In a little over two months, Warriors rookie Jordan Bell is already showing he can have a significant impact on the best team in the NBA. What should scare teams around the league is that Bell is still an infant in his development, and is relying mostly on his incredible athletic ability to affect the game.
Bell will be a force once he learns how to create his own offense, and longtime Warriors writer Marcus Thompson of The Athletic told Ryan Covay and Kevin Frandsen on Tuesday what the next step in his development should be.
“I think the next step for him is going to be having the ball at that one spot and using his dribble — not that many, maybe one, two max — to get from that spot to the rim,” Thompson said. “He shouldn’t need that many. If you’re at the free throw line, one dribble and you should be at the rim. He’s got to figure that out.
“Whether it’s ‘I’m going to dribble left and then go right’ or one dribble pull-up, he needs to get from the free throw line to the rim on his own. Right now he can’t do that. It’s got to be a pass setting him up, it’s got to be somebody else making it happen, and he’s got the ball, and he’s 10 feet away and he’s like ‘man, that looks so far, let me pass it back out.’ He’s so athletic and he can jump out of the gym, he needs a one dribble move from the free throw line in and get there on his own. Once he can do that, ohhhh man. If he’s doing this already and he can’t do any of that, what’s he gonna be when he gets that? I think Zaza Pachulia is scared.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Thompson’s comments on Bell, skip to 6:40