Deandre Jordan Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Southwest Notes: Parsons, Jordan, Leonard, Wright

September 25th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Chandler Parsons was headed to Las Vegas for his girlfriend’s birthday and not to Houston to recruit DeAndre Jordan when he touched off the infamous Twitter iconography battle that served as a sideshow to Jordan’s free agency flip–flop, as Parsons said on The Ben & Skin show on KRLD-FM 105.3 in Dallas (transcription via the Dallas Morning News).

“At that point, it was already over and he was going back to the Clippers, so might as well make light of it,” Parsons said in part.

Rhetoric concerning Jordan’s turnabout has escalated again this past week, a sure sign that one of the offseason’s most significant storylines isn’t about to vanish into memory even as the season is about to get underway. See more on Jordan, the Mavs and the rest of the Southwest Division:

Jordan was unlikely to become the sort of offensive presence the Mavs sold him on becoming, opines Shaun Powell of NBA.com. Still, his change of heart casts the team into a transition phase, further reducing the chances that Dallas wins a title before Dirk Nowitzki retires, and the Mavs did well to retain cap flexibility for future seasons and maintain a strong position for trades, Powell believes.
Kawhi Leonard staggered to the finish line in the playoffs last season, and while that would have been acceptable in previous years, that’s no longer so for the 24-year-old, whom the Spurs are counting on now, writes Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News. Leonard re-signed on a five-year max contract in July.
Free agent signee Brandan Wright, and not trade acquisition Matt Barnes, was the best offseason addition for the Grizzlies, argues Ben Dowsett of Basketball Insiders, citing Wright’s versatility, among other traits. Dowsett sees Wright as an upgrade over Kosta Koufos, who left in free agency for the Kings.

Western Notes: Rivers, Grizzlies, Rush

September 24th, 2015 at 9:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports that almost losing DeAndre Jordan to the Mavericks made him realize how fragile a franchise’s window of contention can be, and it pushed him to improve the team as a whole this summer. “Losing him would’ve always gnawed at me,” Rivers said. “But it wouldn’t have stopped me. I would’ve said, [expletive] that, we’re going to figure out a way to get this right.’ But it also triggered something else for me. It might have been my front-office wake-up call. I was not a pleasant guy to me, or my staff, after I thought we lost him – and even after we got him back. We had a lot of ‘come-to-Jesus’ meetings.”

“And we rolled up our sleeves, and we got better,” Rivers continued. “Listen, maybe it’s because when we got here, the team was pretty good and we didn’t think we had to get that much better. I don’t know why. At end of the day, even the way D.J. did it, it turned out to be a blessing for our franchise. For me, it made me understand fully. We’ve got to do this [expletive] right, and build this team. It’s our responsibility.”

Here’s more from out West:

It remains to be seen if the Grizzlies can manufacture enough offense from the outside to take the next step toward a title, and while the team has improved in this area over the summer, Memphis may be lucky just to escape the first round of the playoffs, Tim Bontemps of New York Post (Facebook link) opines in his season preview.
After a 2014/15 campaign that saw him shoot an abysmal 11.1% from beyond the arc, Brandon Rush hopes to emerge as a viable sixth man candidate for the Warriors this season, Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com writes. “It was a bad year for me, an awful year,” Rush told Poole. “It was one of the worst years I’ve ever had, individually. I’ve shot in the mid-40s [from three-point range] for most of my career. To be able to go out there last year and not be able to make a shot, not be able to play . . . it made me hungry to get into the gym and go hard this summer.”

Southwest Notes: Cuban, Vaughn, Pelicans

September 22nd, 2015 at 10:20pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Clippers coach and executive Doc Rivers had been critical of some comments reportedly made by Mavs team owner Mark Cuban in the wake of DeAndre Jordan changing his mind about signing with Dallas in order to return to Los Angeles this offseason. In an interview on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd,” Cuban fired back at Rivers (h/t Dallas Morning News), saying, “First of all [Rivers] obviously didn’t actually hear or see what I said. Because I didn’t say a whole lot. I think I said — I responded to DJ’s Twitter apology, and that’s pretty much it. I haven’t said a whole lot about it at all, so I don’t know where he’s getting what he’s got. But I think the most interesting thing is, it shows you what someone will do when their entire future is vanishing in front of them. And that’s exactly what Doc did and I give him credit for it. His professional life was over if he didn’t get DJ. And so his back was against the wall and he did what he needed to do. More power to him. Sometimes the deals you don’t do are the best ones, so we’ll see. But Doc obviously hadn’t heard what I had said because I really didn’t say anything.”

Here’s more from the Southwest Division:

The Mavericks will begin training camp without three key contributors being fully cleared for basketball activities, Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com relays. Swingman Wesley Matthews, small forward Chandler Parsons and center JaVale McGee are all expected to gradually work themselves back into full participation in practices as they continue to recover from major injuries, MacMahon notes.
The Spurs announced today that former Magic head coach Jacque Vaughn has been hired by the team as a pro scout. The news that San Antonio was to hire Vaughn was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Pelicans GM Dell Demps says that the blueprint of assembling an up-tempo team with ample depth that he envisioned three years ago is finally coming to pass, writes John Reid of The Times Picayune. ”We set out a plan three years ago to be exactly where we are right now,” Demps said. ”This is a big year for us. We’re really looking for this group jelling and taking that next step. I think we have over 20 games on national television, which is a great sign that people have expectations on us. We look forward to it and embrace the opportunity. We can’t wait, we’re really excited. I think it’s really going to be exciting for the fans to watch. I think it’s going to be great for the players.”

DeAndre Jordan Drops Relativity Sports Agents

August 31st, 2015 at 3:41pm CST by Chuck Myron

DeAndre Jordan told Relativity Sports agents Dan Fegan and Jarinn Akana last week that he’ll no longer be using them as representatives, a source said to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter links). Fegan has close ties to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who helped convince Jordan to agree to a deal with Dallas before the center did a 180 and re-signed with the Clippers instead. It’s unclear whom Jordan will hire as his next agent, though he’ll have to wait 15 days to officially make his choice, Turner notes (Twitter link).

Fegan and Akana will still receive the 4% commission on the four-year, maximum salary deal worth $87,616,050 that Jordan wound up signing with the Clippers, as Turner points out (Twitter link), but they lose a high-profile client who can hit free agency again in 2018, a few weeks shy of his 30th birthday. They’re not the first agents with whom Jordan has parted ways. The center began with Joel Bell and moved on to the Wasserman Media Group before joining Relativity, Turner recounts via Twitter.

Today’s news means Jordan and LaMarcus Aldridge, perhaps the two most talked-about free agents this summer, both changed agents after signing their new deals, as former Nets executive Bobby Marks observes (Twitter link). Aldridge went from Wasserman Media Group to Excel Sports Management, as international journalist David Pick reported earlier this month.

Jordan’s move isn’t altogether surprising, given the trappings of the way his commitment to the Mavericks turned into a new deal with the Clippers. Cuban said he was with Fegan while Jordan was apparently in the process of changing his mind, and when Jordan signed his Clippers contract shortly thereafter, it was reportedly Akana, not Fegan, who was present. Austin Rivers, the son of Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers, also left Relativity this summer, shortly after the agents represented him in negotiations for his new two-year deal worth nearly $6.455MM.

Pacific Notes: Jordan, D-League, Suns

August 27th, 2015 at 9:16pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer stressed that the team’s sale pitch to DeAndre Jordan which included an endorsement deal with Lexus for $200K a year, and subsequently garnered the organization a $250K fine from the league, played no part in the center’s decision to spurn Dallas and return to Los Angeles, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders writes. “Today, the NBA announced it has fined the team for violating NBA rules in our presentation to DeAndre Jordan on July 2nd,” Ballmer relayed in an internal team memo (hat tip to Dan Woike of the Orange County Register). “The League’s investigation concluded that the presentation of a potential third-party opportunity had no impact on DeAndre’s decision to re-sign, and having been a part of the process, I can attest to this fact. As we, and the basketball world, observed DJ ultimately chose to stay with the Clippers because he felt it was his best opportunity to win a championship, and because of his desire to remain part of the Clippers family.”

Here’s more out of the Pacific Division:

The L.A. D-Fenders, the Lakers‘ D-League affiliate, filled out head coach Casey Owens‘ staff with Paul Woolpert, Brian Walsh, Jermaine Byrd, and Will Scott, who were all named as assistants, tweets Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News.
The one-year, minimum salary training camp deals that Henry Sims, Deonte Burton, and Cory Jefferson inked with the Suns include no guaranteed salary, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders notes (via Twitter).
Lakers 2015 first-rounder D’Angelo Russell believes that he and 2014 second round pick Jordan Clarkson can be an effective tandem playing together in the backcourt, as he told ESPN 710’s Mychal Thompson and Mike Trudell during a radio appearance. “I feel like we’re dangerous for our team,” Russell said of he and Clarkson. “We both rebound. We both can push the break, and we both can run the wing. So if he gets it and I’m running the wing, he can set up the offense or make the right decisions and vice versa with me. I feel like it’s dangerous, and we can play together easily. I think it will just take some time.“

Pacific Notes: Jordan, World Peace, Barnes

August 26th, 2015 at 10:24am CST by Chuck Myron

The violation of NBA rules against third-party endorsement offers in a pitch the Clippers made to DeAndre Jordan this summer was unintentional, owner Steve Ballmer wrote in an internal memo he sent to members of the Clippers organization that Dan Woike of the Orange County Register obtained. The league fined the Clippers $250K, reportedly for offering Jordan a endorsement deal with Lexus that would pay the center $200K annually.

“As I shared with everyone on day one of purchasing the Team, being part of the Clippers family means operating with the highest integrity,” Ballmer wrote in part. “We believed we were doing this the right way, and any circumvention was inadvertent. In our effort to support our players in every way possible, we as an organization must be diligent in complying with the CBA.”

See more from around the Pacific Division:

Metta World Peace told TMZ Sports that he’s unaware if the Lakers are thinking about signing him, as reports indicate. The 15-year NBA veteran who turns 36 in November nonetheless expressed interest in joining the team.
The four-year, $52MM extension deal Michael Kidd-Gilchrist reportedly has with the Hornets will affect extension negotiations between the Warriors and Harrison Barnes, opines Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. Kidd-Gilchrist has a decent chance to prove more valuable than Barnes in the long run, but the playoff success and durability of Barnes leads Kawakami to second the belief of TNT’s David Aldridge that Barnes and agent Jeff Wechsler will target salaries of at least $15MM (Twitter link). Kawakami suggests $14MM a year as a settling point but believes the threat of a $17-18MM offer sheet from another team looms if the Warriors let him enter restricted free agency next summer.
Kawakami suggests in the same piece that market price for Festus Ezeli would be between $9-11MM. GM Bob Myers recently told Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com that the Warriors would consider the idea of an extension for the backup center, and the team would indeed sign Ezeli to an extension if he’s willing to do so at an agreeable price, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders reported this week.

Clippers Fined For Pitch To DeAndre Jordan

August 25th, 2015 at 2:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:59pm: The Clippers offered Jordan an endorsement deal with Lexus for $200K a year, and that’s apparently what prompted the fine, a source tells Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link).

12:47pm: The NBA has fined the Clippers $250K for violating the league’s rules against circumventing the salary cap in their pitch to DeAndre Jordan last month, the league announced via press release (Twitter link via Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports). The Clippers presented Jordan with a potential third-party endorsement opportunity during their meeting with him on July 2nd. That was before Jordan gave his commitment to the Mavericks, one that came undone when he later expressed second thoughts to the Clippers, who convinced him to re-sign.

The league’s investigation concluded that the violation didn’t influence Jordan’s ultimate decision to return to the team. However, the NBA is imposing the fine anyway, since rules prohibit teams from arranging compensation for players outside of the salary set forth via the contractual terms allowed under the collective bargaining agreement.

The fine will ultimately have little impact, since it doesn’t have any bearing on the team’s salary cap, and owner Steve Ballmer, who paid $2 billion to purchase the franchise last year, probably won’t feel much of a pinch over losing $250K. That the violation took part during the Clippers’ initial efforts to sign him, and not during the scramble that took place as he reneged on his decision to sign with the Mavs, further diminishes the effect. Still, it’s an odd coda to the already extraordinary story of Jordan’s free agency this summer.

What part of the Jordan storyline sticks out the most in your mind? Leave a comment to tell us.

Clippers Notes: Stephenson, Davis, Jordan, Paul

August 19th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks have reportedly emerged as the latest suitor for Jamal Crawford, fueling the idea that the Clippers will trade their sixth man before the start of the season. Still, the Clippers could seek to put an end to such rumors with a new deal for the 35-year-old guard, one of the relatively few around the league who’s eligible for a veteran extension, as I pointed out Tuesday. While we wait to see just what the team will do with Crawford, see the latest from Clipperland:

Trade acquisition Lance Stephenson is confident that his new Clippers teammates will understand his on-court intensity, an in-the-moment leadership style he compares to that of Chris Paul, as Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times examines. The Clippers have been “missing that guy that’s tough and doesn’t bow down to no one,” Stephenson told Bolch. “I’m on a mission to win a chip. I’m on a mission to do great this year. I’m on a mission to prove everybody wrong,” Stephenson said. “I mean, a lot of people are doubting me and saying I’m a bad locker-room guy and all of those rumors, but there’s no facts that I’m a bad locker-room guy, so I’m going to just show everybody and just go hard this year.”
Glen Davis, who said recently that he expects to sign by month’s end and wants to play for a contender, is hopeful that he’ll return to the Clippers, as he told the Gio & Jones show on CBS Sports Radio. “I would love to go back,” Davis said. “Doc [Rivers] and his system works for me. He needs a guy to set picks and do the dirty work and stuff like that. I feel at home there. It’s just about getting [a deal] done.”
Davis also said in the radio spot that he believes Rivers has changed his coaching style over the years, taking a more active approach with a Clippers core that’s younger than the one he had with the Celtics. Big Baby nonetheless suggested that Rivers should give DeAndre Jordan a larger role in the offense, and Davis also chimed in on the notion of a rift between Jordan and Paul, saying that while the two haven’t always seen eye to eye, their issues haven’t been profound. “It was like a false reality,” Davis said. “It was like they had problems but they didn’t have problems. We can hang out and have a good time off the court. It’s just sometimes with players, some players rub each other the wrong way. That’s what it was.”

And-Ones: Jordan, Rondo, Kings

August 16th, 2015 at 10:30pm CST by Will Joseph

The Knicks did not ultimately factor in DeAndre Jordan‘s decision this summer, but Jordan said it had nothing to do with the team’s presentation, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reports. Jordan met with the Knicks but re-signed with the Clippers.

“The Knicks had a great presentation,” Jordan said. “Phil Jackson speaks for himself with his resume. [Coach Derek Fisher] did a great job. The whole team, I felt like they had a plan — for the organization, and they had a plan for me, which was cool. But nothing was wrong with their presentation. It was great.”

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

Rudy Gay believes his friend and new teammate Rajon Rondo is motivated to prove doubters wrong, Berger writes in the same piece. Rondo signed a one-year, $10MM pact with the Kings in July. Rondo will be coming off a down year in terms of production.
The Kings have hired longtime NBA sabermetrician Roland Beech to head up their analytics department, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports. Beech replaces Dean Oliver, who was let go in July.

Pacific Notes: Kobe, Clarkson, Jordan, Cauley-Stein

August 14th, 2015 at 11:41am CST by Chuck Myron

Kobe Bryant isn’t making any definitive statements about whether he’ll retire after this coming season, even though that seems the most likely outcome. It’s also uncertain whether he’ll play in the 2016 Olympics, but USA Basketball executive director Jerry Colangelo said Bryant told him he’d love to “ride off into the sunset” with Team USA next summer, providing he’s still playing well enough to earn a roster spot, observes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. While we wait to see if Bryant’s storied career has a storybook ending, see more from the Pacific Division:

Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak envisions D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson in the team’s backcourt for the next 10-12 years, as he recently told SiriusXM NBA Radio (Twitter link), and Clarkson sees that as a challenge to build on his breakout rookie season, as he said to Serena Winters of Lakers Nation. “If Mitch believes in us, we’re definitely trying to make that happen,” Clarkson said. “We’ve got to put our best foot forward if he believes in us like that and continue to work hard and put in great effort. Coach [Byron] Scott ain’t no easy guy to play for, so you’ve got to leave it all on the line when you play for him! So, we’ve just got to work hard and get better everyday and hopefully bring wins to the organization.”
DeAndre Jordan knows it’ll take time to heal the wounds that he inflicted on the hearts of the Mavs when he reneged on his agreement to sign with Dallas, but the Clippers center said earlier this week that he’d talked to Chandler Parsons and that they’ll remain cordial, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com notes. Parsons previously called Jordan’s flip-flop “very unethical and disrespectful.” “I understand the whole situation and I’d be a little iffy too,” Jordan said. “But we were friends before and after basketball. It’s something that I don’t think he’s too happy about, but at the same time, it’s basketball and it happened.”
No. 6 overall pick Willie Cauley-Stein has a quirky, one-of-a-kind personality, but Kings assistant coach John Welch lights up when talking about his performance in summer league, and Cauley-Stein tells James Herbert of CBSSports.com that Sacramento sees his unique manner as a plus. “The way I see it is, like, it was kind of meant to happen like that because [owner] Vivek [Ranadive] and [executive] Vlade [Divac] love the fact that I’m a bit of an artistic mind and I think outside of the box,” Cauley-Stein said. “They were really intrigued by that. That’s one of the main reasons why they chose me. So it worked out like that.”