"They underestimate his IQ" - Rod Strickland on why Clyde Drexler is an underrated player

Rod Strickland played on nine different teams throughout his NBA career and shared a locker room with many great players. One such guy is Clyde Drexler .

Strickland and Drexler played together for two-and-a-half seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers , which also coincided with when Rod began to improve as a player. Clyde is obviously a Hall of Famer, but "Hot Rod" believes that he is still very underrated.

Strickland on Drexler's basketball IQ

Before Damian Lillard, Drexler was the face of the Trail Blazers, as he did his best to help the team win during the first eleven-and-a-half seasons of his career. He eventually got traded to the Houston Rockets in 1995 and ended up winning the only title of his career that year.

"The Glide" endured a rotating cast of backcourt running mates in Portland, but he enjoyed some success when Strickland was leading the team's offense. Rod said he enjoyed playing with Clyde, but he believes a key area of his game is constantly overlooked by fans.

"I think they underestimate his IQ, his passing," Rod said on " All The Smoke ." "He was a great post-up guard, too, sealing guys and angles. As great as he was, I don't think people really understand his IQ."

Clyde gets his flowers from Rod

A quick look at Drexler's accomplishments shows that he was one of the top players in the NBA—he was a ten-time All-Star and a five-time All-NBA team member. But according to Strickland, that doesn't paint the whole picture.

Clyde managed to do a little bit of everything during his time in the league, as he was a skilled scorer, passer, and defender all in one. And yet, his former teammate thinks that was largely due to his high basketball IQ, as it allowed him to excel in several different areas on the court.

You have to be intelligent to play professional basketball in the NBA, but the best guys use their smarts to beat their opponents. While Drexler was physically gifted, he gave himself a leg up on his opponents by finding ways to be one step ahead of them mentally too.

While there are many areas of his game that do draw attention, Strickland wanted to shine the light on one area he believes the Blazers legend doesn't get recognition for. Now that he has, hopefully, fans can appreciate another area of the game in which "Clyde the Glide" managed to dominate.

Related: "We literally had to carry him off the bus, off the plane" - Phil Jackson recalls Michael Jordan showing his "special skill"