DeAndre Jordan reportedly backing out on the Dallas Mavericks to return to the Los Angeles Clippers is good for the Clips, bad for the Mavs and just plain weird to everyone else.
But what about the Boston Celtics? Well, it’s not quite as simple as calling it “good” or “bad” — but it’s probably good.
This whole ridiculous saga does indeed impact the Celtics, who own the Mavericks’ 2016 first-round NBA draft pick, thanks to last season’s Rajon Rondo trade. Typically, that means the Green would be rooting against Dallas, since the worse the Mavs are, the higher the pick would be.
The wrinkle is, the pick is top-seven protected, so if the Mavs’ selection falls in the top seven they keep it. At the same time, if the Mavs are too good, the pick could be so low in the round as to be effectively useless to the rebuilding Celtics. So the Celtics have a vested interest in Dallas being mediocre, but not outright terrible.
That’s where the Mavs appear to be headed after Jordan, as reported by multiple outlets, reneged on his verbal agreement with Dallas to remain in L.A. With free agents Jordan and Wesley Matthews joining Dirk Nowitzki and Chandler Parsons, the Mavericks looked at least good enough to challenge for a Western Conference playoff spot. Now, with no fearsome big man and injury and/or age concerns with the remaining three players, the odds are stacked against the Mavs — with the bonus fact, if you’re a Celtics fan, that no team with Nowitzki can ever be counted upon to truly stink.
This is why the league’s moratorium period, in which free agents cannot sign new contracts while the NBA office gets its financials in order, holds the unwritten rule that team executives will treat verbal agreements as binding and won’t try to pressure players into backing out of them. Doc Rivers’ technically-legal-but-ethically-shady trip to Texas to shake down Jordan with an army of fellow Clippers did more than drastically change the fortunes for the Clips and Mavs. It held the rest of the league in limbo while one of the summer’s biggest free-agent names waffled.
If that waffling leads to the highest-possible pick being conveyed to the Celtics, however, nobody in Boston is likely to complain.
Thumbnail photo via Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports Images
