Sixers should avoid signing DeAndre Jordan

The Los Angeles Lakers waived DeAndre Jordan on Monday, allowing the 33-year-old center to search for a new home. Not long after the initial news dropped, Jordan was linked to the Sixers by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who said Philadelphia “will be aggressive in pursuit” of the former All-Star.

Philadelphia currently has no open roster spots, but it shouldn’t be difficult to free one up (Willie Cauley-Stein is on an expendable 10-day contract, and Paul Millsap looks absolutely cooked at 37 years old). That said, the Sixers should not — under any circumstances — actually make the effort to acquire Jordan.

The Sixers should avoid DeAndre Jordan in free agency

Once upon a time, DeAndre Jordan would have been the perfect frontcourt running mate for James Harden — a dominant rim protector and lob threat who set monster screens and played effortlessly above the rim. Jordan is a three-time All-NBA center, a two-time All-Defensive center, and a two-time rebounding champ. His resumé stands out.

Unfortunately, Jordan’s days of productive and impactful NBA basketball are well behind him. He was actually on Harden’s team last season in Brooklyn, but was benched virtually the entire time despite the Nets’ general lack of size in the frontcourt. The same occurred in Los Angeles this season — Jordan started in 19 of his 32 appearances, but it didn’t take long to realize the Lakers were better off without him (which is saying something when you consider the current state of affairs in LA).

Jordan has lost more than a step defensively and he’s no longer the elite rim-runner he was in his Clippers heyday. He has been actively harmful on two contenders in consecutive seasons, and is now being waived so the Lakers can sign D.J. Augustin, a 5-foot-11 guard who is 34 years old and who was recently waived by the Houston Rockets, the worst team in the Western Conference.

There is no reason to expect Jordan to suddenly regain form in Philadelphia. The Sixers have been searching for a new backup center after sending Andre Drummond to Brooklyn in the Harden trade, but Jordan is not the answer. Paul Reed and Charles Bassey are both serviceable, interesting young prospects in the frontcourt, Willie Cauley-Stein is outright better than Jordan, and even the ancient Millsap has more to offer by way of skill and basketball I.Q. than Jordan.

Doc Rivers once coached Jordan and it doesn’t take much speculative reading of the tea leaves to assume Rivers is the one pushing for the Sixers to find a suitable veteran big. The Sixers have no reason to roster five centers, and to swap one middling veteran (be it Cauley-Stein or Millsap) for Jordan is doing no one any favors. In fact, it would hurt the Sixers, because there is a strong chance Rivers would ride with Jordan regardless of matchup or quality of performance. The Sixers would be boxing themselves into 10-15 minutes of DeAndre Jordan every night, rather than opening up minutes for a younger player or signing another wing.

The Sixers have to save Doc Rivers from his own stubbornness. James Harden can probably hit Jordan for a couple easy looks at the rim every night, but he’s too slow to defend in the playoffs (or the regular season, for that matter) and he doesn’t do much of anything outside the paint. The Sixers have an impact defender in Reed, a much younger player in the Jordan archetype in Bassey, and two vets who have more interesting skill sets than Jordan. There’s legitimately no defensible reason to sign Jordan. This is transparently a potential move to appease Doc Rivers, but it would ultimately hurt the Sixers.