ROballer wrote:Chris Paul is a real scum but I'm not going to cry if he comes to the Lakers. He can opt out of this deal this summer.
And that's a bigger possibility than it may seem..
He's close as **** with Lebron, the latter even coming to one of his Finals games. You can bet your ass he's been recruited like crazy.
Here's why:
1.The sniff of the ring.
I think he never EVER thought it would be possible to get this close again. He probably wanted to play out his massive contract before trying to ring chase one final time, but in the back of his head I think he never expected to be in the Finals.
He was right there, he could smell it and probably wants it badly again. The last few years have been kinda down but this run clearly rejuvenated his hunger.
2. Although he was close, he's a smart man. He knows it was fluky as **** and the Suns are probably Miami from a year ago.
One trick ponies.
The West is going to get a lot stronger and they are not going to be able to improve by much if any. Getting an injury riddled path for their opponents is not a strong possibility as well. The Suns ARE NOT his best bet ever again.
3. Money not an issue.
This guy has made exactly 300 mil in his career from his NBA contracts alone. He doesn't seem the guy who lives paycheck to paycheck and who flushed it all away. He's got plenty of money to last him until the end of his life and his children's.
Yes, he's opting out of 44 mil. Yes, he probably will get a 2 year 80 mil deal from the Suns if he wants it.
Does 80 mil on top of 300+ mean more to him than a winning a ring? I don't think so.
There are two options here: Either signing for the MLE, leaving a ton of money on the table. He'd get 20-25% of what the Suns can give him.
Or convincing the Suns to do a S&T. They'll probably say no out of pettiness, but they can either lose him for nothing or get Schroder in return.
That way Paul's salary will be equivalent to Schroder's, 20-25 mil per. Still about 50% of what the Suns can and will give him.
No thank you to CP0. That flopper deserves Phoenix.