The Los Angeles Clippers have very little reason to hang onto DeAndre Jordan now that they have traded Blake Griffin and are clearly rebuilding, but the star center’s contract situation could prevent the team from being able to trade him.
Jordan has a player option for the 2018-2019 season that would pay him $24.1 million, but he is expected to opt out of the deal. The problem with that is most — if not all — of the teams that are interested in trading for the 29-year-old want him to opt in.
Wizards’ interest in @DeAndre, like almost every other team—maybe not the Cavs—would be predicated on him opting in for 2018-19 ($24.1M) rather than opting out to become UFA. From what I’ve heard thus far, Jordan has given no indication to anyone that he’d be willing to do that. https://t.co/vEcaKj3mEV
— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) February 6, 2018
The Cleveland Cavaliers are one team that has been linked to Jordan, but Adrian Wojnarowski said on ESPN Tuesday that the Clippers are unwilling to take on the types of big contracts the Cavs want to unload in addition to trading a draft pick for a player like Jordan.
Doc Rivers has indicated that the Clippers are done making moves even after trading Griffin, and that could be the case. They don’t want to make even more of a mess of their salary cap when Jordan can just leave in free agency this summer, though Jordan is not the only player teams are calling about in advance of the Feb. 8 trade deadline.
