Should LA Clippers Trade Chris Paul?

On Friday afternoon I was listening to the Mason and Ireland show on ESPN 710 and an interesting proposal came about. Lakers play-by-play announcer John Ireland proposed that the Los Angeles Clippers should trade Chris Paul for Cleveland Cavalier All-Star Kyrie Irving.

Upon hearing it I quickly gasped at the ridiculous trade. Why would the Clippers move arguably the best point guard in the NBA? As I continued to listen to the radio program, Ireland laid out some good points. Then I started to warm up to the idea.

Irving unfortunately will miss the rest of the NBA Finals due to a broken kneecap. He had successful surgery on Saturday and will be out for 3-4 months. He also signed a 5 year $90 million rookie extension in 2014. When healthy, the 23-year-old guard is one of the quickest players in the entire league. He has exceptional ball-handling skills and is a deadly three-point shooter. Like Chris Paul, he’s never played a full 82-game season. Paul completed his first full season injury-free in the 2014-15 season.

Irving averaged 21.7 PPG and 5.2 assists while shooting 46-percent from the field and a career-high 41-percent from three. In his three-year career, Irving has earned rookie of the year honors and named MVP of an All-Star game, which probably convinced LeBron James to take his talents back to his hometown of Cleveland.

What can we say about Chris Paul’s greatness? He’s always been at the top of the totem pole of point guards. He’s one of the best defensive guards in the league. He’s also the best distributor in the NBA and is the perfect model for the point guard position.  CP3 averaged 19 points and dished out 10 assists in the 2014-15 season.

So why trade him?

Reports surfaced after LA was eliminated (again) from the playoffs that there was a rift between Paul and DeAndre Jordan. Jordan had an outstanding season defensively for the Clippers. It’s almost a no-brainer that he will get a max-deal from the Clips. Moreover, Jordan is besties with LA’s other All-Star Blake Griffin. There have also been whispers that Paul hasn’t fully gotten along with Griffin. That can’t be good for a team who can’t get out of the second round of the playoffs. By the way, the two BFF’s are vacationing in Cabo together.

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Chris Paul acknowledged that his championship window is rapidly approaching before the playoffs started. The 30-year-old guard out of Wake Forest could benefit from a move to the weaker Eastern Conference and link up with James. Cleveland will surely do everything in their power to take full advantage of James’ prime. Paul and James are great friends and would form a scary duo, which may even sway Kevin Love to stick around one more year with the Cavs.

Chris Paul is more of a pass-first guard, which would no doubt give, Love a more prominent role in the Cavs offense. Irving is more of a scoring guard and takes shots away from Love. Irving is not the type of defender that Paul is. James and Paul together will have no problem recruiting players to Cleveland.

Irving on the Clippers will certainly give him a chance to further compete against a plethora of young guards in the Western Conference. Irving is a capable passer in his own right. This season he surrendered ball-handling duties to James (for obvious reasons) but when he had full control of the offense, Kyrie averaged six assists, a steal and got to the free-throw line with ease.

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Pairing Irving with two athletic 26-year-old’s like Griffin and Jordan would resurrect Lob City in Los Angeles. It would speed up the pace and add another scorer to the team. Coach Doc Rivers struggled to get Paul to shoot more for the Clippers. It’s just not in Paul’s nature. Kyrie will not hesitate in that department. Plus Griffin is a very underrated passer as he showed the world in this year’s playoffs.

Griffin is ready to jump into elite status in my opinion. His brilliant playoff performances are evidence that he is ready to lead this Clippers team. He extended his shooting range this year which benefitted his free-throw percentage to a career-high 71-percent. He averaged a career-best 5.6 assists this season as well. Griffin is morphing himself into a great all-around player. Darius Soriano of Forum Blue & Gold had an accurate description.

Blake was monster inside the paint in the playoffs when Chris Paul was not in the lineup. He took that team on his back to put them in a position to succeed. It’s no secret the Clippers played horribly when they went away from the Oklahoma product. The Houston Rockets triple-teamed Griffin as soon as he touched the basketball and led to many open opportunities for LA. The team failed to capitalize on those missed shots but it wasn’t because of Griffin.

A straight Irving and Paul swap is not possible because CP3 will earn $21 million in 2015-16 as opposed to Irving’s $14 million. Cleveland will have to include more to make the deal happen. The question is will both teams be willing to swap their All-Stars? Age will certainly play a huge factor for Cleveland to budge at any potential deal for their player. Paul is seven years older than the youthful Irving. But it looks like a win-win situation for both franchises.

February 15, 2015; New York, NY, USA; Western Conference guard Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers (3) high-fives Eastern Conference guard Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers (2) during the second half of the 2015 NBA All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden. The West defeated the East 163-158. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

From the Clippers standpoint if they can manage to partner Irving with Griffin and Jordan, they would extend their championship window by a few more years. They would lose a bit defensively but not as much because Irving is not a terrible defender. He showed he can play defense in game one of the finals when he made current MVP Stephen Curry work for every shot. Irving matched Curry’s game and had a great shot at winning the game if he didn’t get hurt.

As far as Cleveland goes, they would form a devastating duo with two of the best passers and defenders in the NBA. They would continue to be favorites in the East and both All-Stars will be locked in for the next few years. I don’t see James bolting Cleveland again and Paul won’t be an unrestricted free agent till 2018.

It’s fun to ponder what could be in the offseason. The Clippers have a lot of decisions to sort out. Can Cleveland with the trophy without Love and Irving? It’s just fun radio talk at this point. I’m curious to see if Clipper fans would approve of this trade?