Why Rodman’s son thinks he’s ready for the NBA after Warriors workout originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
DJ Rodman knows what his name entails. The son of the NBA Dennis Rodman Hall of Fame was part of a six-player Warriors pre-draft workout Thursday and went back in time to when he started playing basketball.
Not as a little kid shooting with dad, but watching it on TV when he was 10, more than a decade after Rodman last played in the NBA.
“People don’t know that he wasn’t in my life much,” Rodman told reporters at the Chase Center and members of the media on Zoom. “It’s great, I remember when he was little he used to watch Hardwood Classics on NBA TV.
“It’s cool to remember those memories from when I was little and watch those clips and it’s something that I studied almost every day. Almost every day they played one of those games. The rebounds, that’s where I got it from: from those videos, from those games.”
Dennis is arguably the best rebounder in NBA history at 6-foot-7. The 6-foot-6 DJ averaged 4.2 rebounds in his five-year college career. They are two different people and two different players. Dennis made 82 three-pointers in his 14-year NBA career. DJ made 89 triples in his last two years at university.
Rodman spent his first four college seasons at Washington State and ended up at USC. He started just 12 games in his first three years, averaging 3.9 points and 3.3 rebounds and shooting 32.7 percent from deep. But in his last two years, Rodman started 58 of 63 games and averaged 29.5 minutes, 9.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and made 37.2 percent of his three-point attempts. He primarily played as an undersized four due to his toughness and improvements as a rebounder.
Offensively, Rodman became a strong shooter. He now hopes to show teams that he is more assertive on offense. Rodman has told every team he has worked with that he has become “significantly better” there and wants to showcase more of his abilities as a winger.
But to achieve this, Rodman and his representative Tyrell Jamerson of Triple Double Sports came to the agreement that he needed to make changes to his shot. Don’t let the last name fool you. Rodman was self-taught while he was growing up. He didn’t have personal coaches, his game wasn’t being perfected.
“I like to watch myself, because now I really jump on my jump shot,” Rodman said. “I actually look like a basketball player when I shoot the ball.”
Rodman previously joked that he jumped “maybe 2 inches” when he shot at USC. He compared his previous shooting mechanics to that of Chantel Osahor, who shot 37.2 percent from three in her final year in Washington, even though his feet remained glued to the court.
Despite their differences as players, the shared innate traits of father and son were unmistakable when Rodman talked about their game. He talked about rebounding as a science, not an athletic feat. Rodman expressed his desire to guard the other team’s leading scorer and took pride in being able to defend one through five in college, being a nuisance and finding ways to get into his opponent’s heads.
The dog? He’s in there.
“Ironically, it’s in my blood,” Rodman admits. “It’s true. It’s in my blood. But other than that, I feel like it’s something I can control night in and night out. You can’t control if you’re going to take shots. You can control your effort level on the defensive end.
“You can control how to give your team the best chance to win by stopping your matchup or stopping one of the opposing team’s best players.”
Steph Curry. Klay Thompson. Andres Wiggins. And many more in the past.
The Warriors have a long history of success with players who have ties to NBA lineages. Rodman could be next.
“It was cool, it kind of kicked my butt a little bit,” Rodman said of his workout with the Warriors. “I just run a lot. I had a good time though. You need someone to kick your butt and wake you up a little. “It was great, I had a great time.”
Rodman didn’t take a one-year path like his USC teammate with a more famous name. DJ’s path, like his father’s, was longer until he reached the NBA. For reasons beyond his namesake’s, Rodman believes his path and continued development puts him on the path to success with the Warriors or any other team at the next level.