The NBA world was shaken earlier this week after the Phoenix Suns decided to waive Chris Paul. The veteran point guard’s time with the Suns might not be done quite yet though as the team is trying to keep him.
Still, the door is now very much open for Paul, who averaged 13.9 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 8.9 APG, 1.5 SPG, and 0.4 BPG this season, to join a new team. An NBA GM claimed being on the Los Angeles Lakers and playing with LeBron James has been a dream for Paul and another executive believes all signs are pointing to Paul being a Laker.
“If it is what Chris Paul wants, being with the Lakers, it is what he is gonna get,” one Western Conference executive said, per Sean Deveney of Heavy. “He has the house in L.A. He is getting near to retirement. He wants a chance to win. There’s the LeBron thing. That’s where all the signs point, to L.A.”
Paul certainly isn’t playing at the level he did in the three seasons prior to this one, having made one of the All-NBA teams on those three occasions, but he still is a capable floor general. The Lakers have lacked a pure point guard in these last couple of seasons and it would certainly ease the playmaking burden on LeBron. It would let him focus on contributing in other areas of the game and that could be very beneficial for the Lakers.
Kendrick Perkins Claims Chris Paul Would Be The Missing Piece For The Lakers
After getting swept by the Denver Nuggets in the Conference Finals, James did hint he could retire and Kendrick Perkins believes Paul’s arrival would ensure there was no chance of that. He also thinks the acquisition would help Anthony Davis, who greatly benefitted from playing alongside a pure point guard like Rajon Rondo back in 2020.
He concluded that Paul would be the missing piece for the Lakers and that it would be a scary sight for the rest of the league.
Would Paul be a massive game-changer? Probably not, but you’d think he won’t be commanding a huge salary and at a low price, would be a great acquisition. He would also allow the Lakers to spend big money elsewhere to retain the likes of Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura, with both of them set to enter restricted free agency.
