The Los Angeles Clippers and Dallas Mavericks had negotiated for days, but they couldn’t work out a trade for DeAndre Jordan that worked for both sides.
So Jordan is going to opt out of the $24.1 million final year of his contract with the Clippers and become a free agent. Dallas is going to try to sign him to a deal (this time it will go better than a couple of years ago). All of that according to multiple reports.
Clippers center DeAndre Jordan will opt-out of his deal, source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 29, 2018
The Mavericks will make DeAndre Jordan their top target in free agency after Jordan informed the Clippers that he will bypass next season's $24.1 million player option to become a free agent, league sources say
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 29, 2018
The Mavericks did not want to surrender draft compensation in a potential trade with the Clippers for DeAndre Jordan and prefer instead to pursue him in free agency, league sources say
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 29, 2018
Jordan may end up taking a little less next season than the $24.1 million he was going to make to get the security of multiple years considering he will turn 30 before next season. It will be interesting to see how many years the Mavericks are willing to offer.
Jordan is a good fit for Dallas at the five spot. He is one of the top paint/rim-protecting bigs in the league, giving the Mavericks a defensive anchor. On offense, he sets a strong screen and is a rim runner with the best of them, but he needs to be paired with a quality point guard/ball handler to take advantage of that. The young core of Dennis Smith Jr. and Luka Doncic fit that bill.
If Jordan reaches a deal with the Mavericks not long after July 1, that’s trouble for DeMarcus Cousins, Julius Randle, and any other big that Dallas was eyeing. Those guys now have much less leverage to get other deals, particularly Cousins who now seems most likely to be back in New Orleans.
