The Clippers projected to be able to offer Chris Paul a five-year, $201 million contract that would have culminated with a $46 million salary in his final season.
Did they offer that much before sending him to the Rockets?
Just as one side is trying to pin all the Clippers’ problems on Doc Rivers and Austin Rivers, the Clippers surely want to spin Paul’s exit to another way – that they shrewdly chose when to part ways rather than that they lost the best player in franchise history due to nepotism.
David Aldridge of NBA.com:
Clips, unwilling to give CP3 nearly $45M at age 37 in the last year of a near $200M max deal, cut losses & agreed to (pending) deal w/Rox.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) June 28, 2017
Ramona Shelburne of ESPN:
Big Detail: The Clippers had not yet committed to give Chris Paul the full five-year max contract of $201 million.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) June 28, 2017
There was still strong internal debate on whether the team should pay $45 million in the final year of a deal to a 37-year-old player.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) June 28, 2017
If Paul really wanted that five-year max, he could have pushed harder for it by bringing counter offers to the Clippers in July rather than engineering his way to Houston before free agency even began.
Would the Clippers have eventually relented and offered the five-year max? We can never know for certain.
But it’s pretty clear why the Clippers would want this version out there. Accurate or not, it makes them seem far more on top of things and is less likely to taint them with free agents they covet in 2018.
