He's back. After rumors swirled all offseason that Chris Paul was likely to return to the Los Angeles Clippers — for what he says will be his final NBA season — a deal was officially reached, according to Shams Charania. The 40 year-old point guard spent six years in Los Angeles, winning two assist titles and headlining some great teams alongside Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan.
Now back in Los Angeles for one more go-around, here's how the lineup may look with Paul officially in the mix.
Projected Clippers lineup after signing Chris Paul to one-year deal
Position | Starter | Backup |
|---|---|---|
Point guard | Chris Paul | Kris Dunn |
Shooting guard | James Harden | Bradley Beal |
Small forward | Kawhi Leonard | Bogdan Bogdanovic |
Power forward | John Collins | Nicolas Batum / Derrick Jones Jr. |
Center | Ivica Zubac | Brook Lopez |
For the record, I would probably not start Chris Paul on a team that wants to compete in 2025. But CP3 said he wants to go somewhere he can start, and if he had "multiple suitors" as Charania reported, then maybe the Clips told him he'd start in the backcourt alongside Harden.
If that's the case, I predict Bradley Beal gets pushed to a sixth man role or that Paul and Beal both start, Kawhi moves over to the power forward spot and John Collins comes off the bench. But when the season starts, I think Ty Lue runs a more traditional lineup with Collins at the four and Kawhi at small forward.
What does Chris Paul have left in the tank?
This is one of many questions that will determine how far the Clippers go in the postseason; Paul played all 82 games last year — a wildly impressive feat at 39 — and he's not heading back to Los Angeles as a feel-good story to close out his career. He's going to be a real contributor to a team that's done some serious work on the free agent market this offseason and if he can stay on the floor and be a setup man for the Clips' scoring options, he might somehow find more team success with this decrepit bunch than he did during his prime in the early 2010s.