During DeAndre Jordan’s tenure with the Brooklyn Nets, he constantly clashed with then Kenny Atkinson on playing time. As Anthony Puccio reported, Jordan did not want to back up young phenom Jarret Allen. Once Atkinson was fired as coach, Jordan was instantly thrust back into the starting role.
The Nets ended up trading Allen (to acquire James Harden) and once they resigned Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge to the rotation, Jordan realized there was not much of a role with the Nets anymore and asked to be let go. Jordan ended up with the Lakers in a role that will be mostly of a backup center role.
During Frank Vogel’s presser today with the media, he made several interesting points about how practice has been and the outlook of the season. When Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times asked how DeAndre Jordan would handle inconsistent playing time, Vogel had a broader point in answering this.
"Everybody on this team knows coming into this group that whatever needs to happen for our team to win a championship, they have to be bought into that. That's the minimum requirement for playing for the LA Lakers. And sometimes that does mean not playing. Everybody understands that...DJ has been nothing but a first-class attitude for everything that we're trying to do and I think he's on board with everybody else that whatever the team needs, that's what they'll be on board with."
This point runs in sync with what Carmelo Anthony said earlier this week. For now everyone seems to understand that they are not No. 1 options or even starter caliber with this Lakers squad. It is vital for the the team to understand that everyone on the team is making personal sacrifices to achieve the end goal of winning No. 18.
Easier said than done, especially with the season not started yet. With the glass half full outlook, at least this is definitely the right mentality the team needs to keep.
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