The New Orleans Pelicans were determined to retain veteran center DeAndre Jordan this offseason and structured his new contract accordingly, according to Marc Stein and Jake Fischer.

Rather than offering Jordan a standard one-year veteran minimum deal, the Pelicans signed the 37-year-old to a two-year contract after believing he had legitimate interest from other teams.

“Sources with knowledge of New Orleans’ thinking say that the Pelicans re-signed DeAndre Jordan to a two-year deal rather than a mere one-year minimum contract because they were convinced that Jordan had one-year interest elsewhere that he was prepared to accept and did not want to lose the 37-year-old’s locker room influence.”