Lakers Rumors: Why Chris Paul and LeBron James in LA is a terrible idea
By Jason Reed
2. The money spent on Chris Paul would be much better off spent elsewhere
Although the Los Angeles Lakers do have a ton of cap space this summer, the team needs to be smart how they spend it. Los Angeles is still recovering from the terrible contracts of Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng and cannot afford another massive blunder.
Don’t get me wrong, Chris Paul is nowhere near those players talent-wise and would deserve that kind of money more than either of them. But still, the money that the Lakers would likely spend on Paul could be better used elsewhere.
This argument goes out the window if Paul takes a pay cut and gets paid in the $20 million range. However, with so much cap space in tow, it is hard to see the veteran Paul take a pay cut after taking a pay cut to agree to a sign and trade deal to bring him to Houston.
Thus, Paul will be worth closer to $30 million than $20 million. It simply is not worth it to pay Paul this kind of money with guys like Paul George on the market this year and Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler and Klay Thompson on the market next year.
The fact of the matter is that Chris Paul is 33 years old. He has not been an all-star the last two seasons and has missed a combined 107 games the last seven seasons. The last two years, he has missed a combined 45 games. At this rate, Paul is good for three-quarters of a year, and it may only get worse as father time creeps up.
That is not worth a max contract. It may be fun at first, but the Lakers would be regretting it as early as next offseason.