The Los Angeles Lakers are interested in adding 12-time All-Star Chris Paul, but only for the right price — and not necessarily to be their starting point guard.

The Lakers are monitoring the Paul situation, but would only consider signing him as a free agent at the veteran's minimum, or possibly the mini-mid-level exception, according to the latest intel from Los Angeles Times' Lakers beat writers Dan Woike and Brad Turner.

Woike added this nugget:

“From what I’ve been told, the idea would be for Chris Paul to be a point guard on the team and not THE point guard due to age and injury concerns. Ideally, you’d find a player who can take the load off in the regular season to keep Paul fresh for the playoffs.”

The Phoenix Suns agreed to trade Paul to the Washington Wizards on Sunday (the deal is still processing, and could expand to include more teams). The 38-year-old would have to be bought out by the Wizards to open the door for the Lakers.

CP3's former team, the Los Angeles Clippers — who have an interest in a Paul-Russell Westbrook backcourt — have the contracts to trade for the veteran. Paul's salary for 2o23-24 is believed to have increased into the $27-30 million range in order to facilitate the Wizards trade. However, the boosted compensation could make Paul more open to accepting a buyout, as his new salary would likely be subtracted from his buyout agreement, anyway. (Paul's family is based in Los Angeles.)

The Lakers' offseason priority is to re-sign free agents Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura, which will put them into luxury tax territory. After that, they have to decide on whether Paul, D'Angelo Russell, Dennis Schroder, or a splashier, harder-to-acquire player (Fred VanVleet, Dejounte Murray, Trae Young, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard) will be their starting point guard. Signing Paul at the veteran's minimum is part of the Lakers' reported “Plan A”, in addition to retaining Reaves and Hachimura.

The Lakers can exceed the cap to re-sign Russell (likely in the $20 million range) and have the midlevel exception at their disposal. It's possible Schroder would take a chunk of the MLE and return as the backup behind Russell. The Lakers are also reportedly open to a guard rotation of Reaves, Russell, Schroder, and Paul, as long as Schroder and Paul agreed to modest contracts.

Paul wants to compete for a ring. If he wants to do that with the Lakers alongside old pal LeBron James, the first assist he could record would be taking lower than his market value.