CP3 finally gets his Lakers move as Thunder trade veteran to 2019 champions
The Los Angeles Lakers have announced today the acquisition of veteran point guard Chris Paul in a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In a fairly simple swap of players, the 2019 champions sent the Thunder the expiring contracts of Danny Green and Avery Bradley to secure the nine-time all-star. Paul is said to have pushed for the move and is thrilled to finally be able to wear the Lakers uniform.
Back in December 2011 he was actually traded from the New Orleans Hornets to the Lakers in a three-team deal with Houston, but former commissioner David Stern voided the trade, citing "basketball reasons". Basically the NBA had an ownership stake in the Hornets at the time and Stern felt that the team wasn't getting fair value in the trade.
Their cross-town rivals the Clippers eventually acquired Paul six days later, swooping in under the Lakers' noses to get a deal done. He would spend six seasons with the Clippers and formed a formidable core of that team alongside Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. They qualified for the playoffs every season under Paul's leadership.
In June 2017 Paul joined the Houston Rockets in a sign-and-trade deal. He and superstar James Harden led the Rockets to the conference finals against the Golden State Warriors that season. Houston took a 3-2 lead in the series, but Paul suffered a hamstring injury late in game 5 and missed the remaining games, which Houston lost. Many felt that the injury cost the Rockets the championship that year.
Paul then re-signed with the Rockets on a massive four-year, $160 million contract. Things didn't go so well though and tensions started to flair between Paul and Harden. After the Rockets were again eliminated from the playoffs by the Warriors, rumours began to spread that Paul was about to be traded.
But that was easier said then done, given his age and contract size. Houston were gifted an out when Paul George requested a trade to the Clippers and Oklahoma City were then forced to also trade Russell Westbrook. The Rockets agreed a deal to trade Paul for Westbrook that cost them some future first round picks.
The Thunder reportedly tried to move Paul on immediately, but garnered little interest in him and eventually he joined the team and played out the season with them. The emergence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander really made it obvious that Paul would be leaving at some point though and it finally happened today.-----
Fresh off a thrilling 4-3 NBA Finals win over the Philadelphia 76ers, the Lakers jumped at the chance to acquire one of the best playmakers in the league. No doubt LeBron James had a big say in this trade to acquire his close friend. Paul and James are part of the supposed "Banana Boat Crew" that also includes Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony. The four NBA stars have been friends since childhood and often vacation together with their families.
James and Wade played together in Miami and won two championships with the Heat. Paul has yet to taste championship success, but joining the reigning champions to play alongside a guy who is still arguably the best player in the league should give him a pretty good shot at it.
It will be interesting to see what Carmelo Anthony does now in free agency. He has been very grateful to Oklahoma City for handing him an NBA lifeline when his career seemed over, but surely a call from LeBron would get him on the next plane to Los Angeles immediately.
The Lakers have an interesting off-season to navigate and this trade just adds to the intrigue. Superstar Anthony Davis has declined his player option for next season, as he plans to secure a long-term contract. Rob Pelinka won't be worried though because he can offer Davis the most money and also the best shot at winning more titles.
Both Paul and LeBron have a year to run on their contracts, plus a player option for the 2021-22 season. If both players decline those options then the Lakers would only have Davis under contract beyond this season and a bunch of cap room to build a team around him. If Pelinka could convince both LeBron and Paul to play for greatly reduced contracts, he could potentially build an amazing team.-----
Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti looks to have played this one nicely. He could have traded Paul a year ago, but decided not to because he didn't want to include the future draft picks needed to get teams to take on Paul's monster contract.
Now he dumps him for the expiring contracts of Danny Green and Avery Bradley, which saves his team over $20 million in salary this season. It now allows him to strengthen through the free agent market, if he wants. It also gets rid of the $44 million player option that Paul would almost certainly have opted into next season.
The rebuild that the Thunder are currently undertaking is coming along nicely. Point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a breakout season that included a 50-point game against Golden State. Presti also just added highly-rated Georgia shooting guard Anthony Edwards with the second pick in the draft. The pair look set to be at the core of this new era in Oklahoma City.
It will be interesting to see how Presti approaches the rest of the off-season. Free agents haven't generally been attracted to joining the Thunder, but perhaps the lure of joining an exciting young team with a newly appointed coach will be attractive to some players. The chance to earn big money would probably be enticing as well.
LA Lakers receive
Chris Paul - 35 - PG - $85.6m - 2 years (P/O) (84)
Projected line-up:
DeMarcus Cousins - Anthony Davis - LeBron James - Kentavious Caldwell-Pope - Chris Paul
Reserves:
Kyle Kuzma, JaVale McGee, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, Troy Daniels, Kostas Antetokounmpo, Zach Norvell Jr
Oklahoma City receive
Avery Bradley - 29 - SG - $5m - 1 year (77)
Danny Green - 33 - SG - $15.3m - 1 year (71)
Projected line-up:
Steven Adams - Deyonta Davis - Terrance Ferguson - Anthony Edwards - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Reserves:
Jeff Teague, Mike Muscala, Justin Patton, Andre Roberson, Carmelo Anthony, Danny Green, Avery Bradley, Hamidou Diallo, Alex Len, Evan Turner, Isaiah Mobley, Charles Bassey, Luguentz Dort
Red = Free Agent