The DeAndre Jordan/Clippers Situation Is About To Get Real Weird

[ESPN] - Gortat, who also took to Instagram to say goodbye to Washington, gives the Clippers a starting-level center should DeAndre Jordan opt out of his $24.1 million contract before Friday’s deadline. Even if Jordan opts in to the deal, the Clippers and Jordan would work together to find a trade out of Los Angeles, preferably well before the February trade deadline.

So somewhat lost in the Austin Rivers/Marcin Gortat trade last night was this tidbit by the leaked draft picks man himself, Woj. The moment the Clippers traded for Gortat, everyone assumed it meant that DeAndre Jordan will opt-out by Friday and become a free agent. However, now we see this tidbit from Woj and it’s about to get real weird.

Jordan is attempting to have the best of both worlds. If he opts-in and gets traded he makes more money than opting out and just signing. Then he’s going to attempt to only get traded to a team of his choice. That’s not exactly the easiest thing to do, especially since he’d be on a one year deal before free agency if he opts in.

Jordan is expected to really only have one more major contract as his last one. He’s about to turn 30 and has hit the ceiling of who he is as a player. That said he can be effective, similar to how we saw Tyson Chandler be effective as he got older, because of his style of play. There’s always going to be a spot for him as long as he continues to protect the rim and run the floor to the rim on offense. He can play that high pick and roll.

If he does opt in, the entire first half of the season will be a what package can the Clippers get in order to trade Jordan. Also, what teams would be on his approved list of where he wants to go? You’d assume he’d prefer to go to a team that is ready to compete. He’s been linked to Cleveland, but not sure what the Cavs could offer in order to get Jordan and another player like Kemba. He’s been linked to Dallas because the Mavs and Jordan are destined to finally be with each other.

Either way, we’re a couple days away from some major decisions that will start the dominoes in free agency. Then we have a couple of days off before July 1 and the moratorium before July 4 and can officially sign. It’s going to be awesome. I love the plethora of news and seeing how teams attack free agency. As always, I’ll have you covered on the blog with all the free agency news and summer league as we get ready for the true dog days of summer with sports.