Ranking all of Steph’s teammates: #24 — Jordan Bell

During his time with the Golden State Warriors, Steph Curry has had 106 teammates who have appeared in at least one game. Some played in exactly one game, while others played in hundreds. Some never actually played in a game that Curry was active for, while others formed historically great partnerships with him.

And I’m ranking all 106 of them before a new season starts and he adds to the tally. Better get a move on.

Players are ranked — and stats are shown — based only on their time as Curry’s teammate. How good/bad they were in other organizations doesn’t matter. How good/bad they were on pre-2009-10 Warriors teams doesn’t matter.

#24 — Jordan Bell

Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images

Games: 125 (22nd out of 106)
Points per game: 3.9 (T-77th out of 106)
Rebounds per game: 3.1 (T-48th out of 106)
Assists per game: 1.4 (T-46th out of 106)

I’ve dropped this sentence a few times in this series, but I think the bulk of Dub Nation will disagree with me on this ranking.

Bell didn’t take the second-year leap that many were hoping for and anticipating — instead, he took a sizable step backwards. And as he took that step backwards he managed to anger the coaching staff, to the point earning a one-game suspension for playing a prank on assistant coach Mike Brown. To the best of my knowledge, it’s one of only two times during the Steve Kerr era that the Warriors have disciplined a player.

The Warriors were not pleased with Bell’s lack of professionalism, and despite once being very high on him, they let him walk after two seasons.

So how am I justifying placing him so high? Because that rookie year was magnificent — more magnificent than he gets credit for.

Despite being a second-round pick in his first year, Bell earned a significant role on one of the most talented teams in NBA history. He started 13 games, played 14.2 minutes per night, and got 10.2 minutes per game in the playoffs. His per 36 minutes stats? 11.7 points, 9.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.6 blocks, and 1.5 steals. The Draymond Green comparisons were perhaps a tad optimistic — but only a tad.

His true-shooting percentage? An elite 64.1%.

But if you’ll allow me to flood you with some more stats, it’s the advanced metrics that really showed just how much of an impact Bell had. Try these on for size: 1.64 PIPM, 2.81 RPM, 2.80 BPM, 2.16 RAPTOR.

Those numbers are really good. There’s no way to get around that Bell was an extremely important member of that championship-winning team. Things may have soured quickly after that, but it’s enough to put him pretty high in the eyes of this ranker.

With fewer than 30 players left, I’m going to start listing the remaining names in alphabetic order, to help out with determining whether someone is properly ranked. Here they are:

Leandro Barbosa, Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogut, Willie Cauley-Stein, Marquese Chriss, DeMarcus Cousins, Kevin Durant, Monta Ellis, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, Damion Lee, David Lee, Shaun Livingston, Kevon Looney, Corey Maggette, JaVale McGee, Zaza Pachulia, Eric Paschall, D’Angelo Russell, Klay Thompson, David West, Andrew Wiggins, Dorell Wright