Clippers remain interested in bringing Paul Pierce to Los Angeles

Paul Pierce

Paul Pierce/Photo courtesy of Washington Wizards, NBA.com

 

The Clippers remain interested in bringing small forward Paul Pierce to Los Angeles, a league source told us today, but that Pierce would first have to opt out of his current contract with the Washington Wizards, which he can do.

We’re also told that the Clippers will be pushing hard to retain unrestricted free-agent center DeAndre Jordan by offering him a max contract to stay with the team. Only the Clippers can offer Jordan a five-year deal worth roughly $109 million while the best other teams can offer is four years in the neighborhood of $81 million.

Pierce, 37, attended Inglewood High. He has played 17 seasons and has a career scoring average of 20.7. He averaged 11.9 points this past season with the
Wizards.

Pierce’s player option with Washington for next season is $5,543,725.

Jordan, 26, averaged 11.5 points, a league-high 15.0 rebounds and 2.2 blocks during this past season. He helped the Clippers to the second round of the playoffs, where they were beaten in seven games by the Houston Rockets.

The down side to Jordan is that he can’t make free throws. He shot just 39.7 percent from the free-throw line in 2014-15 and his seven-year career percentage is 41.7.