Longhorns and Aggies and a Bear! Oh my!
Looking for a reason to get involved in the NBA playoffs, but you don’t really care about the teams? Are you a fan of Texas colleges? Well in the NBA playoffs every first round series either has a Texas Longhorn, Fightin’ Texas Aggie or Baylor Bear on their roster. If you follow NCAA basketball in Texas, but not the NBA, here is how some familiar faces are doing!
There are two Fightin’ Texas Aggies in the NBA playoffs: Khris Middleton for the Bucks and DeAndre Jordan on the LA Clippers.
Khris Middleton (Texas A&M 2010-2012)
Middleton was a second round pick out of Texas A&M and was traded from the Pistons with Brandon Knight to Milwaukee for Brandon Jennings. The Bucks provided Middleton with the opportunity to develop into a good NBA 3 and D player. With his Buck’s 3-point percentage never falling below 39% in four years Middleton is also arguably the Buck’s best all-around scorer.
Middleton developing his 3-point range has been key to his success in the NBA. Middleton isn’t a star player, but he is one of the better role players in the league and contributes a lot to the success of Giannis Antetounmpo.
DeAndre Jordan (Texas A&M 2009)
Despite having a disappointing one and done season at Texas A&M, causing him to fall into the second round, DeAndre Jordan has become the most successful Texas A&M player in NBA history. Seriously! He became the first Fightin’ Aggie to make All-NBA First Team last season and is the league’s best athlete at the center position. Jordan is the best rim protector in the league, one of the best rebounders in the NBA and while he doesn’t create his own shot Jordan does shoot one of the highest field goal percentages in the NBA with the help of lobs to the tip and put backs. Of course the most noted part of DeAndre’s game is his poor free-throw shooting. Along with never developing a jumper, Jordan’s free throws have never come along as well. The two likely go hand in hand. Jordan only shot beyond 9 feet from the rim twice this season (both shots missed. This does not stop Jordan from being effective in his opportunities to score. Jordan took 577 field goal attempts in 2017, he made a career high 71.4% of those shots from the field. 552 of those field goal attempts were from within 5 feet from the basket, a range in which Jordan hit 72.6%