Chris Paul returns to Clippers to make history, not relive past glory

New York Times

4 days ago

This is a basketball story. But I have to start with hip-hop.
You see, a new album can serve a lot of areas, even if it's from an older performer. New work will have you recalling past brilliance while proving they can still get it done.
Clipse, a hip-hop duo from Virginia formed by brothers Pusha T and Malice, reunited and put out its first album in 16 years with the release of 'Let God Sort Em Out' this month. It was produced by Pharrell Williams, who, along with The Neptunes, helped produce Clipse's first three albums, starting with 'Lord Willin'' back in 2002.
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Old conflicts had to be resolved for this album to happen. Old love for the game had to be replenished. Themes of appreciation, having no regrets, and giving flowers while they can still smell them were explored.
Also, the brothers can rap. And they in turn keep the art of rap accountable. So be it, so be it.
Let me transition from Clipse to Clips. As in the LA Clippers, a team that added future Hall of Fame point guard Chris Paul to a group that already had seven players over 30. Paul turned 40 in May and is about to play his 21st NBA season. And as Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank put it, Paul will slot in as a high quality 'reserve point guard' with a clear understanding of his role.
This is a full circle moment for Paul and the Clippers. LA first acquired him in 2011, at the end of a fourth straight season of at least 50 losses. When LA traded former lottery picks Chris Kaman (2003), Eric Gordon (2008) and Al-Farouq Aminu (2010) along with a future first-round pick that became Austin Rivers to the New Orleans Hornets for Paul, the Clippers had a total of six winning seasons in 41 years as an NBA franchise. They had never won 60 percent of their games before 2011.
The Clippers won at least 60 percent of their games in all of Paul's six seasons with the franchise. He had an infamous run, but when it was over in 2017, he could have opted out of the final year of his contract and entered unrestricted free agency. Instead, he opted in, initiating a trade to join James Harden and the Houston Rockets. That 2017 trade netted the Clippers Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley and Montrezl Harrell. And as Frank noted, the Clippers are still benefitting from that trade when you consider subsequent trades, right down to the acquisition of John Collins this summer. LA has the league's longest active streak of winning seasons at 14, and that is largely possible because of Paul.
📰 @TheAthletic
Chris Paul reunites with the LA Clippers, years after the original CP3 trade that set the franchise on a maiden course towards winning and another CP3 trade that still benefits the Clippers to this very day pic.twitter.com/PrLwawKs30
— Law Murray 🎡 (@LawMurrayTheNU) July 21, 2025
'When Chris exited, we worked together,' Frank said. 'When he decided to go to Houston, Chris helped us in the sense of turning it into a sign-and-trade, and it really helped us transition. I mean obviously, Chris had great history, great six years with us. Being an All-Star each year, All-NBA five of those six years, making the playoffs each of those years. And yet the ability to get the return we got from Houston helped us get to where we're at now.'
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So why do the Clippers need Chris Paul? It begins with the basketball. No, really, the actual basketball. I wrote three weeks ago about how Paul makes sense as a player who has always valued taking care of the basketball. The Clippers were 23rd in the NBA last season in turnover percentage and assist-turnover ratio. Paul finished 8th in the NBA in assists per game with 7.4 and averaged only 1.6 turnovers. That's an assist-turnover ratio of 4.69, which trailed only Tyrese Haliburton (5.61) and Tyus Jones (4.71) among the 253 players who appeared in at least 20 games and played at least 20 minutes per game last season. Compare that with Harden, who had an assist-turnover ratio of 2.01, which ranked 106th.
When Paul, who started all 82 games for the San Antonio Spurs last season, was on the floor, 13 percent of the Spurs' possessions ended in a turnover, which is the equivalent to a team ranking third in the NBA. When Paul was off the floor, the Spurs had a turnover percentage of 14.5, which is the equivalent to a team ranking 18th.
'We know that ballhandling was a little bit of an issue for us last year,' Frank said. 'Ballhandling and playmaking were areas we wanted to address this offseason. When we were at our best, we were taking care of the ball. And Chris takes care of the ball and runs an offense about as well as anyone who's ever done it.'
Paul is the Point God. He provides discipline. He provides structure. When Paul gets point/assist double-doubles, he can do it without a turnover, something he's done 45 times (13 more than John Stockton, who is next on that list, per Stathead).
As Damian Lillard was reintroduced by the Portland Trail Blazers this week, Portland head coach and former Paul Clippers teammate Chauncey Billups said that Lillard is 'going to be the highest paid assistant coach in league history.' Paul might as well be the second-highest paid assistant coach. Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue certainly could use someone else to yell at Harden instead of Harden averaging the third-most turnovers in the league again. And though Paul and Harden didn't end things well in Houston after two seasons, Harden played a role in Paul's return to LA, along with Leonard.
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'James has been a huge part of this offseason,' said Frank. 'When talking to James, talking to Kawhi, and we talked about the role … both guys said CP would be the best guy for this role. James is all about winning and obviously Chris and him played together in Houston. They got within a game of the NBA Finals in 2018. What James talked about with Chris was his ability to see the floor like few others, the leadership skills he brings, the competitiveness, and his everyday work ethic and approach.'
Chris Paul needs the Clippers. He's been in five cities over these last eight years. The Clipper fan base, one that has been treated to arguably the most ahistorical franchise in the league, gets to celebrate Paul once again. And Paul's first tenure with the Clippers showed him what it means to have star players come to the Clippers near or at the end of their careers — Billups, Lamar Odom, Grant Hill, Antawn Jamison, Danny Granger and Hedo Turkoglu spent their final or penultimate season with the Clippers. Just like Malice has been both Mason Bethas, Chris Paul has been both Paul Pierces now: he was a superstar now in the twilight of his career with the Clippers.
Paul replaces Patty Mills, who replaced the disgruntled PJ Tucker in February. The difference between Mills and Tucker was striking. Tucker didn't want to be on the team and, after he opted into $11 million last summer, LA leadership decided to keep him away from the team until he was traded. When Mills arrived, he was able to contribute positively to the Clippers locker room, even serving as the director of vibes.
The Clippers aren't a whole lot older than last year's team. Bradley Beal is a month younger than Norman Powell, John Collins is three months younger than Amir Coffey and rookies Yanic Konan Niederhäuser and Kobe Sanders replace Drew Eubanks and Seth Lundy, respectively. Brook Lopez, 37, replaces Ben Simmons, 29. But Paul, Collins, and Lopez replace three players (Mills, Coffey, Simmons) who are still unsigned at this point of free agency, and they may be reserves on the Clippers after being starters for their teams last season.
The Clippers getting older with Paul and Lopez belies the fact that the Clippers are now Pacific Ocean's Eleven: a group of established players who were productive last season and who can help keep each other's minutes and workload down in the rare instances where the team is fully healthy. Lue has a deeper, more versatile roster at his disposal. Paul and Lopez, in particular, represent players (a traditional backup point guard and center) the Clippers didn't have last season, especially in the playoffs against Denver.
LA Clippers offseason, updated…
Noah's ark, at least two of all they need pic.twitter.com/tUWgNJ1x3Y
— Law Murray 🎡 (@LawMurrayTheNU) July 21, 2025
'Everyone's entitled in terms of the judgments they want to make on the group,' Frank said. 'We're super excited about the group, and I think part of the thing with age that typically people worry about (is) increased chance for injury. That's why we lean into the depth. … The nature of any NBA team, let alone an older one, is that you may have more injuries than others. Now some of our older guys have been very, very durable, so knock on wood. Hopefully that maintains. But if not, we do have great faith in the roster and having depth across the board.
Lue will need to carefully manage his rotation's minutes, but Paul, Nicolas Batum and Lopez should play the least while LA hopes Leonard, Beal, Collins and Bogdan Bogdanović are healthier (none of them played 60 games in 2024-25).
The player who needs the most management, and the one Paul was brought here for as insurance, is Harden. He played 2,789 minutes in the regular season at age 35 and he was an All-Star and an All-NBA selection. That's only the 34th season in NBA history by a player who played at least 2,700 minutes at age 35 or older.
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The only players who followed up a season with that kind of workload at that age and made an All-Star appearance the following season are Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain (1973 Lakers), John Havlicek (1978 Celtics), Artis Gilmore (1986 Spurs), Robert Parish (1990 Celtics), Karl Malone (2001 and 2002 Jazz), Jason Kidd (2010 Mavericks) and future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant (2025 Suns). None of those players were guards responsible for both scoring and primary playmaking.
With Paul, the Clippers have eight players who are older than 30. Can an old team win it all? Certainly. The 1998 Bulls were led by Michael Jordan, who began the Last Dance at the same age (34) that Leonard will be next season. Jordan was joined by two other starters older than 30 (Scottie Pippen, Ron Harper) and five reserves who were 30 or older by the end of June 1998 (Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, Bill Wennington, Randy Brown, Jud Buechler).
The 2011 Mavericks were led by 32-year-old Dirk Nowitzki, who was joined in the starting lineup by four other 30-plus starters (Kidd, Shawn Marion and DeShawn Stevenson). That Dallas team had four reserves on the playoff roster older than 30 (Jason Terry, Peja Stojakovic, Brendan Haywood, Brian Cardinal), and that didn't include injured 31-year-old Caron Butler, who was the second-leading scorer in the starting lineup when his season ended in January due to a knee injury.
The 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers, coached by Lue, were led by 31-year-old LeBron James, who was joined in the starting lineup by 30-year-old JR Smith. Cleveland's bench in the playoffs had seven players 30 or older (Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye, Timofey Mozgov, Mo Williams, James Jones, Dahntay Jones, Sasha Kaun).
None of these teams are perfect correlations. Every team is trying to win a championship. They're all flawed, even the team that won it last year and will win it this year. If the Clippers signed recent first-round picks to fill out the roster (like they did last year with Kevin Porter Jr. and Mo Bamba) instead of older and better players like Paul and Lopez, then they would be criticized for not giving themselves the best opportunity to win.
Frank put the roster together and he's going to let Lue sort them out. Paul is here to be a part of the puzzle, and it's a smaller part than he's used to. Paul has seen it all, and he's about to see The Wall. But the Clips aren't just here to collect veterans and have sweet moments. They're trying to put the best product out there and win. And so is Paul.
'There's the heartstrings part of it, of someone who was such a significant part of the Clippers' rise, to be able to bring it back,' said Frank. 'Whether this is his last year or not, that's obviously Chris's story in terms of what he feels and what he wants. But I think number one is his ability to help impact winning. And then the secondary was someone who's been so important to the franchise, to be able to bring him back in the fold.'
(Photo of Chris Paul waving: Michael Gonzales / NBAE via Getty Images)