Chris Paul STRONGLY Linked To LA, Marcus Smart Signing & More

Chris Paul STRONGLY Linked To LA, Marcus Smart Signing & More

The LA teams making moves. Marcus Smart to the Lakers, Bradley Beal to the Clippers, and maybe Chris Paul as well. What it all means. I’m Trevor Lane. This is the Basketball Bulletin. Subscribe right here to the channel. Turn on those notifications. Donnie Freeman joining me. Donnie, we a little bit of action here in in July, later on, past the free agency period or the bulk of it. Anyway, nice to have some stuff still going off around the NBA. Yeah, typically by now most of these rosters are set and we kind of just summer league ended and we’re just kind of twiddling our thumbs, but thankfully there’s still not only the moves that we got recently, but there’s still a couple more moves to be made. You know, we still have those guys that are linked to the Warriors out there, Chris Paul, some of these other guys. So, there’s still going to be a little bit of stuff out here. And technically, summer league is still going, but it’s over for the Lakers. Well, well, okay. Well, it’ll true. And a lot of guys have been shut down and all that. Yeah, it’ll be over soon anyway. says it. Uh, so Clippers GM Lawrence Frank said the team is strongly considering Chris Paul as a free agent. You normally don’t hear teams talk about free agents like this unless they’re like legit. They’re they’re going to sign him. Strongly consider like pretty clearly they’re going to sign Chris Paul. What do you think about that back court uh that now has James Harden, Brad Beal, Chris Paul being added into the mix? What do you think about those guys together? Um, so the other day we did a video and I questioned the the age and health and all that stuff of the Warriors. Uh, I also have those exact same assuming that the Warriors bring in like Horford and stuff. Uh, but I also still have those same concerns with them, but I also have them with the Clippers, particularly if they add Chris Paul to the fold. Now, the thing with that is is that Chris Paul uh played all 82, was really good last year, averaged about seven or eight assists per game, was was solid. He only wants to go to one of these two teams, either them or Phoenix. And I think Phoenix has kind of got this quasi youth thing going on. I’m not sure that they they have a starting spot for a guard, but I don’t know that he should go there. Uh, and he’s closer to where he wants to be in LA. But, um, I like it. I I do think I like it. Um, you’ve got 48 minutes of point guard play between him and Harden. Uh, and then Beal and Dunn can also go out there and play the offguard, offball player. Beal can create free if you need to. It’s just like I said, I do have that injury concern, health concern, uh, relative to age and all that stuff, but it’s interesting. Yeah. You know, when I look at at Chris Paul and I look at him potentially joining these Clippers, he’s he’s yet another older player, but the Clippers also have a very clear two-year timeline that they’re working with. And and so I don’t fault him. If your timeline is two years and you have Kawhi Leonard and you have James Harden, th this is probably your best bet is to add pieces like this, like Chris Paul, like Brad Beal. Talentwise, they’re they’re still certainly very good, but like you said, the injury history will be a concern and it’ll be a concern with Marcus Smart as well, but when you have players who are older, they do tend to pick up injuries at a higher rate. It takes them longer to recover. And so this is a Clippers team where the ceiling is high, but the floor can also be very low if the injury bug does hit them as we’ve seen it happen uh in the past. I was impressed if he played all 82 last year, right? But you wouldn’t bet on that happening again. No. Uh not as like a late30s what I don’t know if he’s 40 yet, but late30s six-foot guard. I wouldn’t bet on that happening again. But I think he plays within himself uh at a certain pace and that may shield him from that. And if the if you’re the Clippers, you may want to pace him, right? You want to pace him out there. Like you can you can run some of your other guys and maybe just play Chris Paul 12 minutes a night and he’s the most talented guy on the market still. So that’s still a great upgrade. So now one other thing to note here is uh according to Lawrence Frank, James Harden’s pay cut allowed them to sign Brad Beal and Brook Lopez. So, you know, there’s a little bit of of synergy there on the team where I think there’s a there there’s a situation where the guys all recognize, hey, we’re going to do what we need to do to go try to win right now. They know how long their NBA lifespan as a team is. They know this is a two-year window and that’s it. Some of them won’t make it past a year, but they know this is a two-year window for this group, and that’s it. It’s done. Then they’re going to pivot. The Clippers are going to go a different way in 2027, and that’s the way all their all their contracts are structured. So, right now, Kawawaii Harden, this iteration of the Clippers has a two-year run. Chris Paul, Brad Beal in the fold. We’ll see what they can do. I think this puts a lot of pressure defensively on Chris Dunn to be a very, very good and night innight out player because there’s not a lot of defense between Harden, Paul, and uh Brad Beal. But that being said, we saw the cross town Lakers, who, let’s be real, run most of LA. Most LA fans followed the the Lakers. Um, they wound up with Marcus Smart. If the Clippers had it all to do over again, and I’m sure they knew behind the scenes, but if they had their choice, do you think they would have picked Brad Beal or Marcus Smart? Uh, Beal. I think I think Beal is is the because Beal approximates what they had last year uh with Powell. Yeah. And quietly Harden has turned a lot of players into like having career years, resurgent years, you know, Powell Embiid a couple years ago. They their their twoman game was lethal. Harden has been a really good lead guard. Uh and I don’t know if adding Marcus Smart, who is a lesser scorer than Beal, into the fold, would be the right decision. And I I talk about or you talk about the the defensive concerns, you know, after like Chris Dunn and stuff like that, but they also do have Derrick Jones. They’ve got 48 minutes of great rim protection. Yeah. Like they’ve got and then Kawawaii is still there, too. Like they’ve got they they were one of the top defenses last year, you know, even with some of the same concerns. And I think that they should be at least like a top seven or eight one at worst this year as well. So I do hold them in high regard defensively. Um, you can maybe make an argument to say they should have targeted Smart, but I think that Beal again does what they needed more from that position after losing Powell. And then you also add in Collins, too. You you think even with the backcourt, Chris Paul, Harden, Beal, they’re still be good good enough defensively? Yeah, because what they’re going to do is they’re going to funnel a lot of those guys in and they’re going to chase over the top. So, that’s mostly what they’re going to do and and that’s how they’re going to play and they’re going to mask that. Now, the questions will elevate as you get into like the playoffs where, you know, rotations come down, things like that, and at that point, you’re like, “Okay, is Chris Paul actually a part of our rotation in the playoffs?” I don’t know. But just as an innings eater during the regular season, I think they’ll be fine. And I also have less injury concerns about a guy like Chris Paul than I do uh Smart. But if if the pendulum swings to Beal, I think Beal also is due for a bounceback year. He was quietly pretty good uh on offense last year uh for the Suns as well. Just was underutilized. Had, I believe, a career low usage, things like that. And I think Harden will put him in a position to be able to to get the most out of it. So, some of that’s going to be like defending with your offensive production as well, like the best defense being offense in that case for them. Um, but I do think again with all the rim production they have, I think they’ll be fine. And then you got Derrick Jones, you’ve got Chris as well. Like I think in a Kawawaii, I think you can I think you could be fine. But I do see the concern like with with those guards, you know, that that is a concern, don’t get me wrong, because there’s a lot of quick guards. I don’t know how they really guard that outside of Chris Dunn. It’s it’s troublesome. Now, I would say as well that with with the Lakers, the situation they’re in, they probably got the better guy for them if they had to pick between like I do think you could make an argument that Brad Beal does more to replicate what Norm Powell was giving the Clippers before they moved him. And the Clippers, I’ve talked about it before. It’s almost like they got John Collins for free because Norman Powell just kind of morphed into Brad Beal and now you’ve got John Collins added to your roster as well. And so I thought it was really smart the way they did that. But if you’re the Lakers, I think Brad Beal is probably right now the more talented player between the two. But if you’re telling me and both guys are injury question marks, Smart Beal, both guys injury question marks. But if you told me both guys are going to be healthy, I think Marcus Smart is the better fit for what the Lakers need as well when we look at a team that already has Austin Reeves, Luca Donic, LeBron James. They’ve got those guys to score the ball. They’re more needy on the defensive side of things. And so I think you could argue both LA teams got the guy that they needed the most in this situation. Yeah, I’d agree with you. And and again to throw Chris Paul back in the mix because that’s a three three guard mix for me between those two. and CP. I think I think that the Lakers in this equation got the player that fits them best because they needed that particular skill set. Yeah. Out of the three. I think they needed that particular skill set the most. And I think like I said earlier, the Clippers, you could make an argument for Smart. I just think it could get a little bit clunky uh having him and Dun in your back court, things like that. I think it get a little bit clunky. You may have to stagger those guys uh and move on from there. But I do like, you know, if you’re going to put like Harden with one of those guys. But yeah, I think for the Lakers that’s the case. And for the Clippers, getting two of the three guys is also great in and of itself, assuming they do also sign CP as well. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So look, we’re seeing moves get made and there’s more to come because there’s still guys out there. Malcolm Brogden, Russell Westbrook, Ben Simmons, Amir Coffee. There’s still some players out there on the market. We’ve got teams that are still talk of trades. The Suns, absolutely. We’ll talk about them uh a little later on. The the Suns are looking to make moves. All kinds of teams are still doing business right now even though we are here into the heart of July. So everybody, that is my roundabout way of saying make sure you hit the subscribe button right here on the basketball bulletin. Don’t forget to turn on those notifications as well and let us know in the comments section which LA team made out best. The Clippers getting Brad Beal getting Chris Paul perhaps. It looks like that’s what the way this is heading or the Lakers getting Marcus Smart. Give us your thoughts in the comment section down below. Till next time everybody. See you and stay safe.

In this video Trevor Lane and Donnie Freeman discuss the Clippers rumored addition of Chris Paul and his fit with Bradley Beal and James Harden, plus compare it to the Lakers landing Marcus Smart…which team got the best fit?

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