Doc Rivers, the Clippers‘ coach and president of basketball operations, said re-signing DeAndre Jordan is the Clippers’ top offseason priority, tweets Dan Woike of the Orange County Register. The most obvious question mark for the Clippers heading into the summer is if they can re-sign Jordan, who will be an unrestricted free agent coming off a big season, but besides that, the Clippers’ biggest need is depth, Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com writes (Insider subscription required). Many, including Grantland’s Zach Lowe (on Twitter), attribute the Clippers’ collapse in the playoffs to their lack of depth. In an ideal world, from the Clippers’ perspective and according to Pelton, the Clippers would re-sign Jordan and bring back Mo Williams with the taxpayer mid-level exception. Williams will hit free agency again this summer after playing well with the Hornets.
Here’s more from the Pacific division:
- As far as probable starting big men go, the Suns only have two under contract for next season — Alex Len and Markieff Morris — so it makes sense for Phoenix to draft a player with good size with its pick in the first round, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic writes. The Suns have a 96% chance of landing the No. 13 pick after Tuesday’s draft lottery, as Hoops Rumors’ odds page points out and as Coro notes. Coro lists Kentucky power forward Trey Lyles, Texas power forward/center Myles Turner, Arkansas power forward Bobby Portis and Wisconsin power forward Frank Kaminsky as possible targets that are projected to be available.Coro recently wrote in a seperate story that the Suns will consider taking Wisconsin’s Sam Dekker and Kaminsky.
- Quinn Cook, who played four seasons at guard for Duke, will work out for the Suns, tweets Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. Cook is ranked No. 60 by Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress and is at No. 61, according to Chad Ford’s ESPN.com rankings.
- Vlade Divac, the Kings’ vice president of basketball and franchise operations, realizes there’s a lot of pressure on making Sacramento relevant again, but he has picked the brains of some top executives in the league and believes establishing team chemistry is the first goal, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee writes. “This year, we have to make sure there’s stability, we have a goal, and create a good environment for them to have fun and go out there and play, because you see the talent we have,” Divac said. “It’s one or two steps from being competitive, and we want to make sure we make those one or two steps this summer.” The Kings are projected to pick sixth in the draft, pending the results of Tuesday’s lottery, and could move into the top three or fall as low as ninth, as Jones notes.