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LAS VEGAS — Jordan Bell is debuting for the Warriors at the Las Vegas summer league on Saturday night. But in an alternate world, maybe the 6-foot-8, 225-pounder would be readying for training camp with the Raiders or Niners this summer.

Bell went to high school at Long Beach Poly. It’s a football powerhouse. They’ve had 17 players drafted into the NFL, the second most of any school in the country. That includes Desean Jackson, Willie McGinest, Mercedes Lewis and, this past April, USC receiver Juju Smith, a classmate of Bell’s.

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And early on in his life, that’s what Bell loved. He played everything from pee-wee to flag to Pop Warner. When his friends went to the park, Bell always brought a football and rarely touched a basketball.

“I shot around a little bit,” Bell said. “But (basketball) was never something I wanted to do.”

His mother pushed him to try it, but it was really his sprouting size that eventually tilted Bell toward basketball. In eighth grade, a coach got a look at the 6-foot-6 defensive end and told him to come tryout. By his freshman year of high school, he willingly went out for the Long Beach Poly basketball team.

But his love of football still remained. Every spring and summer all the way up until his senior year, Bell heeded the request of football coaches — desperate for the services of a now 6-foot-7 quick-footed defensive end and receiver who could now run a 4.4 40-yard dash — and he went out to offseason practices. For complete Warriors coverage

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But Bell noticed a concerning trend every time he rumbled over the middle for a slant.

“They can’t tackle me, so they’re just going for my legs,” Bell said. “I’m like nah. I’m big and I can move, probably one of the fastest players on the team. The only way they could get me was going low.”

So every year right before the season started, he opted against playing football because, suddenly, he now had a basketball career to worry about.

Within two years of playing at a competitive level, Bell was already getting college attention. Most football players, especially physical ones, struggle with the transition from the strength to skill game, especially defensively, where they bump and hack themselves into constant foul trouble.

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“I’ve always been a small person in a big person’s body,” Bell said. “I’m physical, but I always knew when to be physical.”

His defensive versatility, which blossomed at Oregon and enticed the Warriors enough to buy into the draft for $3.5 million, sprouted on that football field when he was forced to evade blockers and chase quarterbacks.

Now he just evades screens and tracks down guards on the perimeter, while still maintaining a bruising presence on the interior. Bell averaged double-digit rebounds all three years at Oregon and blocked 233 shots in 105 games, something the 6-foot-8 center credits to timing.

Where does that timing come from? Not football. Not basketball. Guitar Hero, Bell says.

“You ever played?” Bell said. “You got to like try to get it exactly. I hate video games, but that’s the one video game I played every single day. Strumming, hit the button at the same exact time, catch it on the screen. Shot-blocking, to me, is all about timing. I know tall people who can’t block a shot to save their life. That right there really helped to get my timing.”

That seamless ability to switch onto every position, while still protecting the paint, is a coveted defensive skill in today’s pick-and-roll heavy NBA. It’s why Draymond Green, who does it better than anybody, won Defensive Player of the Year. It’s why Bell is an intriguing prospect.

“Great pick,” Draymond said. “I do. I see a lot of (similarities). Number 1, it’s just that passion he brings to the court. He’s all over the floor making plays. I definitely see some of that in him. The way he plays, you can tell there’s no shortage of work ethic.”

So why did Bell fall to the second round? Primarily due to his limited offensive arsenal.

Bell is a willing and adept screener, a decent off-ball mover and a powerful finisher if you clear the runway. But he’s not an aggressive, proven or confident scorer.



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Back in high school, Bell would pass up so many layups and open jumpers that his coach made a rule in practice one day: If Jordan Bell touches the ball and doesn’t shoot it, the team runs.

“Anywhere I was on the floor, 3, wherever, if I touched it I had to shoot it,” he said. “And we ran like probably like 10 times because of me.”

Bell’s offensive confidence is on the rise. He went from 5.1 points as a freshman to 6.8 to 10.9 as a junior at Oregon. But he still can have bouts of hesitancy inside and remains allergic to outside jumpers. In his entire college career, he only took 20 shots outside of 17 feet and made only three.

But Bell has studied different ways for him to effect the game offensively. A few years back, while listening to a broadcast, he heard Steve Kerr mentioning the importance of Draymond Green’s floater. Ever since, he’s tried to implement that into his game.

It’s just another way he tries to emulate Green, another second-rounder snatched by the Warriors. The two have already become friendly. Bell came to Green’s Defensive Player of the Year press conference a couple weeks back. The two went to dinner that night. The team has placed Bell’s locker at the facility right next to Green. Green will be keeping an eye on his pupil this week.

“I’m looking forward to seeing him in summer league,” Green said. “I’m looking forward to seeing where his career takes him. Because he has a lot of tools that can take him far if he puts the work in.”