5 Landing Spots For Chris Paul After Clippers Departure

Chris Paul’s reunion with the Los Angeles Clippers barely lasted a month. Early Wednesday morning, Paul announced on his Instagram that the Clippers were sending him home from Atlanta ahead of their game against the Hawks.

Team president Lawrence Frank later issued a statement explaining the move.

“We are parting ways with Chris, and he will no longer be a part of the team,” Frank said. “We will work with him on the next step of his career. Chris is a legendary Clipper who has had a historic career. I want to make one thing very clear. No one is blaming Chris for our underperformance. I accept responsibility for the record we have right now. There are a lot of reasons why we’ve struggled. We’re grateful for the impact Chris has made on the franchise.”

However, Frank stopped short of saying that the Clippers were officially releasing Paul. They might look to trade him or get him to take a buyout instead since they’re hard-capped at the $195.9 million first apron and have less than $1.3 million in wiggle room below that threshold. As Keith Smith of Spotrac noted, the Clippers couldn’t sign another player to a standard contract until Jan. 7 if they release Paul. Trading his $3.6 million contract would give them some much-needed breathing room under the hard cap.

Since Paul is on a minimum contract, any team can technically acquire him via trade using the veteran-minimum exception. However, teams that are hard-capped and are bumping up against either the first or second apron—such as the New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets and Orlando Magic—could not acquire him via trade without sending out salary.

With that in mind, let’s run through five potential landing spots for Paul after his tenure with the Clippers officially ends.

Los Angeles Lakers

This is arguably the most obvious one. Paul wouldn’t have to leave L.A., and he’s been friends with LeBron James for decades, although the two have never been on the same NBA team before. What better way for Paul—and perhaps James as well?—to wrap up his Hall of Fame career than to go out with his longtime friend on a potential title contender?

The Lakers are hard-capped at the first apron and have only $1.1 million in wiggle room under it, so they couldn’t sign Paul right away if the Clippers wind up releasing him. They’d have to wait until mid-January.

The bigger question is whether the Lakers would be interested in Paul. They already have plenty of ball-handling between James, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves. It wouldn’t make sense to take the ball out of their hands to manufacture touches for a well-past-his-prime point guard. They might prefer to leave that roster spot open until closer to the trade deadline so they can have more flexibility as they weigh their biggest needs.

This might be Paul’s preferred landing spot, but the Lakers’ interest in him is far more of an open question.

Minnesota Timberwolves

The Timberwolves’ desire to upgrade at point guard is one of the NBA’s worst-kept secrets this season. The question is whether Paul would be an upgrade over Donte DiVincenzo, a shooting guard whom they’ve been starting alongside Anthony Edwards in their backcourt, or 38-year-old reserve point guard Mike Conley.

The T-Wolves also have Rob Dillingham, whom they traded up to acquire in the 2024 draft, although the early returns on him have been underwhelming. If they added Paul, Dillingham would have even more competition for minutes, which might not be ideal for him developmentally.

The Wolves do have one open roster spot and aren’t hard-capped, so they’d be able to acquire Paul either via trade or free agency if the Clippers waive him. However, they’re only about $3.6 million below the second apron, so they’d have to be wary of making any moves that would hard-cap them moving forward.

Houston Rockets

The Rockets lost starting point guard Fred VanVleet to an ACL tear in September, but they’ve managed to make do in his absence. Heading into Wednesday, they have the league’s second-best offensive rating, trailing only the Denver Nuggets.

The Rockets are largely running their offense through point-center Alperen Şengün, who is averaging a career-high 22.8 points and 7.3 assists to go with 9.1 rebounds per game, and third-year forward Amen Thompson, who’s averaging a career-high 17.1 points and 5.2 assists per game. Reed Sheppard, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 draft, has also come on strong after making a negligible impact as a rookie.

The Rockets don’t have much depth at the point beyond that, though. Would Paul be an upgrade over Aaron Holiday or JD Davison? If nothing else, he’d likely have no trouble throwing up lobs to Steven Adams and Clint Capela in pick-and-rolls, much as he did with DeAndre Jordan in his heyday with the Clippers.

The Rockets are hard-capped at the first apron and have only $1.25 million in breathing room below it, so much like the Lakers, they couldn’t sign Paul right away if the Clippers release him. They also might prefer to leave that roster spot open for larger tweaking ahead of the trade deadline, but Paul’s familiarity with Houston—he spent two years with the Rockets in the late 2010s—could make him open to a reunion.

Atlanta Hawks

This one might seem like it’s coming out of left field. After all, the Hawks already have a star point guard in Trae Young, and both Jalen Johnson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker are in the midst of career years.

What if the Hawks decide to move on from Young by the trade deadline, though? They do have Vit Krjeci and Keaton Wallace on the bench, but that isn’t a ton of depth behind Johnson, Alexander-Walker and Dyson Daniels.

The Hawks do have one open roster spot and are $5.4 million below the luxury-tax line, so they have plenty of space to absorb Paul either via trade or free agency. But if they do intend to explore their trade options with Young, they’ll likely want to keep that roster spot open in case they need to take back more players than they send out.

Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks do not have an open roster spot at the moment—therein lies one of the problems with giving an honorary roster spot to your franchise cornerstone’s brother—so they’d have to waive or trade someone if they intended to sign Paul as a free agent. They could use some extra help at point guard, though.

Kevin Porter Jr. has played only three games this season due to a right meniscus injury. He returned in late November, but he left Monday’s loss to the Washington Wizards in the fourth quarter due to a back spasm. The Bucks also have Cole Anthony, although he’s more of a scoring guard rather than a traditional pass-first point guard.

The Bucks are $11.5 million below the luxury-tax line and aren’t hard-capped at either apron, so they’d have zero financial issues with acquiring Paul even if they did have to waive someone else beforehand. They’ve gone 2-8 over their past 10 games and are currently outside of the playoff picture, so they may be increasingly desperate to make an impact move that staves off an official Giannis Antetokounmpo trade request.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.

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