This is about as surprising an announcement as the coming “LeBron James has decided to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers” one.
DeAndre Jordan is not going to be a Knick.
Jordan as been choosing between going home to Texas and joining the Mavericks or staying put with the Clippers for a while now, so Jordan’s people let the Knicks know where things stood, allowing them to get on with their Robin Lopez contract, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Sources: DeAndre Jordan's reps informed the Knicks that free agent center has eliminated them, clearing way for Robin Lopez's $54m deal.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2015
The Knicks will now finalize their four-year, $54 million deal with Lopez (because of a league-wide moratorium, no contract can be signed until July 9). This is a quality pickup for the Knicks. It gives them a solid big man in the paint who can defend the rim, is strong on the offensive glass, and while he will not score much he stays in his lane on that end and basically only finishes near the rim. If Knicks fans are balking at the price tag for Lopez (an averaged of $13.5 million a year) remember that the salary cap is about to spike by about $40 million over two years — this deal is going to look like a steal in a couple years. Howard Beck of Bleacher Report put it well on Twitter.
This past season, $13.5 mil was about 21% of a team's cap. In 2016, same salary would be 15.2% of the cap. In 2017, 12.5% of the cap.
— Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) July 3, 2015
Or, putting it another way, Lopez's $13.5 mil in 2017 would be equivalent to about $7.9 mil this past season.
— Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) July 3, 2015