With a new big threat coming to Big D, the Dallas Mavericks fans and players are excited for their futures. The Mavs landed the most coveted free agent center on the market, DeAndre Jordan. The high-flying big man made his choice before the fourth of July weekend started but as the weekend came to an end, his future teammate Chandler Parsons, made an explosive claim.
As Parsons recovers from a horrible knee injury, he spent his time recently trying to woo DeAndre Jordan to the Mavericks. It may have helped getting these two together seeing as Jordan and Parsons share the same agent, Dan Fegan. It also might have helped that Parsons has some high praise for Jordan.
Following from Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas.
“It all came down to him being the best center in the NBA, an All-Star-caliber and MVP-caliber player in this league,” Parsons told ESPN.com in his first public comments since the Mavs secured the commitments of Jordan and shooting guard Wesley Matthews, their other top target in free agency. “No doubt in my mind that [opportunity] was here in Dallas.”
Parsons, who played a huge role in recruiting Dwight Howard to the Houston Rockets two summers ago, said recruiting Jordan and Matthews became an “obsession” for him.
“I was basically just telling him that we want you,” said Parsons, who organized a dinner with Mavs legend Dirk Nowitzki, owner Mark Cuban, Jordan and himself at a swanky sushi restaurant in Malibu for the second free agency started Tuesday night. “You’re our priority. We believe that you can be a 20 and 15 a night kind of guy. We think that you are the best center in the NBA, and we think that there’s no other place better than Dallas [to prove it].
“With coach [Rick] Carlisle’s system, adding guys like me and Wes and Dirk, savvy older veteran point guards like J.J. [Barea] and Devin [Harris] and Raymond [Felton] all around you, we can make you the best player possible that you can be. I think that was the biggest thing that he wanted, and I think he saw that the opportunity was here.
“I think he’s a perennial All-Star. I think he’s the most athletic, best defending, finishing lob threat in the NBA. He has a chance to be the best center in the NBA the next 10 years.”
DeAndre Jordan has the potential but some things have to workout in his favor. Primarily, he needs to develop some sort of an offensive game. Jordan can really only catch alley-oops off pick and rolls so some sort of off-ball movement and some routine in the post would help immensely.
But, given the way the NBA is going, DeAndre might just need to continue rejecting shots at the rim, catching alley-oops and throwing down putback slams and continue excelling at those specific things.
