Re: Chris Paul Hopeful Of Landing Starting Spot

Post #1 » by **RealGM Wiretap** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 11:54 am

Veteran point guard Chris Paul is a free agent this offseason. Paul is taking his time in picking his next time. One factor in his decisions is that Paul wants to a land a starting spot with whatever team he signs with. The LA Clippers are hopeful that Paul will choose to return to them, after spending six years with the club from 2011 to 2017.

Throughout his 20-year career, Paul has come off the bench just 40 times in over 1300 games. All of those appearances off the bench came while as a part of the Golden State Warriors during the 2023-24 season. That's an experience that Paul seemingly does not want to repeat.

It's also been widely reported that Paul wants to play for a west coast team. Paul's family continues to live in the Los Angeles area. The veteran point guard spoke about the difficulties of being away from them while he played for the San Antonio Spurs a year ago.

Via Tim Reynolds/Associated Press

Hans1984 · Post #2 » by **Hans1984** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 12:50 pm

Starting as a 40yo? Unless your name is Lebron James chances are slim.

arasu · Post #3 » by **arasu** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 1:48 pm

Hans1984 wrote:Starting as a 40yo? Unless your name is Lebron James chances are slim.

Stockton started in his age 40 season, but he also played all 82 games, 30 minutes per game, in the three prior seasons. He proved he could handle it. CP3 hasn't been productive and healthy like that. Good, but not that good.

arasu · Post #4 » by **arasu** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 2:00 pm

arasu wrote:
Hans1984 wrote:Starting as a 40yo? Unless your name is Lebron James chances are slim.

Stockton started in his age 40 season, but he also played all 82 games, 30 minutes per game, in the three prior seasons. He proved he could handle it. CP3 hasn't been productive and healthy like that. Good, but not that good.

Kidd and Nash both were expected to full time start in the seasons they turned 40. Nash was hurt most of that season though

Hans1984 · Post #5 » by **Hans1984** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 2:15 pm

arasu wrote:
Hans1984 wrote:Starting as a 40yo? Unless your name is Lebron James chances are slim.

Stockton started in his age 40 season, but he also played all 82 games, 30 minutes per game, in the three prior seasons. He proved he could handle it. CP3 hasn't been productive and healthy like that. Good, but not that good.

This was also a different NBA back then. The pace was a lot slower.

Indomitable · Post #6 » by **Indomitable** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 3:10 pm

So is this Sacramento play

QMemphis · Post #7 » by **QMemphis** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 3:23 pm

Bucks ??

Skipwhethers · Post #8 » by **Skipwhethers** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 4:18 pm

arasu wrote:
Hans1984 wrote:Starting as a 40yo? Unless your name is Lebron James chances are slim.

Stockton started in his age 40 season, but he also played all 82 games, 30 minutes per game, in the three prior seasons. He proved he could handle it. CP3 hasn't been productive and healthy like that. Good, but not that good.

Yeah...didn't Chris start all 82 games this past season? Anyway, the Clips actually wouldn't be a bad fit. Milwaukee also has no starting PG at the moment. Indiana, the Lakers, the Suns, and the Kings could all use him in the starting lineup too.

arasu · Post #9 » by **arasu** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 4:29 pm

Skipwhethers wrote:
arasu wrote:
Hans1984 wrote:Starting as a 40yo? Unless your name is Lebron James chances are slim.

Stockton started in his age 40 season, but he also played all 82 games, 30 minutes per game, in the three prior seasons. He proved he could handle it. CP3 hasn't been productive and healthy like that. Good, but not that good.

Yeah...didn't Chris start all 82 games this past season? Anyway, the Clips actually wouldn't be a bad fit. Milwaukee also has no starting PG at the moment. Indiana, the Lakers, the Suns, and the Kings could all use him in the starting lineup too.

Yeah. First time in 10 years playing more than 70 games. Maybe that's why he thinks he's starter worthy. His numbers say no.

As for those teams, the Clippers would be a bad fit as a starter. Harden has gotten very used to dominating the ball at point guard...so no. Pacers have great point guard options, so no. The Lakers already have three point guards in the starting lineup, so definitely not. The Suns have a log jam at shooting guard, which is best fixed with Booker at point, so no way. That leaves the Kings and Bucks from your list, with the Kings being closest to where he wants to be (LA).

arasu · Post #10 » by **arasu** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 4:37 pm

Hans1984 wrote:
arasu wrote:
Hans1984 wrote:Starting as a 40yo? Unless your name is Lebron James chances are slim.

Stockton started in his age 40 season, but he also played all 82 games, 30 minutes per game, in the three prior seasons. He proved he could handle it. CP3 hasn't been productive and healthy like that. Good, but not that good.

This was also a different NBA back then. The pace was a lot slower.

Slow pace doesn't mean players were moving slower. Defensively, today's game isn't even matador level of effort for most teams. The only team in the league that actually played full time defense ended up winning it all. Imagine that. Today's game is so soft and low effort, Stockton could've been starting at age 45. That's why super soft vegan CP3 is still keeping it together. He hasn't approached the rim on offense or played serious D in years. He doesn't use an ounce of effort compared to his younger self, when defense was still a thing in the league.

Anthoine · Post #11 » by **Anthoine** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 4:43 pm

Bucks

Skipwhethers · Post #12 » by **Skipwhethers** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 5:10 pm

arasu wrote:
Skipwhethers wrote:
arasu wrote:Stockton started in his age 40 season, but he also played all 82 games, 30 minutes per game, in the three prior seasons. He proved he could handle it. CP3 hasn't been productive and healthy like that. Good, but not that good.

Yeah...didn't Chris start all 82 games this past season? Anyway, the Clips actually wouldn't be a bad fit. Milwaukee also has no starting PG at the moment. Indiana, the Lakers, the Suns, and the Kings could all use him in the starting lineup too.

Yeah. First time in 10 years playing more than 70 games. Maybe that's why he thinks he's starter worthy. His numbers say no.

As for those teams, the Clippers would be a bad fit as a starter. Harden has gotten very used to dominating the ball at point guard...so no. Pacers have great point guard options, so no. The Lakers already have three point guards in the starting lineup, so definitely not. The Suns have a log jam at shooting guard, which is best fixed with Booker at point, so no way. That leaves the Kings and Bucks from your list, with the Kings being closest to where he wants to be (LA).

His insertion into the Clips lineup would allow Harden to play off the ball, where he probably played his best historically, but it would also mean that likely Dunn would need to move up to SF and Powell would come off the bench, so I see your point. The Pacers only have Nembhard (not a full-time PG) and T.J. (not a starter-level PG). It would stunt Cam Jones' growth? I'm not sure what you mean by "great" options. I would argue that LeBron, Luka, and Reeves all playing off the ball with a great distributor/pure PG would help, but that definitely would create somebody playing way out of position, so point taken there. Good point about the logjam with the Suns... Okay, so maybe the market for Paul is smaller than it looks on the surface!

niha17 · Post #13 » by **niha17** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 5:27 pm

Hes washed

Alex_84 · Post #14 » by **Alex_84** » Thu Jul 3, 2025 6:17 pm

Houston needs a backup point guard. Sooner he pulls his head out ass, sooner he can join the strong contending team.

arasu · Post #15 » by **arasu** » Tue Jul 15, 2025 8:57 am

Skipwhethers wrote:
arasu wrote:
Skipwhethers wrote:Yeah...didn't Chris start all 82 games this past season? Anyway, the Clips actually wouldn't be a bad fit. Milwaukee also has no starting PG at the moment. Indiana, the Lakers, the Suns, and the Kings could all use him in the starting lineup too.

Yeah. First time in 10 years playing more than 70 games. Maybe that's why he thinks he's starter worthy. His numbers say no.

As for those teams, the Clippers would be a bad fit as a starter. Harden has gotten very used to dominating the ball at point guard...so no. Pacers have great point guard options, so no. The Lakers already have three point guards in the starting lineup, so definitely not. The Suns have a log jam at shooting guard, which is best fixed with Booker at point, so no way. That leaves the Kings and Bucks from your list, with the Kings being closest to where he wants to be (LA).

His insertion into the Clips lineup would allow Harden to play off the ball, where he probably played his best historically, but it would also mean that likely Dunn would need to move up to SF and Powell would come off the bench, so I see your point. The Pacers only have Nembhard (not a full-time PG) and T.J. (not a starter-level PG). It would stunt Cam Jones' growth? I'm not sure what you mean by "great" options. I would argue that LeBron, Luka, and Reeves all playing off the ball with a great distributor/pure PG would help, but that definitely would create somebody playing way out of position, so point taken there. Good point about the logjam with the Suns... Okay, so maybe the market for Paul is smaller than it looks on the surface!

While Harden is probably best off ball, he has made it VERY clear that he wants to be the guy bringing it up. He doesn't care about what's best for his teams, just his ego. He's been fighting against the idea that he's a shooting guard for most of his career, especially since D'Antoni handed him the keys in Houston before CP3 arrived. When he joined the Nets, that was his chance. He negotiated with Kyrie to be the point guard, and he hasn't given it up since.