JJ Redick Gives Clippers An 'F' Grade In Free Agency
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Clippers guard J.J. Redick was on Bleacher Report Radio on Tuesday when he spoke with Nicole Zaloumis about the Clippers free agency this summer.
When asked to give the Clippers a grade on their free agency thus far, Redick replied simply with an "F."
The Clippers recently lost free agent center DeAndre Jordan to the Dallas Mavericks, and to say the least, Redick was not happy about it.
"Listen, we had one priority this summer. And that was to re-sign D.J. And we missed out on that," Redick said.
"So, barring some miracle, y'know, our makeup of our team is completely different now."
Redick asked the host if it was possible to give the team an "F minus" grade and went into detail about Jordan's role on the team and how it will hurt the Clippers.
"He was such an integral part of what we did, not just defensively, but offensively, with the screening, the rolling, his offensive rebounds," Redick added.
"You know, his presence down low essentially made teams either commit to the 3-point line when Blake [Griffin] or Chris [Paul] penetrated or commit to him, and that either opened up lobs for him or 3s for guys like me and Jamal [Crawford] and Matt [Barnes]."
Although Barnes was traded in the Lance Stephenson deal, Redick's point came across loud and clear that he is not happy with the Clippers' front office's inability to re-sign Jordan.
The Clippers also traded away center Spencer Hawes this summer, and currently have no centers on their roster.
Possible candidates for the Clippers to sign at the center position include Cole Aldrich and Kendrick Perkins. Perkins, who played last season with the Thunder and Cavaliers, has strong connections to head coach Doc Rivers when they both were in Boston.
The Clippers do not have much cap room and could explore the possibility of trading for the lucrative $10.5 million , non-guaranteed contract of Cavaliers' center Branden Haywood for guard Jamal Crawford, which would give them much more flexibility to take on a legitimate big man who can attempt to replace Jordan.
Regardless of who the Clippers sign, Redick reiterated that it would take a "miracle" for the Clippers to recover from Jordan's departure.
The shooting guard is coming off a year in which he averaged a career high 16.4 points per game, while also shooting an impressive and also career high 43 percent from the three-point line.
Redick is entering his third year with the Clippers after spending his first seven seasons with the Orlando Magic. Redick also had a brief stint with the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2012-13 season before being acquired by the Clippers in a sign-and-trade in 2013. He will enter the third year of a four-year, $27 million contract that he signed in 2013.
