Explain One Play: Jordan Bell passes for layups

We know not everything that happens in preseason carries over to the regular season. The competition is disorganized and the benches are borderline NBA quality. But it’s better to be good than bad.

I was struck by how much the Warriors put the ball and decisions in the hands of rookie Jordan Bell during his few minutes, and what I saw was very promising.

Last week, I wrote that there were at least three plays that Jordan Bell could run already: HORNS Curl, backscreen lobs, and the short roll. We already discussed how Bell spectacularly succeeded at HORNS Curl into a lob.

Let’s look now at his work on the short roll. This is when Bell sets a screen for a pick and roll, and then gets a pass close to the screen (as opposed to going all the way to the hoop). Here’s a little movie I made analyzing a few short rolls from the game (late) last night.

Final Thoughts

Bell has a knack for making himself open on the short roll and making good decisions on the move. He has a soft touch on his interior passes and often looks to pass first.

He already looks more fluent in the offense than Damian Jones and Kevon Looney (and Nick Young... but that’s another article). And compared to JaVale McGee, he’s already creating more plays in the offense, seems to rebound about as well, and he can run the same plays that finish with lob dunks.

The main question is whether Bell will keep developing and force his way into the rotation, or if we’ll have to wait for an injury to get him some minutes. Notably, the Warriors played Bell at 4 next to McGee and Jones last night, and he looked pretty good, dishing to layups for the centers. So the Kerr braintrust is also looking for ways to sneak in minutes for him. He clearly doesn’t have game confidence in a jumper, but he was the motor of all those lineups, and by playmaking out of high pick and rolls, he didn’t clog up the spacing in the lane.

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Game Tweets

... then I conked out for bed. Sorry.