The Los Angeles Clippers are quickly trying to fill the hole of DeAndre Jordan, but have made very little moves to get a contract done. As the team continues to get linked to trade deals involving Jamal Crawford, reports are now surfacing of riffs between teammates that likely led to the departure of Jordan.
According to ESPN's Kevin Arnovitz, Jordan and Chris Paul were not exactly the best of friends which caused the center to leave in free agency. Arnovitz is reporting that Jordan simply got tired of the Clippers treating him like a smaller player while letting Paul have the spotlight. Now Los Angeles must combat these and try to find quality free agents quickly.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, the Clippers will have a large amount of salary cap space to work with next season and plan on chasing Kevin Durant. The line is already forming for the Oklahoma City Thunder star which means that will be taken into account when they attempt to sign centers this offseason. The Clippers will not be handing out any long-term deals that hit hard on the cap space.
According to ESPN, the Clippers have already reached out to Carlos Boozer and Amar'e Stoudemire about potential deals. JaVale McGee could be a solid option for the team while they attempt to talk trades for Brendan Haywood. They would all pair with Glen Davis in the coming season. Ramona Shelburne of ESPN is also reporting that Josh Smith could see himself in Los Angeles to help with an inside defensive presence.
Los Angeles might be looking ahead to next year, but they would be wise to finish up roster additions for this season first. According to JJ Redick, the team failed this offseason and losing Jordan was just icing on the cake. The shooter was clearly not happy the center headed to the Dallas Mavericks as the team struggles to replace him. Losing him along with Matt Barnes and now potentially Crawford sets the Clippers back who are hoping Lance Stephenson can step up.
"Listen, we had one priority this summer, and that was to re-sign D.J., and we missed out on that," Redick said, via Bleacher Report Radio. "So barring some miracle, [the] makeup of our team is completely different now. He was such an integral part of what we did, not just defensively but offensively with his screening, his rolling, his offensive rebounds. His presence down low essentially made teams either commit to the 3-point line when Blake [Griffin] or Chris [Paul] penetrated or commit to him, and that either opened up lobs for him or 3s for guys like me and Jamal [Crawford] and Matt [Barnes]."
