DeAndre Jordan has verbally committed to sign with the Dallas Mavericks on a one year deal worth $24.1 million, according to NYT’s Marc Stein.
Jordan was drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers in 2008 and has played all 10 years of his professional career in LA. Last year for the Clippers he averaged 12.0 points and 15.2 rebounds in 77 games.
This deal has been in the works for a couple of weeks now. DeAndre has always had an interest in playing for Dallas, most notably during the summer of 2015 when he verbally agreed to sign with the Mavs but Doc Rivers, Chris Paul, and Blake Griffin basically kidnapped him and convinced him to stay with the Clips.
This deal is also a verbal agreement. It can’t go through until July 6th so you never know. Doc doesn’t have the fire power like Chris and Blake to woo DeAndre to come back to the Clippers but maybe Boban and newly acquired center Marcin Gortat could move the needle.
Jokes aside, it was time for DeAndre to leave LA. There was chaos throughout the season. The Rockets feud that resulted in CP3 running through tunnels to fight the Clips, almost getting traded to Cleveland, and his longtime running mate Blake Griffin getting traded to the Detroit Pistons.
DJ to Dallas is enticing. Their young core has plenty of potential with the likes of Dennis Smith Jr., Harrison Barnes, and recently drafted Real Madrid star Luka Doncic. The backcourt of Doncic and Smith seems like they would fit perfectly with the high flying lob-catcher. I imagine lob after lob with a Doncic/DJ pick and roll. He is a rebounding machine and blocks shots at a very efficient rate. Elite rim-protectors are hard to come by, and with the addition of DJ, the Mavs defense will get a significant uptick in proficiency. Throwing him into the mix with solid role players in Wes Matthews, Dwight Powell, and JJ Barea makes the Mavs at least a lock to fight for the bottom seeds in the West.
With the deal being one year, it protects the Mavs from signing DJ long term and it not working out because the league is moving towards these types of centers like DeAndre Jordan not being playable in playoff series. You saw it in Utah with Rudy Gobert and in Houston with Clint Capela in the playoffs. If it works out, he signs long term and is a key piece to their future. If not, he walks and the Mavs get out of it unharmed.
From what I’ve seen, DJ has always had the Mavs in the back of his mind since the debacle in 2015. Now that he’s in Dallas, let’s see if he can make up for the last three years that in the Mavs fans minds should’ve been spent with them.
