Chris Paul intends to sign with the Spurs once he clears waivers, Chris Haynes of TNT and Bleacher Report tweets.
Paul was waived by the Warriors at the start of free agency. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent once he goes through waivers but he didn’t wait that long to choose his new team.
He’ll sign a one-year deal worth more than $11MM, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets.
Earlier on Sunday, Marc Stein (Twitter link) reported that San Antonio has “strong” interest. The 12-time All-Star figures to be a natural, if short-term, pick-and-roll partner for Victor Wembanyama.
It’s unclear whether the Spurs intend to use Paul as their starting point guard or if they’ll have him coming off the bench, as he did a majority of this past season in his one year with the Warriors.
San Antonio used a variety of players to initiate the offense in Wembanyama’s rookie season with Tre Jones getting a majority of the starts at that position. Still, given that the Spurs seemed reluctant to make Jones their starter and didn’t do so until January, it seems unlikely that he would get the nod in next year’s starting five over the veteran Paul.
San Antonio’s cap space gave it an advantage over some other potential suitors for Paul. The Spurs could sign him without waiving Devonte’ Graham, whose guarantee date was pushed back to July 8.
Graham’s contract is already partially guaranteed for $2.85MM for next season, but it will increase to $12.65MM if the Spurs retain him. If they waive Graham and their other non-guaranteed players, they would still have a $16MM in cap space at their disposal to sign Paul, cap expert Yossi Gozlan tweets.
At the moment, the Spurs are considered an over-the-cap team. If they stay that way, they could instead sign Paul by using a majority of their $12.8MM mid-level exception, ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets.
Golden State had to make a decision today whether to guarantee Paul’s $30MM salary for the 2024/25 season. Both the Warriors and Paul agreed to push back the guarantee date from Friday to Sunday. The Warriors had attempted to include Paul’s contract in a blockbuster deal, including a potential swap with the Clippers for Paul George. However, they were unable to pull anything off.
Paul, who turned 39 in May, remained productive in 2023/24, averaging 9.2 points, 6.8 assists, and 3.9 rebounds in 26.4 minutes per game in 58 appearances (18 starts) for the Warriors. He posted a shooting line of .441/.371/.827.
Yay! I’m not even a Spurs fan, but he should be helpful to Wembanyama
I’m not a CP3 fan…
It’s not a terrible move though…
Gives Wemby a playmaker to run the show who has years of experiences with althetic freaks of nature…
Chris Paul 1 year $11 million for the San Antonio Spurs is a great deal! Victor Wembanyama gets to be around a true leader and professional. Then this also does wonders for Stephon Castle because he gets to learn from a top 5 Point Guard of all time and the Point God!!!!!
Other than a bench, senior advisor role, does he even move the needle anymore when a team acquires him?
I mean if the spurs only added him and no one else this offseason, would they be any better?
Any better? Yes. A lot better? Not with him alone. The team is super young. Paul’s veteran leadership would be very helpful. Now, they definitely need to make other moves to improve the team
Yes. They’ll be better than 22-60.
Adding Paul plus their draft picks and another year of development from Wemby they’ll certainly have more than 22 wins. They could have anywhere between 25 and 35 if not more.
I think even 35-40 wins is realistic. They started 3-20 last year (when they were using Sochan at PG) but played better as the season went on. They went 11-12 to close the season out. Provided Wemby stays healthy, I think they’ll be borderline good next year. The West is tough, though.
Young with another year of experience. Wemby and Vassell are solid while adding Castle and Paul should help even more – agree that 35-40 are in the mirror. Next couple of years between the Hawks picks and cap room and they should be a contender once again.
Golden State was a much worse team after he joined them.
Cause Paul never fit the golden state warriors play style to begin with. Everyone but the warriors front office and warriors die hard knew it was a bad fit.
Paul thrived in pick and roll systems. All those years with Jordan in LA up to Ayton in PHX. Thats not the warriors game. You aren’t using Wiggins, Thompson, Curry in pick and roll situations and Kerr didn’t call them for Kuminga or Green Looney.
Spurs have better pieces to run pick and rolls namely Wemby and Keldon Johnson
GSW being worse has more to do with other factors like Wiggins’regression and Klay’s decline than it does with CP. I mean he’s no spring chicken anymore but is a smart short term investment as a mentor for young spurs and as a facilitator.
That’s ridiculous. They are a much better team because of Paul.
He will be good at teaching the young players. More surprised he didn’t go chasing a ring.
He’s chasing money
$11M chasing money? he’s 2 years from being the fulcrum of the suns offense. he can easily be the starting PG for an up and coming SAS to help Wemby learn P&R.
Exactly. He’s gonna be a coach someday and who better to learn from than Pop.
After flopping out after turning 37 he wasn’t going to get more then that on the market…
He’s not someone teams are lining up to throw big money at… And the number of teams with that type of money are smaller than ever…
He will never win a ring in this league. Same with Westbrook, Harden and Embiid.
I think Westbrook is trying to get traded to Denver and Embiid is still young. Harden, you might be right, but who knows?
…O $#!! I didn’t see this at all…
I don’t think they needed help there, but obviously Tre Jones is not a trade candidate, and they made a couple of redundancy picks in the draft, so I would guess those players would be involved as well…
This team, with the correct rotation, has a chance to be very good
*now a trade candidate…anyway, they drafted more guards, and they haven’t used Wesley and Branham right yet, so I’m curious to see how those guys are effected as well
Tre isn’t a top trade candidate, although anyone not VW is a trade candidate until they get to contender status… He’s the understudy… CP3 should help elevate his game…
He and Pops are going to wonder why they don’t get together sooner.
For sure!
Wemby will average 30 easy so long CP stays healthy
Basically the same as Trae Young
In what universe? Not in any anywhere near this dimension…
Quite possibly the worst take in the history of this site… and that is saying something
Lol it was a joke sir
The moment i heard CP3 to the Spurs my first thought was…
“At least it wasn’t Trae”
Neither is a PG to build long term around, but at least CP3 can teach Tre Jones something…
Chill I was joking
Chris Paul is one of those players who in 10 years people will have to be reminded of. For someone so great I have no memories of him doing anything great. He’s on my short list for most overrated players of all time
The trades that never was will be what he’s most remembered for.
Exactly. He plays a style that gets stats but never will win a ring in this league. He’s the perfect example of “team game > individual stat collector” as one wins rings, the other does not.
He plays a style that gets stats? What? So playing the prototypical point guard role where you’re responsible for setting the offense is now “stat chasing”? It’s not like CP3 was chucking up 30 shots a game on inefficient numbers. He flirted with 50/40/90 shooting lines on like 15 shots a game during his prime, was good for 8+ assists per game, and was not a turnover machine despite the offense basically running through him. Just say you’ve never watched him play before and just read whatever social media tells you.
That’s because you watch highlights, not games
Rofl this is sad…Chris Paul is a winner, through and through. This is what participating in the sickness gets you…
Actually a friend of mine who was great at dissecting nba games pointed it out to me. I always saw the highlights and stats and was a huge fan. I wanted the Celtics to trade rondo for him so bad.
I was a cp3 fan and hated rondo. Then my friend said watch games and how many times CP3 sells out baskets to go for steals. Yes he got 5 a game but another 10 possessions would be him putting everyone out of position that lead to easy baskets. And on offense he would take the shot clock down to 7 seconds and scramble for an assist. Rondo played winning basketball he got the offense moving never stagnant. On defense he stayed with his man at all times and rarely sold out for a steal. Rondos stats are not even close to CP3 but he has two rings.
Cp3 harden and Westbrook are stat stuffers not winning basketball players.
No offense but you and your friend are idiots. CP3 is/was better than Rondo. “Winning basketball” Rondo had 6 assists per game and shot an awful .407/.250/.691 in the playoffs the year the Celtics won the championship. They won 66 games that year because they were stacked with Allen, KG, and PP, not because Rondo was playing “winning basketball”. Swap in CP3 for Rondo that year and win 70 games and sweep the Lakers.
Never did I say Rondo was better. What I was pointing out was Rondo made the little plays that won games. Chris Paul made selfish plays that lost them.
Most overrated players of all time
Manu Ginobli
Chris Paul
Karl-Anthony Towns
Paul George
Dwight Howard
Most underrated
Tim Duncan
Carmelo Anthony
Pau Gasol
Scottie pippen
Tracy McGrady
Duncan is widely considered the greatest PF of all time. Please enlighten all of us as to how he’s underrated. Underappreciated or maybe not talked about as much? Sure but definitely not underrated.
And Carmelo is definitely not underrated either. No doubt one of the greatest scorers of all time…as close to a walking bucket as you could get because he was basically unguardable but that’s all he was. He never brought much else to the table besides his scoring.
I mention Duncan as underrated because of the thing you stated rarely is he talked about as a top 10 player of all time. He was the guy you didn’t notice until he was gone. The silent assassin
Carmelo was so good offensively probably a top 5 scorer of all time. He is up there for the most decisive player in the nba fan base. Some people will say he’s a top 50 player some will say he’s not top 100.
And I’m also speaking from my perspective everyone has the guys they love and the ones they don’t
You have a 4 time champion, one time gold medalist who popularized the euroostep on a list with a bunch of non-winners. And one guy who is the best power forward of all time on the underrated list.
Other than those, I can kinda understand where you are coming from.
Manu will always be on my s**t list for absolutely s**tting himself vs the heat. And allowing for them to be in the game for ray to hit the 3. Would’ve gave Duncan another ring and taken one from Lebron. He was throwing up brick after brick the whole series he was bad. But that one game he was atrocious. Probably should’ve had harden there but manu haunts me
Rondo played with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. 3 HoFers. He was not asked/expected to be the focal point of the offense and was never expected to be the best player on the team.
The best players CP3 played with during his prime years (New Orleans and LA) were Blake Griffin and then probably David West. CP3 was always the best player on his team and expected to perform like one. Comparing their offensive roles is basically apples to oranges. What they were asked to do, and what their supporting cast was, were totally different.
Overrated? He’s on the short list for greatest point guards of all time. Not the best, but there’s a reason his nickname was the Point God. Sure he didn’t have the flashy stats and he came up short or got injured during the playoffs, but guy was the archetype for what you wanted in a point guard during the mid 2000s to early 2010s. Flirted with 50/40/90 lines, basically a double-double machine with assists, a solid defender despite being a tad undersized, and was the guy who ran the whole offense in New Orleans and LA. He spent most of his prime where the two best players he played with were probably Blake Griffin and David West.
In 5 years we’ll be looking at Steph, Kyrie, Luka, Damian Lillard, Jrue Holliday all to have better careers than Paul.
Morant Haliburton and Trae Young will probably have better careers than him.
He better enjoy his short time on that short list. Because in 10’years it will be Oh ya Chris Paul he was good for a couple years. He through some great alley oops
There’s no reasoning with someone who thinks Jrue Holliday–who is already 34 years old–will have a better career than the guy who will be 2nd all-time in assists and steals by the time he retires.
Steph and Luka for sure, maybe Kyrie. But definitely not Lillard, who is an interesting choice considering that you seem to value “winning basketball” and Lillard has won nothing in this league.
Jrue Two time NBA champion constantly called the best defender in the league by other players. Also referred to as the most underrated player year in and year out by other players.
Lillard I see your point.
“Jrue Two time NBA champion constantly called the best defender in the league by other players. Also referred to as the most underrated player year in and year out by other players.”
None of this makes his career better than CP3. Zero All-NBA. Never been the best player on a winning team. He’s a great player, but his career is not even close to CP3’s. You are either ignorant about basketball or trolling.
Not only a two time champ but the missing piece of a championship team. On two different teams. If you watched this years finals he had a strong argument for finals MVP. If Chris Paul was so damn good then why were none of his teams successful? Malone Stockton and Barkley are used for the no rings argument but they all played in a finals and two have mvps. If Chris Paul was at anytime a top 10 player in the league his teams would’ve had more success. You can’t say look at his stats and then say he had no help. In the NBA the best players win. Chris Paul never won a thing. One or two conference finals is good for a good player not a great one.
Chris Paul 12x all star
Jrue Holliday 2x all star
My point is CP3 should enjoy his time in the top pg conversation because in the future he’s more likely to be mentioned with dame & Jrue than he is with magic Stockton and Steph as he is now
His teams were successful, he has an above 500% winning % in the playoffs and averaged 20 and 8. Please go back and look at his teams. The best player on his team (when he was the star) goes Blake Griffin and then maybe David West. CP3 just always got hurt just before/during the playoffs which led to his team losing. I’m not excusing him but it’s just a fact that he always had a habit of getting hurt during that time.
During his prime years he had to compete against the Kobe Lakers, the Spurs, the Durant-Westbrook Thunder, and the beginning of the Warriors dynasty. Even if he somehow made it past them he would’ve just run into the LeBron teams from the East. Jrue Holiday had to deal with basically the same exact thing and did less with an arguably better star sidekick (Anthony Davis). It wasn’t until he got to the Bucks that he seriously broke out, and let’s not act like the Bucks traded for him as if he was a superstar by then, he was always going to be their #3.
You’re comparing players who were asked to do completely different things for their teams and somehow knocking the player with the larger role/expectation for not delivering. For about 12 years CP3 was expected to be the best player on his team and he was basically that without the playoff production. I don’t think Jrue Holiday has ever been expected to be his team’s best player or #1 option. And he’s been the most successful when he’s been able to be his team’s, at best, 3rd best option. He does not carry nearly the same offensive load and because he’s not being asked to do as much offensively, he can put more effort into his defensive play.
The only reason Chris Paul didn’t win in 2021 is Monty Williams single handedly cost him. I said it was over when they were up 2-0, in Milwaukee’s favor, b/c of what Monty Williams was doing…they went away from everything they had done all season. Started using Ayton 40 minutes a game, b/c it made more sense in certain previous matchups, went totally away from Kaminsky at the 5; Saric tore his acl in game 1, so they didn’t have him, but Kaminsky had played all year…Milwaukee finally stopped using Brook Lopez as much, the same way they beat the Heat in round q that year, lowering his minutes to as low as like q8, lowering them each game, and Phoenix could not stop them with Giannis or Portis at the 5
If Monty Williams doesn’t let Mike Budenholzer completely outclass him, doing something he himself hadn’t done previously, or after (it’s what got him fired), Chris Paul is not only an NBA Champion, he’d be the number q guy that brought that team completely to it
One of the greatest 2 way guards of all time, no matter where you have him on your list. Still one of the best 2 way guards in the game, in his late 30s…
Unfortunate injury luck in the playoffs the last several years have been detrimental to him as well, but that’s not his fault
Why are these people doing this to themselves? Why engage with such an obvious clown? Dude is basically walking social media. I realized it pretty quickly; no reason to waste any thouvht on this “person”
Steph and Luka yes. Kyrie maybe? Although arguably he’s been more of a stat chaser than CP3 was and has flopped everywhere he’s gone after the Cavs up until this season. Even then, he’s been more comfortable and better in a sidekick role rather than being asked to be THE guy on his team.
If you really think Jrue Holiday had a better career then I don’t know what to say to convince you. Yes Holiday has won two rings with two different teams as an integral player for those teams. He’s never been the star of his team and I’d wager his career stats fall massively short of CP3’s in most major categories, if not all. It’s only in the past 5-6 years that Holiday even burst onto the stage. He spent the first 10 years of his career as a solid, but unspectacular starting point guard for some bad 76ers and New Orleans teams.
And for Lillard, what has he done to have a better career than CP3 outside of score more? He’s had some memorable moments in the playoffs but the Trail Blazers never made any serious noise in the playoffs. He probably finishes higher on the career points and 3pt fg list, but if we’re arguing “team stats > individual stats” then I don’t see Lillard is better than CP3.
What’s wildly apparent to me is that you’ve never actually watched CP3 in his prime and only caught the morning Sportscenter highlights of the Lob City Clippers. The only narrative you know of him is his injuries in the playoffs. Because when he was healthy he generally played well/about what you expected from him and injuries just always seemed to bite him in the playoffs. For about to 8-9 seasons (including seasons from his Hornets’ days) he was the best point guard in the league…was somewhere in the top-10 MVP voting, all-nba selection, all-defense teams on a year to year basis. But yes I’m sure all he did during that time was throw a couple of lobs.
Is there a way to look up all the idiotic takes I’ve had on this site? Like a post history or something. I need a good laugh and embarrassment
If anyone’s an “individual stat collector,” it’s Doncic. Along with on the NBA All Whine Team. Holliday is underrated, but doubtful his career will equal Paul’s career. CP3 is an excellent PG and I’d rather have him on my team over Kyrie, Doncic, and Lillard.
lmao at this point, with all of the haters out there, Chris Paul might actually be underrated. He’s 3rd all-time in assists and will pass Kidd for 2nd this year. Career .471/.369/.870 and he’ll probably end up around 35th all-time in scoring by the time he’s done. 11 time All-NBA and add in 9 time All-Defense. 3rd all-time in steals and will probably pass Kidd on that, too.
That game winner against the Spurs was pretty memorable
He will be able to teach them, he helped some of those OKC players a lot during the bubble season.
Whoever called this take a bow. Also didn’t think he would want to come to a rebuilding team, although judging by how they played down the stretch last season I don’t think the Spurs are going to be nearly as bad some may thinks. They aren’t ready to contend yet, but I think we could see them finishing close to .500.
Good mentor for Castle and obviously a good fit with Wemby.
bowing
I think whilst you are right…
I also think the Spurs want to be in next years lottery a lot more than this years…
Should be interesting to see how they manage their season…
I called the exact combination for the Spurs offseason a few weeks ago, draft Castle sign CP
An opportunity to add a veteran for one year to advance the development of Wemby and other young guys. Nothing more, nothing less
CP3 should submit his resume to the NBA front office.
This is a good deal for the Spurs. People will probably freak out about the money but it’s a one year deal and it shouldn’t be hard to find a deal if he asks to get moved at the deadline. In a best case scenario, this finally gives Wemby an actual point guard who can get him the ball and a guy who will get on the younger, inexperienced guys to actually pass the ball to Wemby too (it was embarassing how often Spurs players would completely miss the 7’4” player standing wide open in the paint as they were trying to stat chase themselves). Tre Jones is a solid point guard but is probably best suited coming off the bench and this gives the Spurs some freedom to move Jones in a trade either this offseason or closer to the deadline. Also allows the Spurs to be patient with Castle this year and let him slowly learn rather than throwing him right into the starting PG spot and expecting him to immediately slide in as Wemby’s sidekick.
‘Finally gives Wemby a Point Guard’ is a little melodramatic considering he’s played one season.
There is a 0.00% chance that the signing of CP3 impacts Jones in any way other than giving him someone to learn from. Pop loves how he plays, no chance they trade him.
I love this move for CP3 and for the Spurs. They need a point guard and a veteran presence. He needs the excitement and rejuvenation of being around Wemby and other young players.
And I imagine that Pop and CP3 will be a match of geniuses.
Hawks fans who were pushing for a Spurs trade for Trae have to be spewing…
Spurs made the smart choice here…
No lost assests and a massive upgrade to the maturity of their PG rotation…
CP3 should really help Wemby, Jones and Sochan a lot… Not so much this coming season… But he’ll help shape the teams ball handlers vision to get VW the ball…
If this is true. Then I tip my cap. CP3 is a man. Love his game. Sad others will only see 0 rings. He’s a G. And by the way Karl Malone and Charles Barkely have no rings and are 1rst ballot. CP3 should be first ballot. But might not be. Based on what he’s meant to the game… I’d vote him in.
Aside from the Webby attraction, also think he’s a solid mentor for Stephon Castle who they obviously view as the long term point guard next to Vassell.
Never been a fan of CP3 and wanted to Spurs to stay away from him. Don’t like his way of leadership and think it’s a net negative on most teams. He should have retired instead of taking the paycheck.
Give me Tyus Jones, hard pass on CP3.
I don’t like it for the Spurs.
Should have drafted Cody Williams with the 8th pick. Get another pick and get Mitchell in the draft. Maybe see if Mitchell or Nunez will be a future starter at PG, Castle at SG and some PG, Cody at SF, sochan PF is young (look for young PF on two way) and C Wemby is young, develop them together with veterans who care, start Tre, Vassel, Johnson, Sochan, Wemby, veterans on the bench. that’s what I would of done. Good trade bait
Ish Smith knows more then Paul
Stockton is light years better
Big mistake by Warriors. Wish GSW would have tried to keep CP3 at a discounted rate. A healthy starting five of Wiggins, Kuminga, Green, Curry, Paul would have been interesting to watch.
Dubs fans got CP3 stuff from CP3. Not gonna hate on the guy since he gave the Dubs exactly what we, as fans, expected of him. Wish him well.