stems from Bell’s development.
The Warriors have become encouraged in recent weeks with Bell’s work habits and attitude despite his diminished playing time. Bell has often worked out 90 minutes before practice, and has spent recent weeks studying film of the Rockets during both their playoff run and regular-season matchups against the Warriors.
“I’ve gotten so much better physically and mentally understanding how to defend people better,” Bell said. “I’ll be a better contributor in the playoffs than I was during the regular season against Houston.”
Nothing epitomized Bell’s learning curve more than in the Warriors’ season opener, though, when Houston guard Eric Gordon drove to the basket and dunked over Bell. In related news, Bell only played in an average of nine minutes in two games this season against the Rockets. He then sat out of the Warriors’ loss in Houston on Jan. 20 because of his left ankle injury.
“When I got my (butt) busted that game,” Bell said, “I actually went back and started looking how I was playing defensively.”
Curry also related his own NBA experiences, instructing Bell not to waste energy, become more attentive
with his movement and more observant of player tendencies.
In what Curry called a “wild year,” he then saw Bell leave the Warriors feeling encouraged with his highflying dunks and competitiveness. But then Bell injured his left ankle on Jan. 17 in Chicago after Bulls center Robin Lopez dunked over him. Once he returned following his subsequent right injury on March 14, Bell said he felt less comfortable.
“I was playing too cautiously. I wasn’t playing the same way,” Bell said. “I was thinking too much about not getting injured and wasn’t playing hard. I wasn’t myself.”
Therefore, Bell became more self aware that perfecting that routine would impress the Warriors more than his entertaining dunks.
It harkened back to a childhood lesson in Long Beach to accept playing basketball in casual footwear instead of basketball shoes because of his family’s limited means. So for the past month, Bell said he has arrived to the gym before practice starts to work on his finishing.
“When everybody gets here, my whole shirt is dripping in sweat. I think all the vets can appreciate that,” Bell said. “I could’ve just been the guy that was playing a lot this year and starting some games. And then I’m not playing, I’m just going to be mad about it and say, ‘That’s bull–!’ I was doing it for me personally, not just to get recognition for it. I want to get better.”