Warriors stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are looking forward to teaming up with longtime rival Chris Paul, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Paul’s ball-dominant style will bring a new look to Golden State’s backcourt, but Curry believes the combination can be successful.
“Every team that CP has been on gets better,” he said. “That’s the most consistent thing about him, and who he is and what he brings to the team. Everybody’s going to talk about the age. It’s on us to put that all together and figure out how all the pieces work.”
Thompson called Paul one of the best players of his generation and speculated that having him on the court should lead to better shots for everyone. He admits it will be “a little weird” to have Paul on his team after battling him in the playoffs for nearly a decade.
“I think he’s just going to add such a calming presence and leadership component that we need,” Thompson added.
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The Warriors have been a popular destination for free agents throughout their run at the top of the league, but their reputation will be tested in this year’s free agency, observes Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. Golden State’s financial crunch, early playoff exit and the loss of general manager Bob Myers may make veteran players less likely to accept veteran’s minimum contracts to join the team.
- LeBron James won’t pressure the Lakers to make any specific signings or trades during free agency, according to Mark Medina of Sportsnaut. Medina adds that despite his retirement talk after the Western Conference Finals, James is fully expected to play next season in the final year of his current contract.
- Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka is committed to keeping the roster that finished last season intact, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. L.A. has five free agents and must decide by today whether to guarantee contracts for Mohamed Bamba and Malik Beasley. “Teams are going to be aggressive,” Pelinka said. “There’s a lot of parity in the league right now, and everyone smells an opportunity to chase the championship, but we’re going to try our best to stay in that pack or at the head of that pack.”
- The Lakers are hoping to re-sign Dennis Schröder and Lonnie Walker IV, even though they’re both unrestricted and the team doesn’t have full Bird rights on either player, states Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
That made me laugh LeBron will not pressure the Lakers into trades or signings. Who believes that? We all know LeBron has been calling the GM daily on getting this player or that.
Why because YOU said so?
Oh please you think Lebron is not trying to recruit players. have you not been paying attention for the last 10 plus years? He recruited AD. He been recruiting Irving and Green last year. So go ahead and pretend Lebron is not asking his GM to do something.
Lakers best approach would be to retain all the guys they can unless they are able to massively upgrade.
They can always look to deal the guys, but once they let go of that salary it’s gone.
CP3 will help Warriors win games for sure. The problem is his $30.8M contract even if it’s for 1 yr only. It would have made sense if it was $15M. Warriors have no financial flexibility whatsoever to improve the team. The other big issue with CP3 is can he be healthy in the postseason. They could limit his minutes and do load mgmt but the history says otherwise. Most likely, it will be ugly trade deadline for Warriors because Lacob and other owners wont pay $400m in luxury tax.
They don’t have financial flexibility with or without CP3. They are so over the luxury cap, they’d need to offload either Dray or Klay as well if they want their MLE back, etc.
I would actually like to see the Los Angeles Lakers bring all their guys back. These are the deals they might get.
D’Angelo Russell 2 years $40 million with a team option for year two.
Austin Reaves 4 years $90 million
Rui Hachimura 4 years $60 million
Dennis Schröder 3 years $21 million
Lonnie Walker IV 2 years $14 million player option for year two
I think if they bring everybody back to get a full offseason and training camp together it can do wonders for the organization.
Phil Handy will do wonders this season with the continued development of Rui Hachimura Max Christie Jalen Hood-Schifino & Maxwell Lewis.
I will also bring back Mo Bamba and groom him to be the back Center to Anthony Davis.
I would actually let Malik Beasley go because he’s getting so much money and I will sprinkle that money around to the other guys.
Reaves 4/90 would be instant regret.
LOL Pelinka thinks lakers are a top contender!?!?! Maybe with the refs in their corner again…
Ahh, yes. The refs “cheated.” How old are you?