5 Most Suitable Trade Destination For DeAndre Jordan
The Los Angeles Clippers have had a wretched 2017, to say the least. After scraping a 4th-place record in the 2016-17 regular season, they fell to a Gordon Hayward-led Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs.
Their year hit its lowest point as Chris Paul was traded to the Rockets in the offseason, immediately bringing down their ceiling from fringe contenders to playoff hopefuls (they have not made the playoffs without Chris Paul in the team over the last decade). Although they did well to nab Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams, the roster did not have a truly capable ball-handler to make the Staples Center another nightly Lob City highlight reel.
Patrick Beverley, Danilo Gallinari, and Milos Teodosic succumbed to the injury bug early this regular season, and now the Clippers are missing franchise player Blake Griffin for a total of 8 weeks due to an MCL strain. The roster has been stretched paper-thin after Austin Rivers' injury, and the less glamorous ball club in LA now looks ripe for a tank job.
DeAndre Jordan has been the biggest loser on the Clippers' roster and is rumored to have been placed on the trading block now as their front office looks to embark on a tank job to snap up a diamond in the rough from the loaded 2018 NBA draft.
The following is a list of the 5 teams that would objectively receive the greatest value out of any deal for DJ:
#5 Phoenix Suns
The Clippers receive: Tyson Chandler and Tyler Ulis
The Suns receive: Jordan and a second-round draft pick in 2018,19 or 20
Why the Clippers say yes to it:
Getting like-for-like in trades is a rarity, but it is exactly what the Clippers can expect in this deal: replacing their old-school 29-year-old center with an old-school 35-year-old one. Chandler and Jordan are both players who get the bulk of their points with limited post play or with finishes around the rim.
Chandler's 4-year, $52-million contract does not have a team option, but the inclusion of Tyler Ulis in the deal represents potential upside and a deeper backcourt roster in the short term for them.
Why the Suns say yes to it:
Devin Booker simply refuses to let the Suns be an out-and-out tank job, leading all scorers with 46 points as the 9-16 Phoenix beat 13-10 Philadelphia on Monday night. While Phoenix is certain to end as one of the Western Conference's lottery teams this season, they need some help in doing so. Absorbing a like-for-like offensive center in Jordan in exchange for getting rid of a youngster with limited upside and a former all-NBA center seems to be a fair exchange when you throw in the second-round draft pick.