Chris Paul is almost a lock to be traded this offseason. The Oklahoma City Thunder have no use for him in the midst of their rebuild, and he shuold look to play for a contender rather than trying to build a dynasty of his own at this point in his career.
It goes without saying that Chris Paul is one of the greatest point guards to ever do it and, even despite his massive contract, his injury-proneness, and his age, he’s still getting a lot of interest from other teams. That’s just how good and impactful he is.
And now that ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith claimed that he doesn’t want to join forces with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers and that Kawhi Leonard has reportedly reached out to him, it seems like the Los Angeles Clippers are shaping as his most likely destination:
“CP3 does not want to go to the [Los Angeles] Lakers,” said Smith. “The reasons he doesn’t want to go to the Lakers is because they’re already established, they’re already accomplished, and there’s really nothing to do for them. They would only be doing something for him, and that is ring-chasing, and that’s not the kind of ring-chasing that he wants to be a part of in terms of stacking the deck. He’d rather go some place where he could be himself and be the leader that he is,” Smith concluded.
So, with that in mind, the Los Angeles Clippers could put together a very interesting trade package that would be difficult to reject for the Oklahoma City Thunder, sending away Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, and Montrezl Harrell, who they’d have to agree upon a sign-and-trade with.
That way, the Thunder would have three movable contracts to flip for even more trade assets, and having Harrell would give them the flexibility to finally try and move on from Steven Adams, who’ll become a free agent at the end of next season.
Needless to say, the Clippers would have a huge incentive in pulling off this deal, as landing Paul would give them the top-tier playmaker they need to pull the strings of their offense. Moreover, Paul could provide the same – if not better – backcourt defense than Patrick Beverley, and they’d have the most dominant two-way Big 3 the league has seen in a while, if not ever.
The Clippers know that their title window is closing as the days go by. Both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George could be out of there rather sooner than later and they’d traded away their future for nothing. They don’t want that to happen and will be as aggressive as they can to land another star. So, why not Paul?
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