The case for the Knicks to trade for Chris Paul
The idea of trading for Chris Paul is not popular, at least among the cleverest of Knicks fans. In fact, the idea is downright unpopular with those folks. It’s not to say that some segment of Knicks fans isn’t enthusiastic about Chris Paul. Mostly, however, the popularity of the move peaks with people who are desperate to cheer for any person with a name. Washed Joe Johnson? Gimme. John Wall’s Achilles wrapped in bacon? Bet. And then there’s Melo. Lots of “bring him home” energy.
The objections to Paul originate in two key areas: the age and the contract. Paul is 35-plus and set to make north of $40 million in each of the next two seasons. That’s over a third of the cap, almost closer to half in 2021-22. I don’t think anyone is arguing that CP3 can’t ball. He can clearly still play, at least for now. I don’t think anyone can argue that the Knicks aren’t starving for an elite lead guard. They really haven’t had one since Clyde, unless you think Mark Jackson, Rod Strickland, or Stephon Marbury clear the bar for that distinction. I don’t. Jackson was a very good player, but not good enough to be a realistic Robin to Ewing’s Batman. Strick, the namesake of this site, is one of my all-time favorite players, but he only had a cup of coffee with the Knicks. Marbury certainly had elite talent, but his demeanor prevented him from having success at the Garden and marked his NBA career as a cautionary tale in self-destruction. You can never go home.
Paul is still elite at his position. He can’t do all the things he once did when he was the best point guard in the NBA every year. By some measure, Paul is still at the top of the second tier of NBA players — not close to the level of the best ten elites in the league, but better than almost everyone else. If you put him on your team, whichever team, he will give you a fighting chance every night. For a tanking team hoping to score a top-five pick in the stacked 2021 draft, that’s not really what you want, and I think that may be a legit critique of trading for CP3. I buy that. There’s also the cap hit, which would seriously hamper the Knicks in the 2021 free agent market. I buy that too, to some degree.
If you think the Knicks’ best bet is to score the next big guy in the 2021 draft, maybe you don’t touch Chris Paul with a 10-foot pole. He’ll make you too competitive. If you think the Knicks have a shot at AD or Giannis in 2021, you don’t touch Chris Paul with a 10-foot pole, unless you have some secret sauce cooked up by Brock Aller that gets your guy and keeps enough space for some key signings or trades. That’s a lot of magical thinking. Then there’s the belief that Fred VanVleet serves the team’s needs better. He’d cost a bit less, is much younger, and does some similar things to Paul. He has championship experience. His timeline isn’t perfectly aligned with Barrett and Mitch and company, but it’s light years closer than Paul.
So why do I persist in my belief that the Knicks (maybe) should trade for him? First, I am clearly an idiot. I’ve been sipping too much orange and blue electric Kool-Aid. Second, I see a long-term timeline that intrigues me. I’m going to share that with you now, but I’m also going to preface this with the understanding that all of you who hate this idea — and think I’m nuts — are probably correct. Fire away. Believe me, I’m probably on board with two-thirds of what you’re going to say to me. Well, here goes…
The Knicks aren’t going to solve their problems in one year. Not in two years. Not in three or four years. The franchise is in a long-term building project. No matter how good the top of the 2021 draft is, none of those guys is going to turn the Knicks into a contender overnight. None of the big names are going to sign with the Knicks in the 2021 offseason either, let alone team up to make a hypnotic super team at the Garden. The Knicks need to play the long game. Our big free agent aspirations have to start down the road with the Zion/Morant class and that general generational vicinity. Forget the Giannis era. He’s surely off to Dallas, because the universe hates me. Or he’ll go to Miami and win with Pat Riley and bury the ’90s Knicks deeper under a mountain of regrets. I know. I know. World Wise Wes. Sure. Anything can happen. Maybe this time will be different. Yeah.
The Knicks need to become one of the premier organizations in the sport. Nothing short of that will get us over the hump. Good things happen to organizations that run well. The better the organization, the more big time players sniff you out in free agency. Being a good organization means finding and developing talent outside the lottery luck. Look at the Heat right now. Are the Knicks even a fair organization in 2020? LULZKnicksers will laugh out loud. More objective people will point to some very encouraging hires. Many will say, “As long as Dolan is the owner, the Knicks aren’t going anywhere.” So much for World Wide Wes.
Now, I think the objective point of view is the clearest and fairest assessment of where the franchise stands today. Near the bottom, but with good, high-level personnel and a raft of young players and assets. Things are looking up. But teams can get muddled in low end mediocrity if all those smart hires don’t result in acquiring and developing very good NBA players. Those results are yet to come. Until then, the Knicks are just a bad news cycle from being the LULZKnicks again in perpetuity. You and I know that’s mostly bullshit, but if some portion of the player pool in the NBA is persuaded it’s true, it may as well be true.
Chris Paul has credibility. He has credibility because he’s still an elite player in the league, even at his advanced age, and despite his career playoff woes. He has credibility because he’s part of the famous Banana Boat crew, who defined an entire generation of basketball in the league and around the world. He has credibility because he’s been the President of the NBA Players’ Association since 2013, and was instrumental in forcing the league’s hand in getting rid of former Clippers owner Donald Sterling after his racism became (more) public. Paul has two gold medals. He is a well-known family guy, a respected Christian voice in the league (for what that’s worth), and is iconic for his State Farm pitchman persona. Maybe most important to the Knicks is Paul’s huge profile on the AAU circuit. The CP3 Basketball Academy is a powerhouse, and Team CP3 boasts a number of alumni among NBA players, including the Knicks’ Reggie Bullock (’10) and Theo Pinson (’14), and soon-to-be free agent Montrezl Harrell (’12).
Acquiring Chris Paul means attaching his credibility to the organization, and not in the cheap way that an unsubstantial hire of a big name usually operates. Paul can play. Signing him is a commitment to winning basketball games and showing pride in every practice and game, even in the face of a great draft lottery. His voice immediately becomes the most authoritative voice in the entire basketball operation, leaving out Rose and World Wide Wes, whose voices carry in a different space. Paul would be Thibs’ coach on the floor, and given his fiery playing persona, I think you’d see a direct translation of the coach’s intensity in the team’s play. That’s a big bonus for a coach who needs to establish his authority quickly, to get everyone buying in. It’s also important as an example for a bunch of barely-out-of-diapers players who need to learn the professional ropes. The Knicks have always brought in guys like Courtney Lee, or leaned on guys like Kurt Thomas, to be the veteran voices. That’s nice, but there’s no better veteran voice than the Hall of Fame player who is still better than everyone else on the roster by a mile. I never quite understood how teams expected journeymen pros to be the main voice in the locker room. It’s good to have those, but they pale in comparison to a guy who’s played at the highest level of the sport. That’s a different level of authority.
My thinking is, this credibility is important in establishing a franchise identity on the floor and among the community of players, coaches, scouts, and executives. The Knicks have started that shift with the Rose/Wes tandem leading the way. They’ve started the makeover process with hires like Kenny Payne, Johnnie Bryant, Aller, Alex Kline, Walt Perrin, and others. These are all respected voices in the broader basketball community. It’s a legitimate team, but having a franchise face in the form of a player is worth more than all those guys combined in some sense. Until the Knicks are respectable on the court, which is different from good, there is no difference between Leon Rose and Steve Mills and Phil Jackson and Donnie Walsh.
So you trade for Chris Paul and have him leading your franchise for two seasons at the incredible price of $40-plus million per year, all the while celebrating birthdays in his late 30s. Then what? What did you accomplish except some short-term credibility, compromised draft position, and hampered free agent cap spacing? (I know that’s what you’re thinking, and you’re not wrong.) My contention is that Paul can either stay on at a lower salary to play out a couple more years, complemented by a maturing cast of young star players, or he can become a team executive. If he wants to play, he’d probably be very helpful in recruiting the same type of guys you all want to acquire right now. The Fred VanVleets of the world will be there every year, more or less, and a better team will be more attractive to those guys. If the team is able to do the big game hunting that we’ve never been successful with, Paul could be a low-cost leader and veteran playmaker for other guys. Sign two stars, in addition to what you’ve home grown, and have Paul as the rock among them.
But I like the idea of Chris Paul, team executive. This is a man with executive written all over him. Lots of guys go into coaching. Point guards are always marked as future coaches, particularly in an era when Jason Kidd and Steve Nash walked right into head coaching gigs, absent any real experience in the area. Paul isn’t a coach, though. I mean, he could be a coach, but Chris Paul profiles as a basketball executive. He’s part of the LeBron James era of highly ambitious stars, seeking more power in the sport, and he’s got that Players’ Association experience. He has Leon Rose, his former agent, in his corner and World Wide Wes by his side. If Chris Paul wants to become Pat Riley 2.0, he has everything set up for him to become that figure for a franchise seeking a messiah. Paul wouldn’t become team president right away, but he could mentor for a handful of years until Rose decides the moment is right to give him the keys.
Why do we have to take on his salary and play an old man in order to get him as a maybe executive a few years down the road, you ask? Well, of course you don’t, but I’m a big believer in CP3’s imprint. Start with it on the court and then translate it to the front office. Get him in the door now and groom him to transition when the time comes. The franchise will be much better off for it, and the value of that two-year, $40 million cap hit will average out to something much more important — real, long-lasting credibility as an organization. Real transformation. If the Knicks aren’t going to win a title any time soon and we’re going to rely on longer term success, I don’t think there’s a wiser investment than Chris Paul at this very moment.
Now to wrap this up, I can’t say what price is too steep. I know there’s a big debate about what sort of assets are involved in a swap. Mostly, those clever people I mentioned at the start don’t want to give up any young players or picks to acquire Paul. I’m not in that camp, but I do believe there is a price too high. I’d like to hear some prices before I decide where that bar is, but it exists and it’s very real. Not being stupid is more important than Chris Paul’s credibility, and Rose will have to weigh the cost of any proposed deal before pulling the trigger. I’m in the minority on this plan, but somewhere in my shriveled-up heart is the belief that a person like Chris Paul brings way more upside to a bludgeoned franchise than the negatives would lead you to believe.
I’m all in. Pray for me.
