Northwest Notes: Paul, Jazz, Donovan, Wolves

Thunder star Chris Paul accelerated the team’s rebuild this season by exceeding expectations on and off the court, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports writes.

Paul, 35, embraced his role as a leader upon being traded from the Rockets last summer, taking young players such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander under his wing and holding each of his teammates accountable to the fullest extent — much like Jimmy Butler has done with the Heat in the Eastern Conference.

“When I’m in, I’m in,” Paul said. “Y’all thought I was going to ask out or something. No, I liked the direction of the organization and I believe I can play a part in elevating this team. When I step on the court, I feel like I can compete with anybody and I wanted them to feel that way too.”

The Thunder finished with a 44-28 regular-season record, taking the Rockets to seven games before losing 104-102 in the final contest. Paul finished with a triple-double, recording 19 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists.

“We didn’t give a damn about anybody’s prediction going into any series. In any game, we expected to win,” Paul said after Game 7, as relayed by Haynes. “That’s how we played all season long, every game. We fought hard all year.”

Paul remains under contract for next season, with a $44.2MM player option in 2021/22, after playing a key role in the Thunder’s success this year. The team has multiple rotation players set to reach free agency, however, including starting forward Danilo Gallinari.

There’s more from the Northwest Division tonight:

  • The Jazz‘s painful first-round defeat to the Nuggets won’t shake the team’s core confidence, Tony Jones of The Athletic details. Utah lost a hard-fought seven-game series to Denver, coming up short without one of their best scorers in Bojan Bogdanovic (20.2 PPG; season-ending wrist surgery). “We went from being an ‘unsalvageable’ team three months ago to this, and I don’t think anybody outside of us expected that,” Donovan Mitchell said. “I’m happy with the way we played, obviously not the result. Look man, like, we’ve got things that we know we can fix and like I said, we felt like we kind of gave (away) situations when we had control of the series and we let it get out of hand. … With Bojan coming back, not putting everything on Bojan, but with him coming back it’s another weapon. This won’t happen again.”
  • Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman ponders whether Billy Donovan wants to stick around as head coach of the Thunder for the future. Donovan’s contract with the franchise is set to expire, with the veteran coach coming off a successful season with the team this season. Thunder general manager Sam Presti has previously made it clear that he hopes to have Donovan return, though that decision will ultimately be his to make.
  • Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam purchasing the Timberwolves would be redundant, Zach Harper of The Athletic opines. A recent report from Sportico indicated that Haslam was considering an offer for the Wolves, a team that’s attracted multiple interested bidders to date.
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