DeAndre Jordan Is Building Undeniable 2015 NBA All-Star Case

LOS ANGELES — In so many ways, DeAndre Jordan is already an All-Star.

He's one of the three most important players on a Los Angeles Clippers squad that, heading into an eight-game road trip, is starting to look like an NBA title contender. As one of the league's most likable guys, he's beloved by teammates and opponents alike. His high-flying antics on the court are matched only by his outsized personality off of it.

But ask Blake Griffin whether his frontcourt partner should be an actual All-Star, and Griffin, normally as lighthearted and quick-witted as Jordan, turns dour—even after a win as exciting as the 102-98 nail-biter the Clippers pulled out against the Denver Nuggets on Monday night.

"He’s a huge part of our team, but, you know, unfortunately, the starters for the All-Stars, it’s a fan vote," Griffin said, as if resigned to the notion that his close friend and longtime teammate won't be picked by the Western Conference coaches as a reserve. "You see it. It might not be the best way to do it, but that’s how it is. It’s one of those things.

"I told him last night after the game [in Phoenix on Jan. 25], everything he does for us doesn’t go unappreciated. We definitely recognize it. We love him for it. I don’t really know what else to say."

Understandably so. The Clippers have done all they can to lobby on Jordan's behalf.

Chris Paul, whose own All-Star status will once again be determined by the 14 coaches out West who aren't his own, has been a big supporter of his big man at every turn. "I say it all the time, DJ is an All-Star," Paul said. "I think he’s the Defensive Player of the Year. All the different accolades, I think he should have."

For the second year running, Doc Rivers, the one coach who can't vote for Jordan, has been working the phones to plead DeAndre's case with his peers. "But I think, for the most part, the coaches have made up their minds," Rivers lamented. 

"If DJ was doing what he’s doing on the defensive end on the offensive end, he’d be in," he added.

To be sure, there are plenty of times when he shines on both. During the final minute of the first half against Denver, Jordan denied three straight Nuggets shots on one end before finishing with a reverse jam off a Griffin lob on the other.

"That was the postcard to all the coaches," Rivers noted.

The Clippers distributed a flier of their own, highlighting Jordan's bona fides for the league's midseason showcase.

Josh Martin

The only person who won't stump for Jordan's ticket to the Big Apple? DeAndre Jordan.

"I mean, there’s no case," Jordan insisted. "I just try to play and let that do the talking. I should’ve made some YouTube videos. I should’ve done that. Shoot."

As if there aren't already plenty of those to look up. A search of Jordan's name on YouTube yields upward of 173,000 results. Watch him play on any given night—he hasn't missed one since March 2011—and that number might actually seem small.

Jordan went on, "Famous words, wise man, Marshawn Lynch: 'Bout that action, boss.' So that’s it."

Which is to say, Jordan would rather show than tell. After all the breath exhausted and ink spilled by the Clippers in support of Jordan, that approach may be his best bet.

Jordan's statistics certainly speak for themselves. He currently leads the NBA in both rebounds (13.4) and field-goal percentage (.731). According to the Los Angeles Times' Broderick Turner, Jordan is on track to become the first player to pace the Association in those categories in consecutive seasons since Wilt Chamberlain pulled that trick in 1971-72 and 1972-73.

More impressive still, Jordan's field-goal percentage would break Chamberlain's single-season record, per Basketball Reference. And with a slew of block parties like the ones he's hosted of late (i.e. four swats vs. Denver, four in Phoenix, six vs. Boston on Jan. 19), Jordan could surpass All-Star starter Anthony Davis in that regard, too.

USA TODAY Sports

When it comes to scoring, though, Jordan has a long way to go to catch up to Houston's James Harden, who's in pole position with 27.6 points per game. Jordan's 10.2 points place him 123rd among his peers.

"It’s easy to quantify points," Rivers explained. "A guy averages 30 points a night, that’s easy to quantify. It’s harder when you don’t see that guy"—as often as Doc does, anyway.

Rarely (if ever) would Jordan be mistaken for a skilled offensive player. But in L.A., he doesn't have to be, nor would the Clippers want him to be. Between Griffin, Paul, Jamal Crawford and J.J. Redick, the Clippers sport plenty of guys who can fill it up from night to night. As Jordan told Sports Illustrated's Ben Golliver when asked about his "untapped potential" as a scorer:

"

Yeah, but we have five guys on our team who could average 20-25 [points] if they wanted to. Blake, [Chris Paul], Jamal [Crawford], J.J. [Redick] has been a high scorer in our league. My role on our team isn’t to get us 18 a night. Would I like to? Hell yeah. Who wouldn’t? But that’s not why I’m on this team to help us win. That’s not what I’m supposed to be doing.

"

It's not Jordan's role to light up the scoreboard but rather to do the dirty work down low—and finish up high when the opportunities present themselves.

"Every coach tells you that they want their players to sacrifice and be All-Star role players," Rivers said. "Then when you actually have a guy that does it, then they don’t reward them. It just makes no sense to me. I’m trying to get the coaches to back their talk up, basically, and vote for DJ."

If the coaches are going to vote for Paul, after the fans made their support for Griffin known, then surely someone could send Jordan to New York. He's been just as important to the Clippers' success (31-14, a game ahead of last season's pace) as either of his All-Star teammates.

	NetRtg On	NetRtg Off	Difference
Chris Paul	plus-13	minus-6.6	plus-19.6
DeAndre Jordan	plus-12.2	minus-3.1	plus-15.3
Blake Griffin	plus-11.5	minus-3.7	plus-15.2

Granted, not all of the more modern metrics portray Jordan so favorably. Jordan is the unquestioned anchor of L.A.'s defense, but that defense hasn't been as stifling as it was a season ago. According to NBA.com, the Clippers came into Tuesday ranked 15th in defensive efficiency, allowing 103.5 points per 100 possessions.

And, truth be told, Jordan's hardly the only frontcourt player who's worthy of consideration among the West's All-Star reserves. Tim Duncan's carried the San Antonio Spurs through an injury-plagued first half. Dwight Howard has been a perennial All-Star participant since 2007, though he's clearly taken a backseat to Harden in Houston this season. DeMarcus Cousins has been absolutely beastly, albeit for a flailing Sacramento Kings squad. Dirk Nowitzki, LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Durant all deserve serious consideration as well.

But, as Snoop once said in The Wire, "Deserve got nothin' to do with it."

The fact that there's a fan vote to fill 10 of the 24 All-Star spots is proof enough that there's more to this particular honor than whether a player deserves to go, be it for his individual contributions or the success of his squad. In today's media-saturated environment—wherein any and every game is broadcast on TV and online, and any and every play is disbursed through social media—the All-Star Game has, more than ever before, become an exhibition packaged for mass consumption. The key is (or should be) for the game to be fun to watch.

And who, among the Western Conference bigs not yet ticketed for next month's All-Star Game, is more fun to watch than Jordan? Who—among Duncan, Howard, Cousins, Nowitzki, Aldridge, Durant and whoever else—is more likely than Jordan to drop jaws with his on-court exploits at Madison Square Garden?

"Making the All-Star team would be great, but if not, I mean, whatever," Jordan shrugged. "It’ll just be another year for me."

Given all Jordan is and has done as a player, perhaps it shouldn't be. He'll have a better handle on his travel plans, one way or another, when the reserves are announced on Thursday.

Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.

Follow @JoshMartinNBA