DeAndre Jordan: Stay With Clippers Or Sign Elsewhere?

For months, Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan has made it clear that he plans on exploring his options once he officially becomes a free agent on July 1st. Just days away from that date, Jordan must start thinking about his NBA future and if he wants to stay with the Clippers or sign elsewhere.

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USA Today’s Sam Amick reports that Jordan will meet with at least four teams when free agency starts on July 1st. The Clippers were indeed one of those four teams, but the Mavericks, Lakers, and Knicks will also get to sit down with the prized free agent to make a pitch on why he should play for them. While remaining in Los Angeles with either the Clippers or Lakers or switching to another major market in New York are obvious attractions to free agents, there are reports that Jordan is seriously considering the Dallas Mavericks.

Although some fans think giving max money to Jordan would be a mistake, teams are lining up with max offers in mind for Jordan. Simply put, whatever team employs Jordan for next season won’t be paying him less than the max, which estimates to be starting at around $18.9 million for the first year and will rise on a year-by-year basis. The Mavericks, Lakers, and Knicks can offer up to $81 million over four years while the Clippers hold the trump card of being able to offer him $109 million over five years because as his former team, they own his Bird rights.

The Clippers will (and should) give Jordan their max offer of $109 million over five years. Just over a month ago, Arash Markazi of ESPN got this information from head coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers:

I’ve already gone through a brief breakdown of why Jordan is worth the max for the Clippers, but let’s briefly go through a rundown. The Clippers no cap space even if Jordan leaves in free agency, thus making it nearly impossible to find a reasonable replacement for Jordan. If the Clippers couldn’t win it all with Jordan, they surely wouldn’t have a chance without Jordan patrolling the paint for them. This gives the Clippers little leverage to let Jordan go. If the Clippers cannot bring Jordan back, they’d be removed from the contender status that they’ve spent years building up to and would have to waste what could be one of the final years of Chris Paul‘s prime for a non-contender.\n

If Jordan rejects the Clippers to sign somewhere else, we can assume a few things; his reportedly icy relationship with Chris Paul is worse than we thought and cannot be fixed, Jordan believes he will be worth nearly $20 million again when he hits free agency in a few years, which would negate the extra year and $28 million the Clippers can offer, and/or that Jordan feels like he can be a bigger star somewhere else.

The Mavericks are an attractive destination for Jordan on-and-off the basketball court. For starters, Jordan was born in Texas, albeit Houston, and stayed in-state for his lone college season at Texas A&M. Perhaps even more importantly, Dallas doesn’t have an income tax. When Kobe Bryant commented on his bloated salary compared to the pay cut that Dirk Nowitzki took, he commented the difference meant that Nowitzki “wasn’t playing in Los Angeles”. What he meant by that is that in Los Angeles, there is a heavy income tax that caused him to bring home $12.1 million of the $23.5 million that the Lakers are paying him according to Business Insider. The money Jordan would save by playing in Dallas instead of Los Angeles could help mitigate the difference of the extra year and $28 million that the Clippers can offer to retain Jordan.

On the basketball court, Jordan would be filling the Tyson Chandler-role in Dallas, making up for the lack of rim protection, rebounding, and overall interior presence of Dirk Nowitzki. Jordan’s skill set makes him the perfect complement to Nowitzki, especially as Nowitzki ages and his weaknesses become more and more noticeable. Replacing Chandler with Jordan would make for a seamless transition as Dallas would essentially just be getting a younger and improved version of the player they had at center last season.

The Lakers and Knicks don’t appear to have any tangible edge over the Clippers in the battle for DeAndre Jordan. For most free agents, the bright lights that the Knicks and Lakers can offer players give them an advantage in free agency but that’s not the case since the Clippers reside in L.A. On the basketball court, the Knicks and Lakers are years away from being where the Clippers are. Neither of those teams have anything even remotely close to Chris Paul, who is responsible for setting up many of Jordan’s numerous alley-oop dunks. If Jordan wants to leave the Clippers because Chris Paul is too demanding for him, it’s hard to imagine him being happier being teammates with Kobe Bryant. While the Knicks and Lakers will certainly be in the mix for many notable free agents, they’ll be hard-pressed to compete with what the Clippers or Mavericks can offer Jordan.

Who will Jordan sign with?

The best bet is for Jordan to re-sign with the Clippers for the full max of $109 million over five years. Jordan has spent all seven of his NBA seasons with the franchise and it seemingly is the perfect fit for him. He gets to play with a world-class point guard setting him up for easy points which help make up for his lack of skill offensively, gets to play with one of his best friends in Blake Griffin, be a star in Los Angeles, and make a lot of money while doing it. Doc Rivers has been Jordan’s biggest supporter through the media by making it clear he wants to give Jordan max money and even making the case that Jordan is the league’s best defender. The situation that Jordan has with the Clippers is the type of situation that other free agents would leave their former team for.

However, the Mavericks appear to be a serious threat to take Jordan away from the Clippers. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban hasn’t had the best of luck on his side over the years in luring top free agents to Dallas, but might be due for a big signing. It would be shocking if Jordan left the Clippers, but the Mavericks seem to have the best shot to make that happen.

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