Clippers to make 40 year history with their biggest free agent aquisition. Wake up Lakers!
The Los Angeles Times, citing two sources close to the situation, reported late Sunday that the Clippers are close to landing their biggest free agent acquisition in the franchise's 40-year history in a trade that would bring them All-Star point guard Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets.
The Hornets would receive much-needed size in 7-0 center Chris Kaman (12.4 ppg, 7.0 rpg), a promising second-year point guard in Eric Bledsoe (6.7 ppg, 3.6 apg, 1.1 spg), an athletic second-year small forward in Al-Farouq Aminu (5.6 ppg, 3.3 rpg) and the Clippers' unprotected 2012 draft pick via the Minnesota Timberwolves, according to the Times.
Paul, who is slated to become a free agent after 2011-12, will make $16.3 million this season. He asked for a trade to the Lakers a week ago because he wouldn't sign an extension to stay in New Orleans. That deal also would've involved the Houston Rockets, but it was rejected by the league which owns the Hornets. The Lakers then backed out of reworking it for Paul.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was one of the owners who objected to the three-way trade because it was loaded with aging veterans with lengthy contracts and lacked building blocks for the future. The possible deal with the Clippers would appear to address those concerns.
The Clippers aimed for Paul when teams were allowed to begin talking with players' representatives on Dec. 2. They quickly fell out of the running but re-emerged.
Neil Olshey, Clippers vice president of basketball operations , has been determined to get a player of Paul's caliber without parting with his centerpieces: Power forward Blake Griffin (22.5 ppg, 12.1 rpg) is coming off a dominant Rookie of the Year season and and shooting guard Eric Gordon (22.3 ppg) is entering his fourth year.
Coming into free agency, the Clippers had more than $12 million in salary cap space because of several expiring contracts.
"I think we're still one major piece away," Olshey told USA TODAY in February. "We need one more major player to join this team."
If the trade proposal gets finalized and approved by the league, Olshey will have succeeded. Paul is a game-changer. He averaged a career-low 15.8 points and 9.8 assists last season, but can contribute in so many other ways.
Paul spearheaded one of the NBA's best defensive teams in the Hornets by averaging 4.1 rebounds and 2.4 steals.
Chris Paul's introduction will raise Clippers starting line up scorers list to four.
No comments:
Post a Comment