Rerisen wrote:Chris Paul hard to get along with. Gee, shocker.
DeAndre is our missing piece. Get er done, GarPax!
[tweet]https://twitter.com/sportsreiter/status/600340364377985024[/tweet]Sources say Paul's well-known edginess and drive ground on Jordan's nerves for much of the season. Contributing to the problem was Paul's view that Jordan lacked the appropriate commitment to working on his free-throw game, including not working enough with the Clippers shooting coach on that issue, sources said. "Things aren't good there," a league source familiar with the inner-workings of the Clippers organization said. Asked if the issues between the two were serious, the source said, "Oh yeah. (Jordan) might leave. He really might."
http://www.foxsports.com/nba/story/deandre-jordan-los-angeles-clippers-free-agency-chris-paul-rift-051815
Gotta be honest... D. Jordan sounds like another case of the expensive center who's gonna get paid and fade into mediocrity. He's got 2 years of prime athleticism left, and when you hear reports about getting criticized for work ethic by an all-star, it reminds me of Kobe/Howard, except Howard always had a higher ceiling. Shaq had those knocks (poor work ethic) but he had a refined back-to-basket/scoring/passing game to rely on.
Centers are like the trickiest risk/reward ratio around. With 2nd/3rd-tier defensive-specialist centers who rely on athleticism (Chandler, McGee, Ben Wallace, Noah. Asik, etc.), I'd much rather take them in the middle of their contract as opposed to giving them a fresh 4-5 year deal. Don't want to be married to that, unless they're really young (22-26). You always end up eating crow at some point in the veteran deal. Same story with PGs.
PG and C -- the 2 positions where athleticism reigns supreme. Taller PGs with tremendous skills (3Ps, court-vision) can last well, and Cs with any offensive ability (jumper, post-up, FTs) can find NBA jobs into their late 30s... but if you rely on athleticism, a $16m player can be very toxic after that 1 injury or poor off-season.
SG/SF/PF, on the other hand... that 6'6-6'9 range, players keep their mobility, typically need to have an arsenal of shooting/dribbling skills... and they don't cost you $16m unless their all-stars. I say look for the Arizas and Wilson Chandlers to improve this roster. Our bigs are hurting but altogether, I don't see Jordan as a big upgrade to the combo of Noah/Pau.
