Bucks: Report says Milwaukee will meet with free agent DeAndre Jordan
By Phil Watson
It’s still likely an uphill climb for the Milwaukee Bucks to land one of the premier free agents this summer, but according to a report they will at least get an opportunity to meet with Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan.
The Los Angeles Times, citing NBA officials not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, reported earlier this week that the Bucks are one of four teams that will meet with Jordan at his home in Houston when the negotiating window opens at 11:01 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday.
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The others are the Clippers, of course, along with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks. The Clippers and Mavs are considered the favorites to land newly minted All-NBA and All-Defensive performer.
Jordan has led the NBA in rebounding the past two seasons and is on a run of three straight seasons leading the league in field-goal accuracy.
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However, as was famously shown by the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets during the NBA Playoffs, his free-throw shooting is laughably, historically bad.
Jordan hit just 39.7 percent of his 471 free-throw attempts during the regular season and 42.7 percent of his 11.2 attempts per game in the postseason, as both the Spurs and Rockets employed the much-debated Hack-A-Jordan strategy to attempt to create empty Clipper possessions.
The Clippers can offer Jordan a maximum of $108 million over five years. Milwaukee’s best offer can be four years and $80 million.
The Bucks also have the matter of restricted free agent shooting guard Khris Middleton to attend to in July. But Milwaukee traded Ersan Ilyasova to the Detroit Pistons for a pair of players—Shawne Williams and Caron Butler—that are expected to be salary dumps, freeing up significant salary cap space.
The salary cap for next season is $67.1 million, with the Bucks currently having around $52.7 million earmarked for next season.
But that includes a $4.5 million team option for Butler as well as an almost $1.2 million cap hold for Middleton and team options of $845,059 for Johnny O’Bryant and $947,276 for Jorge Gutierrez.
So the Bucks will have space, enough to bring in Jordan and keep Middleton.
Milwaukee has also previously been linked to pursuits of free agent centers Tyson Chandler and Brook Lopez, both of whom have connections with coach Jason Kidd. Chandler and Kidd played together in Dallas and New York and Kidd coached Lopez in Brooklyn.
Basketball Insiders’ Alex Kennedy also reported that the Bucks have at least some interest in Enes Kanter of the Oklahoma City Thunder:
The Bucks have been linked to a number of free agent centers. I'm hearing they also have some level of interest in RFA Enes Kanter.
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) June 26, 2015
Kidd and general manager John Hammond have both spoken optimistically about free agency.
“We got better in the draft and now it’s time to get better in free agency,” Kidd said, per the Wisconsin State Journal. “We’ll see what player we can get.”
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Hammond indicated it’s in the frontcourt where Milwaukee will be shopping.
“Whether it be another center, whether it be a power forward, something up on the front line would probably be our first goal and objective going into free agency,” Hammond said.
For as much as many of us love the Zaza Pachulia experience, he’s far better suited to be a backup center and John Henson lacks the necessary strength and bulk to be a 32-36 minutes per game guy.
Jordan would be an almost unfathomable addition for the Bucks. Lopez would be big. Chandler would be interesting.
But signing any of the three would be another signal that these are definitely not the same old Milwaukee Bucks.
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