Golden State Warriors - Acquired via trade in July 2023
- Birthdate: 05/06/1985
- Drafted (NBA): 4th pick, 2005
- Pre-draft team: Wake Forest
- Country: USA
- Hand: Right
- Agent: Leon Rose (Creative Artists Agency)
| Date | League | Transaction |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 NBA Draft | NBA | Drafted 4th overall by New Orleans. |
| 5th July, 2005 | NBA | Signed four year, $14,714,549 rookie scale contract with New Orleans. Included team options for 2007/08 and 2008/09. |
| 25th October, 2006 | NBA | New Orleans exercised 2007/08 team option. |
| 28th October, 2007 | NBA | New Orleans exercised 2008/09 team option. |
| 9th July, 2008 | NBA | Signed a four year maximum value ($62,609,912) extension with New Orleans. Included player option for 2012/13. |
| 14th December, 2011 | NBA | Traded by New Orleans, along with a 2015 second round pick (#47, Arturas Gudaitis) and a conditional 2015 second round pick (Memphis's pick; Memphis's right to choose between sending the pick or $350,000 cash; cash sent instead, thus pick not conveyed), to L.A. Clippers in exchange for Eric Gordon, Al-Farouq Aminu, Chris Kaman and a 2012 first round pick (#10, Austin Rivers). Concurrently exercised 2012/13 player option. |
| 10th July, 2013 | NBA | Re-signed by L.A. Clippers to a five year, $107,343,480 contract. Included early termination option after 2016/17 season. |
| 28th June, 2017 | NBA | Declined to exercise early termination option. |
| 28th June, 2017 | NBA | Traded by L.A. Clippers to Houston in exchange for Montrezl Harrell, Patrick Beverley, Kyle Wiltjer, Sam Dekker, DeAndre Liggins, Lou Williams, Darrun Hilliard, a 2018 first round pick and cash. |
| 7th July, 2018 | NBA | Re-signed by Houston to a four year, $159,730,592 contract. Included player option for 2021/22. |
| 2003 - 2005 | Wake Forest (NCAA) |
| June 2005 - December 2011 | New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans (NBA) |
| December 2011 - June 2017 | L.A. Clippers (NBA) |
| June 2017 - present | Houston Rockets (NBA) |
June 29, 2018
Chris Paul
PG – 6’0, 175lbs - 33 years old - 13 years of experience
Chris Paul came to the Houston Rockets to win. He came to finally break the seemingly interminable streak of first round playoff exits that had come to define his time with the LA Clippers. To achieve post season success commensurate with his Hall of Fame individual talent. And he did. Indeed, were it not for his own incredibly ill-timed injury against the Golden State Warriors, Chris Paul would been an NBA finalist and, no doubt, an NBA champion this season.
Worries about how Paul would coexist alongside James Harden were quickly assuaged. Paul deferred to Harden regularly, and wisely, in a way that should not be retrospectively considered as automatic for a Hall of Fame-calibre point guard like himself to have done. He works well with the bench units ensuring the Rockets did not fall off a cliff whenever Harden went out of the game, shot more three-pointers (especially in isolation) in accordance with the Rocket’s Isoball style, and yet never went too far away from the mid-range areas he thrived in hitherto. With scoring, playmaking and defence, he generally was the perfect sidekick.
Going forward, no one seems to have any doubt that Paul will re-sign with the Rockets this summer for the maximum value contract he could have gotten last summer. The back end of that contract might get a little tasty, as Paul enters the last few years of his career. He is carrying an injury history into that back end. But the championship window is only open for as long as he is there, and that is the price of keeping it open. So be it. Pay the man.
Player Plan: Expiring $24,599,495 contract. Pay the man, but the number of years on the assumed maximum salary will be key. It will be diminishing returns after two, but the cost of doing business will very likely be longer than that.
June 29, 2017
Chris Paul
PG, 6’0, 175lbs, 32 years old, 12 years of experience
Despite advancing age, Paul does not seem to have lost anything. His slight downward trends in some statistical categories come only as a result of rightly managed minutes. Still one of the best defensive point guards in the game, if not the best, and still able to take over a game offensively, even if he often doesn’t. To retain him means to likely overpay him in the back end of a new contract, with no guarantees that revenues and BRI will rise enough to offset the huge percentage of the salary cap his contract would take up. But to lose him means to disappear from relevance.
Player Plan: Has exercised an ETO and will become a UFA. The price to re-sign him would be the max, almost certainly for five years. Pay it.
July 2, 2010
But don't be mistaken. Collison's awesome rookie season does not make Chris Paul available for trade. The only way Chris Paul gets traded is if Chris Paul demands it. And if the Hornets succumb to that pressure before they do everything possible to better the team - which includes, but is not limited to, getting value for that Peja Stojakovic expiring - then they should be ashamed. Darren Collison is good, but Chris Paul is an all-time calibre point guard. You don't trade all-time calibre point guards just to move Emeka Okafor.