The NBA's moratorium on free agent signings becoming official hasn't been lifted yet, and that might be very important regarding the Dallas Mavericks' signing of center DeAndre Jordan. Per ESPN, the Los Angeles Clippers are making a desperate bid to change Jordan's mind before his deal is official-and he may be listening.
ESPN's Marc Stein reports that Clippers forward Blake Griffin has met with Jordan to try and convince him to stay with the Clippers, and All-Star point guard Chris Paul has also strongly pushed for his return, despite a shaky relationship with Jordan being pointed to as a reason for him to leave money on the table and join Dallas.
Clippers guard J.J. Redick was also extremely vocal about the Clippers' initial failure to retain him. "Listen, we had one priority this summer, and that was to re-sign D.J., and we missed out on that," Redick said.
"So barring some miracle, [the] makeup of our team is completely different now." When asked to grade the team's offseason Redick asked "Is there an F-minus?"
Redick went on to describe the impact Jordan had on making the Clippers offense run smoothly. Much attention was paid to his inability to make free throws, but Jordan opened up many other avenues for the Clippers to score.
"He was such an integral part of what we did, not just defensively but offensively with his screening, his rolling, his offensive rebounds," Redick said.
"His presence down low essentially made teams either commit to the 3-point line when Blake [Griffin] or Chris [Paul] penetrated or commit to him, and that either opened up lobs for him or 3s for guys like me and Jamal [Crawford] and Matt [Barnes]."
Jordan does not have a refined offensive game, but he led the NBA in dunks, terrorized paint defenders on pick-and-rolls, and was one of the premier defensive centers in the NBA.
If Jordan reconsidered his deal with Dallas and returned to L.A., it dramatically changes the Western Conference landscape. That would vault the Clippers back into title contention, and also drastically change the forecast for Dallas, who allowed center Tyson Chandler to walk in free agency with an eye on Jordan as a replacement.
[ESPN]
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