Rumor: Tyronn Lue enamored with trade for DeAndre Jordan
Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan was the preferred trade deadline target for Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue.
According to a report from The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd, not only did Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James desire a trade for Los Angeles Clippers high-flying center but so too did Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue.
Per Lloyd (quote transcribed by Jack Maloney of CBS Sports):
"Now, however, they can no longer say they’re “All-In.” They cannot say they did whatever they could to keep LeBron here this time. Doing whatever they could to keep him would’ve meant dealing for DeAndre Jordan at the trade deadline, the rim-protecting center Lue coveted and James equally wanted badly."
As Lloyd would mention in his piece, rather than trading for a dominant big man, the Cavaliers opted to trade for a group of young players that are supposed to form something of a core — centered around whatever player is acquired with the 8th pick in the 2018 NBA Draft — for the Cavs in the event James leaves.
For those that wonder why it was an either-or situation for the Cavs, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski detailed the events leading up to the Cavaliers trade deadline deals. Because trading for Jordan would have required a first-round pick, the trade that sent Isaiah Thomas and a first-round pick to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. made trading for Jordan — more or less — impossible.
It’s not too hard to see how Jordan could have been a difference-maker on both ends for the Cavaliers.
His dominance inside and the Cavaliers band of snipers would be able to play off of each other’s gravity, creating space for one another. He and James would have been an interesting duo, as Jordan would certainly clog up driving lanes but also be an deadly option for lobs for James on his drives.
Defensively, he’d have locked down the paint and allowed the Cavaliers perimeter defenders to have a larger margin of error because of his shot-blocking presence. He’d also have been a great help against the dominant centers the Cavaliers have faced like the Toronto Raptors’ Jonas Valanciunas and the Boston Celtics’ Al Horford — or could have faced, like Miami Heat centers Hassan Whiteside and Bam Adebayo or Philadelphia 76ers All-Star center Joel Embiid. He’s not prime Tony Allen on the perimeter but he’s certainly mobile (and large) enough to be trusted defending a quick player.
Nonetheless, all that is water under the bridge and for those that complain about the trades now, there was certainly excitement when the trades were first announced.
James was among the fans of the trade.
Per Ryne Nelson of SLAM Online:
"“I spoke to JR Smith after the game. JR, LeBron, Tristan Thompson, Kevin Love—the only four guys remaining on the Cavs from the championship team of 2016. And JR said they had a conversation on the plane. And he said, ‘Man, look at all these different faces we have now.’ And LeBron said, ‘Yeah, but we got a squad now.’ And he actually said, ‘We have a [expletive] squad now.’”"
Furthermore, not only was Thomas unintentionally playing the part of a locker room cancer, the Cavaliers has obviously needed younger legs and better shooters at the time of the deals. They couldn’t keep up on defense and opposing teams seemed to lap them on the break.
Cavs general manager Koby Altman chose youth, shooting and the future when he made the trades. Not just the present.
Jordan would have been a great pickup but had the Cavaliers four-man unit of newcomers had a full offseason and training camp together — the time any of their opponent’s four-man unit of rotation players have had to work — they would probably look more like a ready-made team and less like a group of players trying to figure out how to play together.
Each of their trade deadline acquisitions — former Lakers teammates Clarkson and Nance Jr. and former Utah Jazz teammates George Hill and Rodney Hood — have shown why they were acquired in their time in Cleveland. In fact, each of Hill, Clarkson, Nance Jr. and Hood had solid regular seasons for the Cavaliers.
They, namely the 25-year-olds (Clarkson, Hood and Nance Jr.), have just failed to make the impact in the postseason. That hobbled superstars of olde in Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade played well this postseason, providing the scoring punch that the Cavs currently lack from their replacements, only serves to frustrate.
As of today, the Cavs trade hasn’t worked out (in the public’s opinion) because their season is all about the playoffs and their trade acquisitions have underperformed.
The question is, though, if Wade remained and Jordan underperformed, what would the storyline be then?
Lue and James were right to want Jordan, who averaged 12.0 points, 15.2 rebounds and a career-low 0.9 blocks per game that was a higher average than any of the Cavs’ centers. Altman was right to look past what Jordan, alone, could bring.