DeAndre Jordan — Home — What’s Cool?

NBA Basketball’s free agency period began last night at 6PM EST sparking chaos as teams came to agreements with players and contracts were negotiated. That’s right, F5 season is upon us, and as all of the trades and signings continue to be reported by NBA insiders, I will keep refreshing my feeds to keep up with the latest deals. One of the biggest winners so far in this year’s free agency is the Brooklyn Nets. Much to many Knicks, Celtics, and Warriors fans dismay, both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have made verbal commitments to join Brooklyn’s young and impressive team, signing for contracts of 4-year, $164M and 4-year, $141M respectively in early July. Brooklyn also made their free agency splurge even sweeter by getting DeAndre Jordan to commit to a 4-year, $40M deal made possible through KD and Irving taking minor pay cuts. There’s a lot to talk about here.

First are the direct ramifications of the trade. The Brooklyn Nets have agreed to send all-star guard D’Angelo Russell to the Golden State Warriors on a 4-year, $117M deal. The Golden State Warriors plan on signing Splash Brother Klay Thompson onto a 5-year, $190M deal, and traded Finals MVP Andre Iguodala to the Memphis Grizzlies to clear up cap space to do so. The future will be very interesting for the Warriors, and matchups between GSW and Brooklyn will be must-see basketball.

Unfortunately Kevin Durant got hurt, as we all know, in the 2019 Finals and isn’t expected to come back to play by the time the 2019-2020 season rolls around. Hopefully this will give Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan enough time to settle into the New York spotlight, develop chemistry, and figure out how to get wins with their new group of teammates. Once Kevin Durant returns to action a year later, I will be expecting the Brooklyn Nets to be a top 3 seed in the Eastern Conference, especially if Kawhi Leonard leaves the Toronto Raptors in favor of the Los Angeles Lakers, which is looking more and more likely every hour. I do find it interesting that Kyrie Irving is teaming up to form a super team of his own after defiantly leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to go lead a team of his own only to be humbled by his experience in Boston. Irving is a clutch and extremely talented player, but it seems that he needs good team chemistry to thrive and stay mentally fit to win big games, otherwise seemingly losing passion in the game.

I’m very excited for the coming days of free agency, and this is just one of the many moves that have even happened so far. It’s all getting a little hard to keep straight; Jimmy Butler is a member of the Heat, D. Rose a Piston, JJ Redick a Pelican, Kemba Walker a Celtic, and so on. The 2019-20 season of NBA Basketball will be fascinating for a number of reasons, but until then, I will continue to analyze and react to off-season shockers and Woj Bombs as they happen. Stay tuned.