DeAndre Jordan's Response To Hassan Whiteside's Criticism Was Classic

The war of words between Hassan Whiteside and DeAndre Jordancontinued on Friday. Whiteside offered a rather dismissive assessment of Jordan’s game when a reporter asked if he saw any corollaries between the two and their respective styles of play, saying that the Clippers center “just catches lobs.”

Jordan inevitably caught wind of those comments prior to the Clippers’ game against the Heat in Miami on Friday night, and he had a simple, yet incisive, response:

DJ on Whiteside saying all he does is catch lobs – "Made First Team All NBA and Defense doing that"

— Rowan Kavner (@RowanKavner) December 16, 2016

Jordan is regularly among the top candidates for Defensive Player of the Year, not to mention one of the NBA’s leading rebounders. Whiteside, however, isn’t necessarily wrong in his evaluation of Jordan’s offensive game. It’s objectively true that the vast majority of Jordan’s points come at or near the rim as a regular beneficiary of Chris Paul’s ability to collapse opposing defenses.

Jordan doesn’t have much of a back-to-the-basket game, nor does he have any range at all on his shot, but he’s comfortable with his role in Los Angeles’ offense and more than willing to defer to the other capable scorers surrounding him. Whiteside, for his part, is now claiming that his comments were “misconstrued.”