A connection with new Knicks president of basketball operations Leon Rose may put Chris Paul on the team’s radar this offseason, according to a pair of reports.
Frank Isola of SiriusXM NBA Radio (Twitter link) cited sources who say that the Knicks have been “gathering intel” on Paul and may pursue him in the offseason. Meanwhile, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes that the All-Star point guard “adores” Rose, who was previously CP3’s agent.
After acquiring Paul from the Rockets last summer – along with multiple first-round picks – in a deal that sent Russell Westbrook to Houston, the Thunder reportedly explored flipping the veteran to another team. However, he was considered a negative trade asset at that time, due to the three years and $124MM left on his contract.
Oklahoma City opted to hang onto Paul and he has been impressive in his first season with the Thunder, staying healthy all year, earning a spot in the All-Star Game for the first time since 2016, and leading the club to a 38-24 record so far. That doesn’t mean that his contract – which still has two years and nearly $86MM left on it after this season – won’t still be considered onerous, but CP3 should have more value this offseason if the Thunder want to put him back on the trade block.
Paul wouldn’t exactly be a perfect fit for the rebuilding Knicks, considering he’ll turn 35 years old this spring. Acquiring him would also compromise the team’s cap flexibility for the summer of 2021, which is expected to feature a significantly stronger free agent class than 2020.
Still, the Knicks didn’t have much luck recruiting star free agents in 2019, so if they don’t use their cap room to acquire a player like Paul, they may simply end up spending it on lesser free agents again, or perhaps absorbing unwanted contracts. Attempting to fill their point guard hole by swinging a deal for an All-Star like CP3 could be a reasonable alternative — especially since it might not take a significant package to land him, if OKC wants to move off his contract and move forward with its rebuild.
I like it
A lot of upside. No championship aspirations but they can build a foundation to be great later.
Sorry, not interested in the Knicks trying to land CP3.
He’s had a great year, but this is the first year in four that he’s played more than 60 games, he’ll be another year older, and unless they can pull a second big trade, they’re not a playoff team next year with or without him.
Let’s be honest: They’re not a playoff team anytime soon, no matter what they do, no matter who they bring in. CP3 can be the face of the franchise, teach the young guys, coach on the floor, and make them competitive.
If the choice is between CP3 and overpaying some free agent to come to NY? CP3 all day long.
Thought they were thinking of CP 3-0.
The Stars Wars dude.
C3PO?
Master Luke can you help R-U-New-2-the-Knicks with the steps?
Using rumor balloons as press conferences, Oh my.
Might as well. A player who cant win on a team that cant win
Chris Paul can win in the regular season.
But the only time he got past the 2nd round was in Houston.
CP3 and Melo just what I want them to get Players ready for AARP. Unbelievable
This is so Knicks. Maybe they think CP plays power forward?
Of course the Knicks would. Only way this makes sense is if you really like one of LaMelo, Hayes, Anthony and plan to bring them along alongside a vet like him similar to what OKC has done.
Are we doing this again this off-season? Can we stop? He’s not coming to the Knicks. Keep it movin’…..
If Dolan is still the behind the scenes power broker, then yes, very Knicks type thing to do.
C-3PO, low 1sr for Randle, Portis, Knox.
Next year, red arm for Paul.
This will be worse than trading for Andrea Bargnani or signing Stoudemire to five years, or everything the Knicks have done over the last twenty years.
Love the player, but its impossible to love the contract or his age/injury history. OKC doesn’t need to unload him, but if they decide to, hopefully they understand that 42 mm and 44 mm still warrant some picks being attached. Hopefully, Rose understands he no longer represents CP3, and this deal needs to work for the Knicks.
I think it can if (1) CP3 is willing to finish his career as the veteran leader of rebuilding team (not a mentor, not a reunion with Melo and no expectations of other deals to win now), (2) Randle goes away in the deal, and (3) we get at least one 1st from their 2022 or later stash. We can do the deal with cap space or matching contracts using the option guys, at their preference.
It’s not that OKC doesn’t want/need to unload him, it’s that nobody wants to take on his contract. The only way they can trade CP3 is if they attach draft picks like the Rockets did when they stole away Westbrook.
Stole? No. RW doesn’t have a desirable contract either, and with an extra year. OKC would do that deal again in a heartbeat.
It just gets funnier and funnier.
“The first thing we need to do is sign a 35-year-old who is making 41 million dollars,”
I mean, I take your point, but what’s the alternative? They’re going to have $50 million in cap space, and if they don’t trade for Paul, Dolan will just overpay free agents.
I’d much rather have Paul mentoring young players. If he’s healthy, they might be able to trade him again in a year. If he’s hurt, insurance pays his contract, and he can still help mentor the young players.
I see no downside.
The downside is taking up a huge amount of their cap room on a 35 and 36 year old Chris Paul for the next 2 years. It makes no sense.
Am I living in crazytown here? I know Dolan lost patience mid-season, but in my book the Mills/Perry plan is EXACTLY what they should do if they can’t lure the top guys.
Sign lesser players to one year deals and draft well. RJ looks like a good pick. Add another good pick or two next year and sign a bunch of guys to 1 year deals. Eventually there’s going to be a good enough young base that someone good is going to want to come here regardless of Dolan.
Alternatively you’re trading assets for a 35 year old on a multi-year contract and locking yourself out of the FA market for the next two years. Sorry, I don’t like it. And when you consider the fact that all the names the Knicks keep being connected to are CAA guys/Rose clients… this feels like Rose’s “strategy” is going to be to just bring in his guys when he should be building from the ground up.
I can deal with the Knicks sucking if they at least have the appearance of building the right way – and they did under Perry. The rumors of Paul and Carmelo feel like we’re going back to the Isiah Thomas days and I’m not looking forward to that.
We found Mills/Perry/Dolan burner account, right?
Sure signing FA’s to short term/1yr deals that dont move the needle much in terms of wins and flippin them for assets is a good aspect of their strategy. But its the execution that is sorely lacking, as seen by their signings of 4 PF/SF’s in FA last year. But i suppose it is some form of improvement considering last years strategy was trying to make a big FA Splash coming off of a Bottom 10 finish. Still tho, their execution is so poor who really cares
Nice. About time the Knicks try something different and ….. throw zillions at a washed up star
maybe they can pick up tyson chandler, kyle korver, and sign jason terry while they’re at it.
No. No. No.
If they can get Paul and assets for taking on his contract then how do you not pull the trigger. It would cost at least a first, maybe more to get rid of him even if he has a good year. The good year only allows for him to have enough value to be traded.
Looks like they found a place to send Randle? This would be the only team that OKC doesn’t need to send a 1st to dump CP3s contract.
If you’re the Thunder and it’s legit, do it asap.
At least you can say CP3 is a legit PG vs everyone else they trot out there. Not a single PG worth pursuing the next 2 years in FA. This draft class is loaded with so-so PGs, but I would still take a long look at Okongwu and Toppin.
3 team trade between OKC, NYK and Hornets. CP3, Randle, and Batum involved with a 1st going back to the Thunder to take on both Batum and Monk. Think that could get traction.
As much as I think this is a low risk move for the Knicks (I mean, Dolan is just going to waste his free agent budget anyways), I doubt the Thunder are interested. They’re not going to pay the tax next year, Paul has been great for Shai’s development, and Paul’s contract gets smaller every day.
If Paul plays as good next season as he did this season, they’ll be able to trade him for an asset next February. Or at least do Paul a solid and send him to a good team without taking back garbage.
You think they’ll find someone to take his 41M and not send back garbage? lol.
Teams all spend about the same amount of money. If the salaries work out, fine, it doesn’t matter how much CPaul makes. He is good, a leader on a young team, PER 22.
Blaming a player for a high salary makes no sense. Of course, on a personal level, CPaul can be annoying, but it is NY, home of Trump Clinton Bloomberg and who knows what else. He can fit.
I doubt their roster money will be spent much better otherwise. (Depends on the trade details) But for OKC, I agree with Lancaster on February trading.
A team like the Knicks can line up for a trade. Most contenders can’t or wouldn’t give up the players attached to the salaries that it would require. There are only a few legitimate ones out there. Like Utah’s Conley blunder. But his contract is 34M still have to get closer to 41M so Ed Davis and Niang. Sixers need a shooter and ball handler so you need to combine Horford, Richardson and Scott to make that deal work. You start looking at the salaries that could line up… Charlotte isn’t doing a deal. Spurs aren’t.
Knicks and Chicago. Only real places bc of expiring contracts. Neither is giving up a 1st. So you’re looking at 3 team or 4 team trades. Anyone can be traded, that’s for sure. Just a lot fewer expiring deals work with this offseason.
It’s not about blaming the player for his high salary…
It’s about looking at the player and looking at his salary and saying “I’m glad someone else is paying that player that salary instead of me”.
If it was an expiring contract that would be one thing. If you fail to get any decent free agents in the offseason, you can do worse than CP3 on a 1 year deal. When you’re locking up most of your cap space for multiple years in this kind of trade, that’s just not a smart move. What’s the ceiling? The 8th seed for two years? BFD. Build a team the smart way that can be a sustainable winner.
As laughable as it sounds at first i saw some mentions of a deal where the Thunder are sending a first back and that reminded me that was a possiblity lols. Im kinda sold on the thought that the Thunder are either keeping or moving for some form of asset beyond 2nd round picks. Cant lie if i was gm id be petty and not change my view on Pauls value, maybe Prestis different but going in with a positive look and then later saying “nah this is really negative value” is just a bad look, would rather hang onto him I know I can do better when its an expiring deal and his performance is even 3/4’s of what it is now.
You don’t think I can keep him and be happy? Presti’s got 3 PGs playing 31mpg+ per night and to much better then expected results, no pressure to deal Paul, unless Pauls applying it. He’s playing well, albatross of a deal, but I’d draw the line at “come how about 1st, any 1st”, certainly not giving one up. But in such a scenario that would certainly start to make sense for the knicks
I think people are really overblowing Paul’s contract. It’s definitely expensive, but it’s only 2 more years. Would you rather have an All Star like CP3 that could at least sell tickets or pick up DeMar DeRozan for like 4/80? Even if it doesn’t work out well, it’s not like the Knicks are doing anything until his deal expires anyway. Just imagine how big of an asset CP3’s deal will be as an expiring in 2022. They could seriously stockpile some good picks by trading him to a team looking to unload a big deal or two then. Or they could open a lot of space for themselves.
“Or they could open a lot of space for themselves.”
Space that is currently open…
‘If they use all their cap space on CP3 now, just think of all the cap space that will be open in 2 years when the deal is done!’
Except that space is not allowed to remain open for the entire 2 years. The alternatives are signing inferior players to 1-2 year deals or signing a better FA to a longer deal and not having the space in 2 years.
Besides, the cap space returning would be worst case scenario. Best case is that they trade Paul as an expiring deal and pick up a 1st or two from some team angling to get rid of a multi year problem.