Chris Paul may meet with other teams, but that doesn’t mean he’ll turn down more money from the Clippers.
Chris Paul will be one of the more coveted free agents on the market this offseason and will have his fair share of suitors. And according to reports from the LA Times, Paul is interested.
Broderick Turner of the LA Times reported that the Clippers have a fear the Spurs’ interest in Paul is mutual and that CP3 also plans on meeting with the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets once he opts out of his deal and becomes a free agent in July:
The Clippers have recently become “nervous” about the reports that San Antonio will make a big push to get Paul and that the point guard has interest in talking to and possibly joining the Spurs, said one executive who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Paul also has plans to talk with the Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets, one executive said.
Paul played in only 61 games last season, but he averaged 18.1 points per game and 9.2 assists per game with a 26.2 PER. He had a 61 percent true shooting percentage and assisted on 47 percent of the Clippers’ field goals.
Though he battled through injury last year and missed out on both the All-NBA and All-Star team, Paul is still going to command a max contract. Those teams will have interest in signing him and can all create room to do so.
Why it doesn’t make sense for Paul to leave
Paul is 32 years old and moving into the twilight of his playing career. Every NBA player comes into the league with a finite amount of earning potential where the goal is to make as much money as possible while playing for a championship.
The Clippers give Paul the best chance to do that. By re-signing with the Clippers this offseason, Paul will set himself up for a $201 million payday over the next five years, in part, because of the over-38 rule he helped negotiate in the league’s new collective bargaining agreement.
Our Tom Ziller explained it best:
The dividends for CP3 — assuming he wants to remain with the Clippers, and the Clippers want to keep him — are immediately evident. For all practical purposes, under the Over-36 Rule Paul would have been looking at a max contract of four years, $156 million.
Under the Over-38 Rule, he’s looking at a max contract of five years, $201 million.
Paul would be passing up on millions of dollars he fought for during collective bargaining agreements to potentially play in a situation no better than the one he is currently in.
The Spurs are great, and Paul closes the talent gap a bit for them. But they’d still have to move key players to clear the necessary cap space to get him. They’ve got about $90 million in committed salary for next season and would have to move some combination of Danny Green, Tony Parker, Pau Gasol, and LaMarcus Aldridge. Either way, they lose a bit of depth.
The Nuggets are fun but aren’t anywhere close to competing, and the Rockets still don’t have the pieces to defend Golden State and would also have to do some cap gymnastics to have a chance at Paul.
Why Paul could leave the Clippers
Sometimes, a change of scenery is what you need. Paul and the Clippers have run into different issues season after season.
Though Paul and Blake Griffin are a solid combination, neither of them has been able to stay healthy over the last five years. Deandre Jordan, for all his strengths, is still a limited player and can be taken out of the game by his inability to shoot free throws.
This team doesn’t have a starting-caliber wing on the roster and doesn’t have any depth at this point. And they haven’t beaten the Warriors in three years.
At some point, enough is enough. They haven’t had the greatest luck, but bringing the same roster back together for another half decade or so may not be the ideal move here for either side.
Paul has helped rebrand the Clippers. Before he arrived, they weren’t even close to sniffing postseason appearances — let alone 50-win seasons. He’s changed the culture and has been a guarantee for the postseason over the last few years.
Yet, they still haven’t been able to get out of the second round of the playoffs. That may just be a demon Paul has to exercise somewhere else.
Chances Paul leaves the Clippers: 1/10
There is no way Paul is turning down the richest contract in NBA history. He has nothing to gain and too much to lose by signing with another team.
He’ll lose about $45 million and an extra year of security in his contract by signing somewhere else. And no matter where he signs, there is no guarantee that the team will get out of the Western Conference, let alone make it to the Conference Finals.
The Clippers are still a talented team with depth problems. They have issues to work through, but they’re still Chris Paul’s best shot at success in the near future.