NBA Execs: "Hard To See" Chris Paul Not Landing With One Certain Team


With the status of Chris Paul in Phoenix still up in the air (new reports suggest he has not yet been released, but they are discussing it), thoughts of his next destination come to mind.

And according to NBA executives all over the league, it seems a given that the Los Angeles Lakers are the team to watch. 

Sean Deveney of Heavy Sports, in fact, reports that every single NBA exec he spoke to sees CP3 finally uniting with his good friend LeBron James.

“Lakers first,” one Eastern Conference GM said. “It’s not definite, a lot can happen. But you’d have to start there. He always had (the) dream of being a Laker (and) playing with LBJ (James).”

Of course, Paul was traded to the Lakers way back in 2011, in the infamous non-trade that then-commissioner David Stern vetoed. 

As for June, 2023, the Suns are considering a number of options with their future Hall of Fame point guard: They could buy him out for the $15M guaranteed money left on his deal (it becomes $30.8M on June 28) and let him become a free agent; they could trade him; or they could try to bring him back on a lesser deal.

But if he does become a free agent and they let him go, it seems that insiders feel there's only one destination that makes sense. 

"If it is a straight kind of thing, just giving (Paul) the $15 million and moving on, and everything else is equal, it is hard to imagine him not going to the Lakers,” said one NBA exec. 

Photo: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports