NBA Offseason 2020: 5 potential landing spots for Chris Paul

The Oklahoma City Thunder seem ready to move on from Chris Paul. Here are five NBA teams that should put an offer together.

Following a first-round playoff exit and the departure of head coach Billy Donovan, the Oklahoma City Thunder are on a one-way track to a full-scale rebuild.

They promoted a developmental assistant to head coach in Mark Daigneault, would’ve had a hard time competing for Danilo Gallinari’s services in free agency (even if they wanted to re-sign him), and now, reports are surfacing that they’re talking with the Phoenix Suns about a potential Chris Paul trade.

It’s no surprise CP3 is on the trade block with two years and $85.5 million left on his contract. He spent all of 2019-20 breathing life into his trade value, averaging 17.6 points, 6.7 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game on .489/.365/.907 shooting splits while leading the Thunder to the 5-seed in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.

But even with his superb mentorship of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Paul is 35, and OKC is mired in a rebuild through youth. Cashing in on his value is the No. 1 priority on Sam Presti’s offseason checklist, and if he’s on the block, these five teams should put together an offer.

Honorable Mention: Dallas Mavericks

Let’s start with an improbable trade candidate that’s too fun to leave out: the Dallas Mavericks.

The biggest problem here is Tim Hardaway’s $19 million player option, and even if he made things easy for both teams and agreed to accommodate, Presti would have to really like Dwight Powell ($33.2 million remaining over three years) and Delon Wright (two years, $17.5 million) to agree to an offer like this.

Still, if the Thunder did want to add a few capable role players and pocket an extra first-rounder in the process, this would be fairly decent compensation for a 35-year-old with no long-term future in OKC. As for the Mavs, they’d be sacrificing a fair amount of depth for only a one- or two-year title window, but a Big 3 of CP3, Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis would be pretty damn sweet … and it’d more than satisfy their reported craving for a third star.