The NBA offseason has been in full swing since the Miami Heat were crowned champions again and with Dwight Howard moving to yet another team after proving he is not a championship player, the former Lakers center and point guard Chris Paul can make their new deals official this week.
The NBA moratorium on free agency ends on Wednesday, July 10 and that means Paul will be able to agree officially to his five-year, $107 million contract with the Clippers. Howard signed a four-year deal with the Rockets after being unable to pull off a sign and trade and now he starts off on another team as he tries to prove that he is not locker room poison, a whiner and a player than can lead a team to a championship. A small number of Hall of Fame players have played for three teams before they are 27, and now Howard could join that group one day.
Paul has proven that he is one of the best point guards in the league and he decided to stay in Los Angeles with the Clippers after the team brought over Doc Rivers from the Boston Celtics. The Clippers now have a strong core with Paul and Blake Griffin, who signed a five-year, $95 million contract extension last year. He will also join Matt Barnes as returning players on the team and Paul comes in after averaging 16.9 points, 9.7 assists and an NBA-best 2.4 steals per game.
He led the Clippers to their best season in franchise history and now has the chance to fully establish himself in LA after starting his career with the Hornets. Paul almost was a Lakers star, but the NBA nixed that deal and now he will be with the Clippers for the long term. All the players who agreed to deals can officially sign them on July 10 and that goes the same for trades.
Andrea Bargnani was traded from the Toronto Raptors to the Knicks, while other deals that were made can also go through, including the ESPN reported one between the Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks for six players. According to reports, the Clippers will trade Caron Butler and Eric Bledsoe to the Suns, and J.J. Redick and Jared Dudley have been dealt to the Clippers. After Redick is moved, he will sign a four-year, $27 million deal to give Paul a solid shooting guard to play with.
The Suns now will get Bledsoe after he was mentioned repeatedly in the previous Boston deals with the Clippers that never went through and he joins a roster that already has Goran Dragic and Kendall Marshall as well as Archie Goodwin. Dudley played three seasons with the Suns and now the team will add him to a roster that has Alex Len after he averaged a career high 10 point last season.