Boston Celtics Rumors: 3 rumored Atlantic Division trades and how they affect the C’s
New York finally lands Chris Paul
The idea of Chris Paul coming to the New York Knicks has been one rumored to be in the makings on and off for the past decade. Now, it appears the front office is as set as ever to finally acquire the future first ballot Hall of Fame point guard.
"“I think there are still people with the Knicks who feel that bringing Chris Paul onto this roster at this time would jumpstart the franchise’s effort to build a winning culture, to give these young players winning habits,” Begley said, also noting that New York’s new team president Leon Rose is Paul’s former agent."
Despite being on the wrong side of 30 — 35 to be exact — CP3 still proved to have what it takes to produce and thrive in the NBA, which was made evident by his selection to the All-Star game this past February. Through 63 games played Paul finds himself averaging 17.7 points, 6.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game on 50 percent shooting from the floor and 36 percent shooting from three.
Largely due to his excellence, by the time of the league’s suspension on March 10th the once seemingly rebuilding Oklahoma City Thunder — who traded away their star centerpieces in Russell Westbrook and Paul George this past offseason — found themselves comfortably in the playoff race, boasting a record of 40-24, good enough for the fifth seed in the Western Conference.
However, despite his impressive production thus far, it is very likely we’ll see Paul on the trading block this offseason. With the fact that he’s still under contract for the next two seasons and will be making $44 million by the time of his 37-year-old campaign in 2021-22, Sam Presti may feel compelled to look into options of how to offload the veteran guard to allow more flexibility in the coming seasons.
An aging player on an albatross contract up for grabs? You better believe the Knickerbockers will be in the running to get their hands on such an asset.
If this were to turn out to be the case, and they managed to bring on Paul, it would likely have little to no impact whatsoever on the Boston Celtics. Yes, he has shown to still have the ability to produce at a high level, but New York needs a lot more than just him to be an actual threat or, frankly even a good team by the time the 2020-21 season rolls around.
A hypothetical lineup of Chris Paul, RJ Barrett, Kevin Knox, (insert a random power forward here), and Mitchell Robinson might produce at a higher rate than what their current starting unit does, but they still wouldn’t hold a candle to the actual one the C’s roll out on a nightly basis.
Sure, Chris Paul would likely be the best player the organization has rostered in quite some time, but would he make the team an actual threat to the Boston Celtics’ claim as a top dog in the Atlantic Division?
Absolutely not.