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The San Antonio Spurs Are Exploring How To Make Signing Chris Paul Possible

The San Antonio Spurs have arguably been the most consistent and best team over the past 20 years. Since the 1997–98 season, the Spurs have had 20 consecutive seasons with a winning percentage of .610 or better. They’ve also won five Championships during that time-span.

The Spurs do have one of the best players in the league in Kawhi Leonard, who is still young and who is just reaching his prime, but also plenty of stars who are past their prime, nearing retirement. Tim Duncan retired a year ago, Manu Ginobili may retire this summer, Tony Parker, who plans to play for a couple of more years, is regressing, so is Pau Gasol.

It’s obvious; the team needs new players, if they want to continue their path of success. We know that they’ll probably draft a guy, no one had on his board, who will develop into a superstar, but on top of that, the Spurs are trying to add another superstar to the team. This superstar could be Chris Paul.

According to Marc Stein, the Spurs are really trying to make a Chris Paul deal possible:

“The San Antonio Spurs are exploring the feasibility of making a free-agent run at All-Star point guard Chris Paul, league sources told ESPN.”

But for Chris Paul to become a member of the Spurs family, there are a lot of variables that need to be negotiated. First and foremost, the Spurs need to clear cap space. They need to convince Pau Gasol to option out of his contract, and possibly re-sign for a lot less (This is very unlikely, as Pau Gasol has already won two Championships, and is in no need to chase a third). On top of that, the Spurs would need to get rid of 2 max contracts. Dealing LaMarcus Aldridge would seem to be the most realistic option.

Chris Paul would also need to accept a deal worth less, than what he would possibly get if he stayed with the Los Angeles Clippers. The Spurs’ projected max deal would be worth $152 million over four years, the deal the Clippers could offer him would be worth $205 million over five years. It may not seem this much of a difference, but the 5th year could become a key factor considering that Paul will be 36 years old, once the four years have past.

Will the Spurs make a deal possible? Will Chris Paul sign? This is still beyond the horizon. But knowing the Spurs, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if they were able to pull it off somehow.