Report: Clippers, Rockets talked Jordan-Capela swap last season

To a man, the Los Angeles Clippers seem to agree the team needed a cultural shakeup after six years with the same core.

Chris Paul's departure in free agency this past summer forced that on the organization, but before then, the front office had apparently tried to take matters into its own hands by offering up a different member of its erstwhile Big Three.

The Clippers explored trades for center DeAndre Jordan last season, and a proposed deal with the Houston Rockets for a package headlined by center Clint Capela gained the most traction, sources told ESPN's Zach Lowe.

The Rockets' package would've also included unspecified "picks and players," according to Lowe's sources.

This isn't the first time it's been reported that the Clippers shopped Jordan, though those reports were strongly denied by Lawrence Frank, the team's executive vice president of basketball operations.

It's unclear how much swapping Jordan for Capela - who brings a virtually identical skill set as a rim-protector, dive man, and non-shooter - would've changed the Clippers' identity.

In any event, it was Paul who ended up going to the Rockets, and the Clippers say they're happy to have a new direction in the wake of an offseason that also saw other mainstays like J.J. Redick and Jamal Crawford depart, while fresh faces like Patrick Beverley, Danilo Gallinari, and Milos Teodosic were brought in. Head coach Doc Rivers feels the old group, as reliable as it was (in the regular season, anyway), had reached its natural breaking point after so many years together.

"Maybe you still want to be coached, and to play together, but you also want to try out different things on your own," Rivers told Lowe. "That is the natural progression of a team growing apart."