In what was one of the bigger deals of the 2019 offseason, the Houston Rockets traded Chris Paul to the Thunder for Russell Westbrook. Now, with the NBA's trade deadline drawing near for this campaign, it seems Paul might be stuck in Oklahoma City, as his contract is simply too high for most teams to take on.
NBC Sports' Tom Haberstroh recently polled NBA executives to gauge their rationale on Paul's situation in OKC. Their sense is that the 34-year-old point guard will be forced to remain with his new team.
After polling executives, the league-wide sense is that Paul will remain with the Thunder this season simply because of his enormous contract. While it’s theoretically possible that Paul could agree to turn down his $44 million player option for 2021-22 to grease the wheels on a potential trade, right now, that is the longest of long shots. Besides overcoming the idea of giving up 44 million buckaroos, Paul is also the president of the players’ union and it would be a bad look to set that precedent of turning down that amount of money to make it more palatable to a team.
Whether or not Paul will remain with the Thunder for the entirety of this season remains to be seen. Though his contract is pricey, he could serve as a fine addition to a lot of teams — if they can afford his services. The former No. 4 overall pick has played in 24 games this season, racking up averages of 15.7 points on 44.9 percent shooting from the field (35.9 percent from beyond the arc), 6.1 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 31.1 minutes per outing.
OKC fell to 11-13 with Wednesday night's 94-93 loss to the Sacramento Kings. The Thunder will look to get back into the win column on Saturday, when they take on the Denver Nuggets inside the Pepsi Center.
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