The New Orleans Pelicans made one of the strangest contract moves of the offseason, and now they are on the defensive trying to explain it.
DeAndre Jordan, at 37 years old, was quietly given a contract by New Orleans that looked odd on paper and worse in practice. NBA cap analysts spotted it and immediately started asking questions. The Pelicans, for their part, are pushing back on the framing.
Jordan is a fine locker room guy. Nobody is arguing that. His days as an actual rotation center, though, have been over for years. Last season he averaged single-digit minutes for the Clippers and looked every bit his age when he was on the floor.
So why is a rebuilding Pelicans team, coming off another injury-cursed season, spending any resources at all on a 37-year-old center? The answer from New Orleans is essentially veteran leadership, which is the kind of phrase that only exists to end conversations.
The Pelicans are pointing to the actual dollars, which are minimal, and to the roster spot flexibility, which is real. Fair enough. They are also selling the idea that Jordan will be a mentor to their younger frontcourt, which is a nice story but not one that shows up in the win column.
Here is the deeper problem. New Orleans keeps making moves like this. Small, defensible-in-a-vacuum moves that add up to a franchise that never quite maximizes what it has. Zion Williamson deserves better. Trey Murphy deserves better. Every year the Pelicans go into training camp saying the right things and every year they come out of it with the same middling ceiling.
If the Jordan signing was purely a favor to a veteran wrapping up a long career, fine. Say that. Own it. The problem is that the Pelicans instead pretended this was a basketball decision, and NBA Twitter, which sees through everything, sees through this too.
The other frustrating part is the opportunity cost. That roster spot could have gone to a 22-year-old with real upside. The Pelicans have zero business burning a spot on a player who will not touch the floor when games actually matter.
None of this is fatal. The Jordan contract will not sink the Pelicans season. What it does is add to a growing perception that this front office keeps missing the small stuff, and in a league where the margins are razor thin, small stuff piles up.
The Western Conference is not getting any softer. Denver reloaded. OKC is loaded. Even the reshuffled Lakers, whatever they end up looking like without LeBron, will not just roll over. If New Orleans wants to compete for a play-in spot, they need every decision to move the needle.
Signing DeAndre Jordan does not move the needle. Explaining it does not move the needle either. The Pelicans should skip the press conference next time and just make a better move.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
