It’s clear Chris Paul’s not going to the Clippers to start – Tim MacMahon | The Hoop Collective

It’s clear Chris Paul’s not going to the Clippers to start – Tim MacMahon | The Hoop Collective

So, um, we have some Los Angeles teams making, uh, transactions, uh, significant, uh, rotation transactions. The one that went down today, Chris Paul, uh, signing with the Clippers, a one-year deal for the minimum. Um, pretty good value for for a player who’s uh, was a full-time starter last year in uh, San Antonio. And I mean full-time, starting to get Yeah. Um, actually, I want to say something about the Clippers. I don’t know what um what it’s worth. Bobby uh Markx cooked up this number earlier. Um the guys on their bench and their second unit and you know if everybody’s healthy, which who knows, but the guys in their second unit and we’re talking basically Brook Lopez, Chris Paul, um uh Bradley Beal being the three core guys there. John Collins. Yeah, John Collins he says is a starter, but I think he has I would flip Collins and be, but we can we’ll discuss. Go on. Well, whatever. He has said they got 287 games of starting last year. So, they’ve got two starting units. Now, whether both of them should be starting units is a different um situation, but Chris Paul signs with the Clippers. Look, he could have signed somewhere else and gotten a bigger role. Milwaukee was in there, Dallas was in there. Um, not sure that would have been that Phoenix I don’t think I think Chris Paul was interested in Phoenix. I’m not sure the Suns were serious contenders for him at the end. Um, I would have been interested to see him. Uh, how would that D’Angelo Russell Chris Paul rotation have worked? Uh, McMahon, that would have been interesting. I think that one was more Danzel Russell or Chris Paul, but certainly Milwaukee was an option right up until the end. And listen, he probably he could have gone not probably, he could have gone to Milwaukee and been their starting point guard, right, this season. He chose to go back to the Clippers and he chose to take a smaller role to be a full-time dad is is one big factor. Yeah. So, here’s the thing I’m not sure about. So, first off, Chris Paul $3.6 million is an excellent value even at 40 years old. I think last year he still had a 7 to one and a half assist to turnover ratio. um you know, still very efficient um overall, still can run your offense, you know, still will be a great leader. Um but it was interesting the Clippers press release about this. Um Lawrence Frank is quote, he made it very clear, Chris is coming here to be a reserve guard. um which you know from what I understand James Harden was on board with this signing but you know McMahon you know just in case anybody had any doubts that James Harden will will be the starter and reserve guard was in there I think those were key words Chris Paul obviously came off the bench two years ago when he was traded to the Warriors he didn’t choose that situation but he was traded there and he came off the bench the majority of the games backing up Steph Curry um but he’s been a starter 98% of his career, 95% of his career. Um, so but I just think it’s interesting that the Clippers made very clear in their release. Chris Paul’s Kieran coming here to come off the bench and I’m sure he understands that. I’m sure Harden’s on the same page with everything like that. But um, just think it should be noted that that’s what the plan is. Yeah, that exact sentence is he is joining us as a reserve point guard and is excited to fill whatever role Tu asks him to play, which is interesting. Something something tells me that was a negotiated sentence one way or another. Yeah. And look, last year he went to San Antonio. I would say there were probably two major reasons that he went to the Spurs. Money and a starting role. They offered both. that was parts of, you know, part of the negotiation. This is very clear. He’s not coming to the Clippers to start. Um, you know, it’s it there’s no surprises here. There’s no, you know, uh, there shouldn’t be any bad blood, but there is going to be natural curiosity about how CP3 handles that, right? I mean, just CP3 on a minimum is a tremendous value addition. But is CP3 one of the most competitive, proudest dudes of this generation really going to be okay to come in as a backup who might even sit out from time to time? You know, might even be an occasional DNP CD behind James Harden. Um, and Chris Dunn. And why why would it be a DNP CD? I I don’t really understand that. He He’s going to immediately be one of the best backup point guards in the league. He was a solid average, if not above average starter last year. I mean, he didn’t score a ton, but like assist turnovers off the charts. He’s still he’s he had like I think five or six win shares last year. Like on a minimum, it’s a fantastic signing for the Clippers. If he plays 18 minutes a game off the bench when they have one guy who could currently dribble and if you count Bradley Beal two on the team, what like why wouldn’t he play every game? Because Chris Dunn has been their backup. Well, and there might be isn’t really a point guard. They could play together. I there might be nights where they say, “Hey, there there might be nights where Too says, “Hey, we need Chris Dunn’s on ball defense more than we need CP3 orchestrating. Why can’t they play both guys? They they they have they have one guy who could drop.” The point is this, the Clippers clearly don’t want that possibility to be something that would cause problems whether it happens or not. The Clippers want there to be the understanding of, hey, if TU decides one night, it’s best to to leave you out of the rotation. We got to roll with it. That That’s the point. Not Not whether it makes a regular basis. Sure. The guy the guy’s a 40-year-old point guard who signed a minimum deal. Like I I don’t know. Like the guy the guy is a first ballot hall of famer. Forget like Yes, I understand. I understand that. My point is he he could have as you guys laid out right he actively chose to not pick the places where he would have played more. So while in the past we all know how Chris has structured his choices on these things right this time the action here again actions over words. The action here very clearly says Chris wanted to be back home and that was all really that I think all of us had heard for months now was like whether it was Phoenix as you said Brian I don’t know what Phoenix’s level interest was whether it was Phoenix or LA after being away from Los Angeles for a while the motivation pretty clearly seemed to be to get back there and play and like I said to me he just fills a massive need for the Clippers Chris Dunn’s a nice player. I just think those two guys coming off the bench can fit quite well together. And then you roll out there with a second unit with Chris Dunn, Chris Paul, Nick Batum, John Collins, and Brook Lopez. That is a damn good second unit. Roll out there with those five guys and you’re going to be cooking if you’re the Clippers to me. Right. At the end of the day, the the Clippers season will be defined by the health of Kawhi Leonard and the effectiveness of James Harden. I would even just stop at the health of Kawhi Leonard. Period. That will define their but you need Harden to be effective when it matters. Yeah, Harden will be fine. But if Chris if Kawhi Leonard’s healthy, they’ve got a shot. They’ve got a shot. If he’s not healthy, they’re going to be a really good regular season team because they’re really deep. People got mad on Twitter today because I made a joke about the Expendables, the movie from all the 90s action heroes from 10, 12 years ago. And I so I think Clipper is going to be really good. Like we talked about the other day on the pod, I look at him like that. It’s a weird comparison because of all the star power, but I compare him sort of that Denver Nuggets team after the Carmelo trade where they had like 11 good players, no real superstars, and won 57 games before losing to Golden State in the first round. I don’t know if they have like championship ceiling because the all the questions about Kawhai’s health and obviously you have to assume he’s probably not going to be healthy just based off his track record, but they’ve got 10 11 really good players and they’re going to be able to roll guys out every night. backing up your expendables. Um, this is from stats. The Clippers rotation, this 11 deep that you’re talking about, the youngest of them is John Collins, who’s going to be 28 before the start of the season. So, those 11 guys, the youngest guy will be 28. And only two other teams have ever used 11 players in a game in a single game, not in your rotation that were where the youngest guy was 28. And that was the Clippers in 201617 which I think Chris Paul was in that he was older than 28. Uh which happened for one game. Yes. And in 1998 999 the Miami Heat did it for five games. So it’s happened it’s happened six times in the history of the league where you’ve had every 11 guys 28 or older. Yeah. And if you’re going to rely on really old players, you better have a lot of them, right? And that’s true. They have great depth. But Wendy, that gets back to your point about like Harden’s effectiveness absolutely is going to be a huge huge key for the Clippers. And you can argue the addition of Chris Paul, certainly on paper, should help Harden’s effectiveness for no other reason than it’s going to get Harden’s workload back to something that’s manageable. James Harden in his mid30s should not be fifth in the league in minutes. James Harden in his mid30s should not have multiple games where his minutes are up in the 40s and he’s not subbing out in You want to hear some of these guys in uh from the 1998 999 Miami Heat just for a little July fun. Sure. We’re talking gents like Keith Asins, the great Keith Asins, PJ Brown, Blue Edwards, Tim Hardaway, Van Leonard, Dan Marley, Jamal Mashurn. Aspirin must have been the youngest on that in that group. He must maybe he was out for a game. Maybe he was out for you know he he wasn’t 28 then so maybe he was out for a game a couple or a couple of games. Terry Mills, Lonzo Morning, Terry Porter. Those are the Clarence Witherstone. Those were your 1998 999. I guarantee it was it was when uh must have been when um when Mashurn was out. Yeah. But uh anyway, um I will say this, if you look at what the Clippers did with their their off season. So they gave James Harden a contract. I think I mentioned this the other day where it was just enough money where he got a raise. He got a $6 million raise, but they kept the full midlevel open. Mid-level and bianual. They or not the bianual. I think they were just able to use the mid-level, I think. No. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You’re right. You’re right. I’ve Because they split it. You’re right. So they um they gave 9 million of it like 8.75 to Brook Lopez. They gave uh the rest of their mid-level 5.3 in change or something like that to Bradley Beal. So that’s what they split their mid-level, their $14.5 million mid-level between those two guys. And then they give Chris Paul this minimum. So they spend about $18 million and they get Chris Paul, Brook Lopez, and Bradley Beal. three guys who I mean Beiel did come off the bench for 15 games last year, but basically three guys who were starters last year. So that’s value. Yeah, they essentially turned Norm Powell into those three guys and John Collins. Like they got a lot deeper and they were already a deep team. Like I think like they’re going to be I think a really really really good g team over 82 games next year. And then like I said, as far as the 16 game part, like James Harden will be who James Harden has been for a while, assuming he stays healthy. I there everything with them just comes down to what version of Kawawaii are they going to get and will he show up? And I certainly can understand anybody who would say, “Yeah, I’m not going to bet on Kawhai.” But to me, if you’re if you’re looking at overunders for next season, despite having all these old dudes, like to McMahon’s point, they have so many good players that they can rotate guys through and still have an eight or nine man rotation every night that’s going to be really good and at least two deep at every position. I can’t wait for our overunder bet that’s forthcoming in September or October this year. I I think we probably both are pretty high on the Clippers here. I I do think like the idea of Bradley Beal coming off the bench. I don’t see that happening. He’s going to start. Okay. I was going to say he did not enjoy coming off the bench for the 15 games he did in Phoenix. Brad’s Brad’s going to step right into the Norm Powell role, right? And now, but John Collins I do see coming off the bench because for for a couple reasons. one, it’s a like the Clippers, as you said, Wendy, the number one factor for the Clippers is Kawhai’s health. If you want to maximize Kawhai’s chances of staying healthy, you can’t give him the toughest assign defensive assignment in the starting lineup. And you’re not going to give it to Beal, you’re not going to give it to Harden, you’re not giving it to John Collins. So, you’ve got to get a primary defender in there. And if Tyoo asked for my advice, I’d say, hey, you start Derek Jones Jr. because that’s the guy who can guard one through four. And then you you’ve got Chris Dunn as an on ball guy coming off the bench. You got Nick Batum who’s can still guard on ball, but much more of like a, you know, a thinking man’s defender, a hands guy. You know, you’ve still got really good defenders in the second lineup. Plus to me, you want John Collins one playing with Brook Lopez as often as possible. I think those two guys offensive game comp wouldn’t be a better Chris Paul throw some lobs to John Collins, right? That’s what they’re running pick and roll with Brook Lopez space in the floor and then you know either way Collins is going to be paired with a really good defensive center but you prefer for him to be guarding backups as often as possible as opposed to starters. Yeah, I mean that’s clearly what they’re going to do. They’ll roll out there with Harden Beal assuming everybody’s healthy which is a big assumption with the Clippers. We’ll knock on some wood. Um, Harden Beal, Kawawaii, Derek Jones, and Zubot. I’m I’m almost certain we’ll start. And then again, you’ve got a second unit of Chris Paul, Chris Dunn, Nick Batum, John Collins, and Brook Lopez. You got some you got shooting. You got multiple guys who can defend there like that. That that’s a killer second unit. So, I think I’m, like I said, I’m I’m pretty bullish on the Clippers. I think they’ve done a really nice job this off season. Obviously, it’s going to be tough for anybody to catch Oklahoma City, but when you look at um when you look at the work they’ve done and the way they’ve deepened their rotation without sacrificing any assets to do so, like I think they’ve really maximized their off season and have given themselves a chance to have another really good year. 47 and a half is the ESPN bet number. I mean, which is odd because they won more than that last year in their bet. They won 50, didn’t they? Win 50. Yes, that I don’t give gambling advice. I’ll give rotation advice. I don’t give gambling advice, but I I think there also are there’s also five teams they’re sixth in the West in uh in in terms of where they rank in their overunder. I will bet the over on the Clippers finishing sixth. Jackson has Thunder Rockets, Nuggets, Wolves, and Lakers ahead of them. Actually, I’ll give gambling advice if I get to share the winnings, but I’m not contributing to the losing. Want to try to post what I look like [Music] [Applause] [Music] on the season.

On The Hoop Collective, Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon join Brian Windhorst to discuss the Los Angeles Clippers singing Chris Paul.

0:00 Chris Paul signs with the Clippers
0:52 Bradley Beal signs with the Clippers
2:38 Is James Harden on board with this?
3:30 What will Chris Paul’s role be?
10:50 The Clippers’ starting lineup
12:23 Clippers’ depth chart
13:41 Can Kawhi stay healthy?

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