DeAndre Jordan (22 years old, third N.B.A. season).

Size is always a valuable commodity in the N.B.A., and the Clippers seem well situated with Griffin as an All-Star-caliber power forward and DeAndre Jordan as an emerging center. Jordan isn’t a dominant player by any means; his defense is a work in progress to say the least, and he still lacks the ability to create shots in the post or anywhere else.

Regardless, the Clippers have already gotten a tremendous amount of value out of their second round choice in the 2008 draft. Jordan does several things exceptionally well. Though his defensive awareness is a bit shaky, Jordan is already an exceptional shot-blocker, a trait that will serve him well playing alongside Griffin. Talented though Griffin may be, he’s a poor defender, and likely needs to be paired with a big man who can defend an opponent’s primary post-up threat and/or erase some of Griffin’s mistakes with strong help defense. Jordan can certainly do the latter, and hopefully will improve with the former over the next few seasons.

Jordan also performs well on the glass, where he ranks just outside the top 10 among centers (who have played 500 minutes or more this season) in rebounding rate. He’s particularly potent on the offensive end, where he pulls down rebounds at a higher rate than all but five centers who qualified with the same minutes criterion. All of this is made more amazing by the fact that Jordan pulls down that many rebounds while playing a lot of his minutes with Griffin, who is a stellar board man in his own right and an equally prolific offensive rebounder.

What Jordan lacks in offensive versatility he makes up for in specific strength; Jordan’s size and athleticism make him a terrific recipient of lobs and catch-and-finish opportunities around the basket. Plus, even though Griffin’s astonishing dunks have basketball fans blessing (and YouTubing) his name, he’s not even the most effective pick-and-roll finisher on his own team. According to Synergy Sports Technology, Jordan averages 1.34 points per possession in the pick-and-roll, the tops among Clippers and the third highest mark in the league. Jordan has reached that level of efficiency with far less defensive attention and over a much smaller sample size, but his finishing ability is impressive nonetheless.

In his short time in the league, Jordan has already become more intelligent in his navigation of space on the roll; he times his approach well, and can dive quickly or float to the rim as the situation allows.