DeAndre Jordan‘s up-and-down relationship with the Mavericks organization appears likely to hit another inflection point. Jordan has been a “major disappointment” so far for the Mavs, according to Tim MacMahon, who reports in ESPN’s weekly power rankings that the veteran center has rubbed some teammates the wrong way with what they view as “selfish” play.
Jordan bumped rookie Luka Doncic out of the way to grab an otherwise-uncontested rebound during a recent game, something the team feels is an example of a troubling pattern. The optics compound the issues with Jordan’s fit on the team. Dallas needs him to be an anchor on the defensive end, but he has struggled with help defense, as Dan Feldman of NBC Sports writes. Opposing teams are scoring nearly three points more per 100 possessions when Jordan is on the floor compared to when he sits.
It’s difficult to envision Jordan returning to the Mavericks next season, Feldman contends. The big man, who will be a free agent at the end of the year, is making approximately $24MM this season.
This will be his last year that he gets paid over 20m a season.
I’ve never heard of complaining about a guy being selfish with rebounding. Every coach tells their guys to be selfish when it comes to playing hard. Obviously, there are times where you see certain guys grabbing rebounds that might have been better off grabbed by someone else, but you never hear about it. Whiteside does it all the time, and recently he said “coach wants me to get every rebound.”
Maybe if certain guys weren’t playing out of position in the starting lineup, his numbers would be a little better defensively. His rebounding rate is down, but he is better in other areas. Obviously, I wouldnt say he is still worth 20+ million per, but he’s still really good
His numbers really aren’t down. He was grabbing more ORB, probably from a worse shooting Clipper’s roster. Everything else is pretty much the same. His Blocks were already down significantly the last 2 years, are they expecting him to magically be 27 again?
Agree, there must be other problems to justify the complaining, or the complainers are the problem.
They surround Jordan with 3 guards and a SF, so his job will be difficult. Granted the guards are big, but Jordan does not have committed help.
It’s not his rebounding that is the issue. It’s that he’s not playing defense. He doesn’t even make an effort when a team runs pick and rolls on them. There is countless videos of him not even challenging players coming into the pant and instead just standing there.
Like Whiteside…but if they had guards that could defend pick and roll better, or had the right starter at the 4, maybe they defend that better. Depending on defensive rotations, he could come up on the pick and roll, giving up a free dump off pass underneath
Why would he even sign with Dallas to just stir up problems? On top of that for 1 year, no way the Mavericks re-sign this guy, watch him sign with the Spurs next summer.
Dionis, whatchu think about griffin hip checking your boy monk the other night?
Poor unsportsmanship from Blake Griffin, wouldn’t expect that from a seasoned veteran like Blake but it happens. Monk took a scary fall, I’m kind of dissapointed Borrego is starting Lamb over Monk but hey what can I do about it.
Sportsmanship*
Always said DJ is a very good player, I like him, but it was the biggest mistake Dallas could have done. This year they were never gonna compete, despite Doncic playing some otherworldly basketball. Always said they should have signed DMC & pay him well, get him back later on, give him a good run & from next season they would have a great team with Doncic/DMC, that would be a fun & competitive team. Awww well… just a shame Dallas missed the opportunity, hopefully won’t end up loosing Doncic for luck of competitiveness later on.
Still a decent chance that the Mavs could sign DMC. Golden State has publicly stated that they won’t resign him for next year.
I wish they would have gone after Randle or even Cappela though. The biggest mistake with Jordan was his salary compared to what other centers were getting. Not to mention the youth of some of the other centers would have fit better with the long term plans of this team. Never understood the rush to sign him at the price they did.
Lol really? One incident sure seems to blow things up. You expected a 30 y.o. surrounded by poor defenders to do good?
Ok, so I will grab this rebound, and then you grab the next one, and then the one after that is Harrison’s, and then Wes and… ok, just let me know when Salah has grabbed one so that I know it’s my turn again!
No help defense? Has anyone watched an NBA game this year? It’s a cause to celebrate when someone DOES play help defense in 2018.
starting to looks like DOC maybe got a lot out of that CP3/BLAKE and DJ threesome they are all looking like turds right now.
Because they are all separated now dummy.