Chris Paul is one of the biggest NBA stars that have contracts set to expire this offseason or, as in Paul’s case, have an early termination option that they are expected to exercise.
The star point guard will be 32 this offseason, so this is likely his last chance at a max contract offer and the Clippers will be able to give him the most money. That’s why it isn’t surprising to hear the latest reported news on Paul from Basketball Insiders’ Steve Kyler that Paul has reached a verbal agreement to re-sign with the Clippers this offseason once the new CBA kicks in.
The new CBA allows for Paul to sign a five-year deal with the Clippers worth 35 percent of the cap, if they so choose, which would lock in their star point guard until his age 37 season (the new CBA allows players to sign a five-year deal up through age 32 rather than age 30 as the previous CBA dictated). With Blake Griffin also coming up this year on an ETO, the Clippers could, theoretically, see 70 percent of their cap space go to those two players, which would almost certainly cause them to go well into the luxury tax zone.
Los Angeles is in a strange spot of being a team that has had its current pieces together for what’s felt like a long time, but they’ve yet to see all of their stars, Paul, Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, healthy together at the same time for a playoff push. Locking up Griffin and Paul would make future negotiations with Jordan (who can opt out of a player option after next season) tricky, but it appears as though Los Angeles is ready to move forward with their current core for the near future.
