After coming so close to the Western Conference finals, Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan could be forgiven for champing at the bit for another chance to return.
Except Jordan isn't.
DeAndre Jordan hints to Dallas Mavericks that he's interested in joining them?
The Orange County Register reported that Jordan sidestepped the question of his future with the Clippers after the team's season ended with its 113-100 loss to the Houston Rockets in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals.
"I'm just going to try to think about this right now," Jordan said. "It's tough right now but it's not on my mind right now."
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The Register reported that Jordan was asked whether he wants to stay with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and return the corps of this year's team that will have the motivation of the pain over losing a three-games-to-one lead.
"I've been here for seven years, so this is what I'm used to," he said to the Orange County Register. "But I'm not thinking about that, man. It's still so fresh tonight. It's tough."
ESPN recently reported that Jordan let the Dallas Mavericks know he would be "extremely interested" in playing for them in 2015-16. Jordan is a Houston native and played his collegiate ball at Texas A&M.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Jordan said in March that he wanted to sign a max contract, rather than a one-year deal and then waiting until 2016 to seek a max deal when a massive salary cap increase is expected.
If Jordan were to sign a max contract with the Clippers, it would cost the franchise $108.3 million over the next five years and severely limit the team's chances of upgrade what was considered a short bench in 2014-15.
Clippers coach and general manager Doc Rivers said the Clippers were agreeable to offering a max deal.
"Oh yeah," Rivers said, the OCR reported. "That's obvious."
"Can you tamper with your own guy?" Rivers asked, according to the Times. "If that's true, I want to go tamper right now."
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