Future outlook: How OKC Thunder build from here
By Aidan E
It didn’t take a genius to figure out Chris Pauls contract he signed last summer with the Houston Rockets was going to be a negative in the future. There are very few players in the history of the league that would even come close to being worth the amount Chris Paul will be earning at the age of 36.
Chris Pauls contract:
- 2019-2020: $38,506,482 (34)
- 2020-2021: $41,358,814 (35)
- 2021-2022 (PO): $44,211,146 (36)
I highly doubt Chris Paul wants to spend his remaining years on a team with very little chance of making the playoffs, so the only logical answer is to trade him. However, a trade might be tricky and hard to put together given his massive contract.
Once again, Miami remains a team that could be of interest according to Woj. Here is what a hypothetical Heat trade could look like:
Attaching an asset to get off a contract might be a hard pill to swallow for Presti, but with Chris Paul’s albatross contract, Presti might have to part with a pick or two in order to get the deal done. In an interview on CBS Sports, The Athletic Senior Writer and NBA Insider Shams Charania offered his take on Chris Paul’s value, which summed up is essentially nothing.
In this deal, OKC would be losing the pick they acquired in the Jerami Grant trade but gaining significant salary cap room (and taking them out of the luxury tax) in the future and gaining two mediocre stop gap players for this rebuilding roster.