Steve Kerr has given new life to Jordan Bell. Why has the Golden State Warriors coach renewed his confidence in the second-year center?
Last year, the Golden State Warriors were overflowing with love for rookie Jordan Bell. They made the Chicago Bulls, the team traded the pick which ensuing was used on Bell, look like fools by how well the versatile big had been playing.
We knew Cousins wasn’t going to get the start to kick the season off. He wasn’t even around for over the first three months of the season. The time without Cousins was supposed to be Bell’s time to shine.
However, Damian Jones found himself as a starter and Kevon Looney was his backup. Jordan Bell didn’t even second-string-caliber minutes to kick the season off after being the one many deemed the opening night starter.
It was a huge question mark surrounding Bell’s minutes. Why wasn’t Bell being utilized? Were Looney and Jones really the better options?
While the case is still out for Jones, Bell, over the last few games, still hasn’t started for Golden State, but he’s getting significant minutes off the bench which is far more important than the starting tag.
His versatility is what makes him such a unique big man and what caused the coaching staff to fall in love with his play last season.
For now, his versatility is buying him minutes over Kevon Looney, the player that started the majority of the games in the absence of Cousins and Jones.
In the team’s first 56 games, Bell averaged 11.1 minutes per game. He averaged just 3.0 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. Recently, in Bell’s last three games, he’s average over 15 minutes per game, averaging 18 per game throughout the last two.
Cousins was absent for one of the two games, but the other, an ABC primetime showdown against the Rockets, Bell put up six points on 3-for-3 shooting, two steals and two blocks. Kerr had high praise for Bell both during and after the game as well.
That could’ve been the game that buys Jordan Bell significant minutes for the rest of the season. That said, Golden State has lost both their last two games. We’ll see how Bell’s minutes correlate with the Warriors’ overall success.
Although they’ve lost both games by a combined seven points, the Warriors are 4.8 points per 100 possessions better with Bell on the court. If he continues this play, he’ll become a consistent player just in time for the postseason.
Will Kerr’s trust in Bell continue as the games increase in important though? That’s still to be seen.