The Deandre Jordan Implications

The Los Angeles Clippers lost in seven games to the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference quarterfinals, a finish that is not indicative of their ability or potential success. While leading 3-1, the Clippers where easily the better team in the series. In the end they collapsed, a common Clipper trend that appeared to be on the way out. Despite making it to the second round, it was their first that was the most impressive of the entire Playoffs, pushing and being pushed to the brink by the defending champion Spurs. The Clippers had their share of deficiencies, weakness at the shooting guard and small forward position left them out of ammunition, when the big guns came into play. In a series full of vibrant action, the largest hurdle to fan viewership came in the form of the “hack-a-dj” technique frequently implemented. This, also is not indicative of the players ability and potential success. Every team has a defensive anchor, when your anchor is 6’11 and jumps like a kangaroo on meth, well, you have quite the rim protector. Deandre Jordan unquestionably possesses a limited offensive game, that is the understatement of the year. The bulk of Jordan’s offense stems from his remarkable rebounding ability, both offensive and defensive, and freakish athletic ability, typically resulting in frightening, wrist-cracking dunks.

There was always talk that Jordan wanted to be a larger fixture in the Clippers offense, that he saw himself as undervalued. In all likelihood, this is the impetus for Doc Rivers frequently standing up for his offensively challenged big man. It’s not difficult to fathom Doc’s attempts to convince the media and fans that Jordan’s defense and rebounding cancelled out his shortcomings, were really attempting to convince his center that he was doing all required. Los Angeles’s better team seemed to be on the cusp of taking their game to the next level. Doc Rivers is on the short list of NBA coaches with championship rings, that players seem to enjoy playing for. They recently added Lance Stephenson (a former near Allstar) in a trade that saw them ship out rarely used Spencer Hawes, and they signed veteran cutthroat Paul Pierce. All they needed was for Deandre to resign with his current team, which would see him receiving the most money and the most obvious chance to win.

To the Clippers and most prognosticators surprise, Deandre Jordan signed a four year, $80 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks. Jordan is from Houston Texas and must have longed for those oppressively hot summers so much that he took less money to join a worse team. At some point, the reason for Jordan’s departure will rear it’s ugly head, however, it seems quite possible that he was promised a more prominent position in Dallas’s evolving offense. Dirk Nowitzki, an all time great, is in the twilight of his career and Dallas is at a crossroads, as it builds towards the future. Unfortunately for Deandre, when Dallas does realize it’s identity, it will also realize his best role within it, as a defensive and rebounding specialist. That is a few years down the line, since Dallas, like most of their free agent destination counterparts, failed to attain all the players on their wish list.

But what of the Clippers? The implications of Deandre leaving for the Mavericks are nothing short of disastrous. Having just traded the aforementioned Spencer Hawes, LA now sports a lamentable front court that may actually roll out Glen “Big Baby” Davis as it’s starting center. Talk about a downgrade. Had they even held off on the Hawes/Stephenson trade and run with Spencer at the five, the Clippers would be a shell of their former selves. The Clippers future rested evenly on the shoulders of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Deandre Jordan, they all brought something different to the table, but each was as valuable as the next. Rarely is it advisable to suggest misleading a player in your system, but one could argue that it would have been worthwhile to promise Jordan a more focal role in the Clipper’s offense, retain the player and leave probable fallout to be a future concern.  That would be a more enviable position than the one that now leaves them reeling. Despite the team swap, Dallas should be worse than the Clippers this year, this change is more about LA getting worse than Dallas getting better. The West is absolutely packed with dangerous squads and this sequence of events proves as a cautionary tale, do not underestimate your rivals or the desires of your max contract players to seek what they perceive to be greener pastures.