Brooklyn Nets rumors: Team could pursue DeAndre Jordan as Kevin Durant lure
By Phil Watson
According to a report Monday, the Brooklyn Nets are looking at possibly chasing New York Knicks free agent center DeAndre Jordan to entice Kevin Durant.
The Brooklyn Nets may be preparing to throw a full-court press at free agent forward Kevin Durant, including exploring the idea of signing one of his close friends — center DeAndre Jordan — as a way to further entice Durant to the borough.
According to Marc Stein of The New York Times on Monday, Brooklyn is looking at how feasible it would be to add Jordan, a three-time All-NBA center, as a free agent.
Jordan hits the market for the second straight year after signing a one-year, $22.9 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks last July.
The Nets are exploring the feasibility of signing Kevin Durant's close friend DeAndre Jordan in free agency, league sources say, in hopes that would make the prospect of teaming up in Brooklyn with Kyrie Irving even more enticing to Durant
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 24, 2019
Jordan was acquired by the New York Knicks on Jan. 31 as part of the blockbuster deal that sent Kristaps Porzingis to the Mavericks.
Jordan played in just 19 games after being acquired as New York was
tanking
attempting to optimize its chances in the lottery, averaging 10.9 points, 11.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.1 blocks in 25.9 minutes per game, shooting 63.4 percent overall.
Jordan and Durant were teammates on USA Basketball’s gold-medal winning team at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 and Jordan has made huge strides in the last season cleaning up the one real weakness he had in his game.
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Last season, Jordan shot 70.5 percent at the free throw line. While that may seem pedestrian or even below average, consider that he was a career 44.6 percent shooter at the stripe entering last season.
While he has no ability to stretch the floor at all, Jordan is still a strong rim-runner and rebounder, while also still providing some rim protection. He will turn 31 on July 21 and is an 11-year veteran who has twice led the NBA in rebounding.
He was a second-round pick by the Los Angeles Clippers in 2008 out of Texas A&M, but emerged as the Clippers regular center by his third season. He was All-NBA three consecutive seasons from 2014-15 through 2016-17, earning first-team honors in 2015-16.
Jordan is also a two-time All-Defensive selection at center and is the NBA’s all-time leader in field-goal percentage at 67.0 percent, far ahead of the 59.9 percent of Hall of Famer Artis Gilmore from 1976-88 that had been the old record.
His percentage is no doubt helped by the fact that in his 11 NBA seasons, 82.9 percent of his shot attempts have come in the restricted area, where he shoots 72.1 percent. From anywhere outside the area within three feet of the rim, Jordan is 338-for-803, a 42.1 percent mark.
That works out to just less than one attempt per game from outside the restricted area, so give Jordan points for following the “know thyself” rule very well.
From 3-point range in his career, Jordan is 1-for-11, with his lone make coming March 13, 2015, for the Clippers at Dallas. It was what you might expect, a late-clock broken play where it was shoot or turn the ball over on a shot-clock violation.
As for how to fit Jordan under the cap, the Nets might not have to, but Jordan would have to take significantly less than the $22.9 million he got in 2018-19.
As of right now, Brooklyn projects to be $16.05 million over the cap at the beginning of the new league year on July 1, per Jeff Siegel at Early Bird Rights, which would entitle them to the $9.25 million standard Mid-Level Exception.
However, because the Nets are expected to renounce several of their free agents in order to create cap space, that would lave Brooklyn with just the room MLE, which projects to be $4.76 million.
It can be split among multiple players, but the Nets might need to dangle all of it to get Jordan in over the cap (assuming the Bi-Annual Excpetion of $3.62 million won’t be enough to get him).
The gymnastics on that would involve Jordan being one of the last players to sign with Brooklyn, once the team’s available cap space –a maximum of $68.67 million as of now, with all six pending free agents being renounced — is used.
Jordan would be another big and would certainly help shore up the rebounding and rim protection issues the Nets want to address.
Next. 10 best Nets from 2nd NBA decade (1986-96). dark
But, wow, he would be a very expensive worm to put on a hook to try to land Kevin Durant.