Another Spurs - Chris Paul Rumor

Thursday brought about another rumor with the San Antonio Spurs linked to veteran point guard Chris Paul.

The Rumor: Thursday on his Substack, Marc Stein wrote the following:

The Spurs and the Lakers keep coming up as potential suitors for the Warriors' Chris Paul if Paul becomes a free agent this offseason.

Stein went on to write about some of the reasons why playing in Los Angeles might be of interest to Paul. Paul’s current team, the Golden State Warriors, have until June 28 to decide if they’ll keep him on the roster for next season at $30 million, or if they’ll waive him, which would allow Paul to become an unrestricted free agent.

One new wrinkle in Stein’s reporting was the option of Paul and the Warriors possibly looking at moving his contract guarantee date later into July, giving the Dubs more time to try to find a potential Paul trade, instead of having to outright waive him.

Back in late April, I wrote about a previous Paul - Spurs rumor in which I explored the Spurs’ salary options if they wanted to sign Paul, Paul’s numbers last season with the Warriors, and what Paul would bring on both ends of the court to the Spurs.

What type of deal can the Spurs offer Paul?

One new change from the article above is that we now know how much potential cap space the Spurs will have, since we know they’ll have the 4th and 8th picks in the 2024 NBA Draft next month.

The Spurs can open anywhere from $19.4 million to $21.3 million in cap space depending on if they decide to let their own free agents walk, and waive a few players on non-guaranteed contracts.

The Spurs can also choose how they’ll operate this offseason to decide which exception they’ll open up. If they operate as a cap space team (as expected), they’ll have access to the room exception of $8 million.

If they operate as a team above the salary cap, they’ll have access to the non-tax mid-level exception of $12.8 million.

As I wrote back in April, if Paul is waived by the Warriors, he is probably looking at a salary in one of the exception ranges. However, perhaps if the Spurs offer more than the non-tax MLE of $12.8 million with cap space, that may be more appealing to Paul, if he’s thinking about passing up signing with a contender to sign with a young developing team in San Antonio, to help Victor Wembanyama in year two of his career.

Regarding the Spurs’ two first round picks, if the Spurs did sign Paul, they could still look at drafting a young point guard like Reed Sheppard, Rob Dillingham, or Nikola Topic, to learn from Paul in the first year of that players career.

The other question though if the Spurs signed Paul and drafted a point guard, would be what happens to current starting point guard Tre Jones?

What kind of deal can the Lakers offer Paul?

With the Lakers reportedly having interest in Paul, let’s take a look at their salary options for Paul in the event he was waived by the Warriors and became an unrestricted free agent.

To be honest up front, the Lakers could go in all sorts of directions this offseason with LeBron James ($51.4 million) and D’Angelo Russell ($18.6 million) having substantial player options that need to be decided on by each player before June 29.

Let’s assume James exercises his player option, or declines the option and re-signs with the Lakers. If this happens, there’s a more clear path to see how much money the Lakers can offer Paul in two scenarios:

• Scenario 1) Russell exercises his player option, Jaxson Hayes and Cam Reddish decline their player options, and the Lakers let their other free agents walk, or maybe only re-sign Max Christie, the Lakers will have access to the $5.1 million tax mid-level exception to offer Paul.

• Scenario 2) If Hayes and Reddish decline their player options, and Russell declines his $18.6 million player option and signs with another team, the Lakers would have access to the non-tax MLE, being able to offer Paul the full $12.8 million exception.

This is where the Spurs having cap space could be enticing to Paul, in the event San Antonio needs to use some of their cap space to offer Paul a deal above $12.8 million.

We’ll continue to monitor the Spurs - Paul rumors as the offseason goes along, and for now, the most important date to keep an eye on is June 28, when the Warriors have to decide whether or not to guarantee Paul’s deal at $30 million, or waive him, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent.

Should the Spurs should try to sign Paul if he enters free agency?