The 2018 NBA Manifesto
Chris Paul
PG – 6’0, 175lbs - 33 years old - 13 years of experience
Chris Paul came to the Houston Rockets to win. He came to finally break the seemingly interminable streak of first round playoff exits that had come to define his time with the LA Clippers. To achieve post season success commensurate with his Hall of Fame individual talent. And he did. Indeed, were it not for his own incredibly ill-timed injury against the Golden State Warriors, Chris Paul would been an NBA finalist and, no doubt, an NBA champion this season.
Worries about how Paul would coexist alongside James Harden were quickly assuaged. Paul deferred to Harden regularly, and wisely, in a way that should not be retrospectively considered as automatic for a Hall of Fame-calibre point guard like himself to have done. He works well with the bench units ensuring the Rockets did not fall off a cliff whenever Harden went out of the game, shot more three-pointers (especially in isolation) in accordance with the Rocket’s Isoball style, and yet never went too far away from the mid-range areas he thrived in hitherto. With scoring, playmaking and defence, he generally was the perfect sidekick.
Going forward, no one seems to have any doubt that Paul will re-sign with the Rockets this summer for the maximum value contract he could have gotten last summer. The back end of that contract might get a little tasty, as Paul enters the last few years of his career. He is carrying an injury history into that back end. But the championship window is only open for as long as he is there, and that is the price of keeping it open. So be it. Pay the man.
Player Plan: Expiring $24,599,495 contract. Pay the man, but the number of years on the assumed maximum salary will be key. It will be diminishing returns after two, but the cost of doing business will very likely be longer than that.
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PG – 6’0, 175lbs - 33 years old - 13 years of experience
Chris Paul came to the Houston Rockets to win. He came to finally break the seemingly interminable streak of first round playoff exits that had come to define his time with the LA Clippers. To achieve post season success commensurate with his Hall of Fame individual talent. And he did. Indeed, were it not for his own incredibly ill-timed injury against the Golden State Warriors, Chris Paul would been an NBA finalist and, no doubt, an NBA champion this season.
Worries about how Paul would coexist alongside James Harden were quickly assuaged. Paul deferred to Harden regularly, and wisely, in a way that should not be retrospectively considered as automatic for a Hall of Fame-calibre point guard like himself to have done. He works well with the bench units ensuring the Rockets did not fall off a cliff whenever Harden went out of the game, shot more three-pointers (especially in isolation) in accordance with the Rocket’s Isoball style, and yet never went too far away from the mid-range areas he thrived in hitherto. With scoring, playmaking and defence, he generally was the perfect sidekick.
Going forward, no one seems to have any doubt that Paul will re-sign with the Rockets this summer for the maximum value contract he could have gotten last summer. The back end of that contract might get a little tasty, as Paul enters the last few years of his career. He is carrying an injury history into that back end. But the championship window is only open for as long as he is there, and that is the price of keeping it open. So be it. Pay the man.
Player Plan: Expiring $24,599,495 contract. Pay the man, but the number of years on the assumed maximum salary will be key. It will be diminishing returns after two, but the cost of doing business will very likely be longer than that.