Boston Celtics: Trade Targets Who’d Help Attract Kevin Durant
Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers
Position: Point Guard
Age: 30
Salary: $
Slash Line: .462/.371/.896
Season Averages: 32.7 MPG, 19.5 PPG, 10.0 APG, 4.2 RPG, 2.1 SPG, 1.6 3PM
Los Angeles Clippers head coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers told reporters that he will not trade Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, or Chris Paul. He believes the team is hitting its peak, and doesn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to win big in 2016-17
That doesn’t mean Danny Ainge shouldn’t test the validity of such a statement.
Ainge, who hired Rivers to coach the Boston Celtics in 2004, has a the trade assets to land the NBA’s resident Point God: Chris Paul. It’d undoubtedly cost the draft pick acquired from the Brooklyn Nets, as all others on this list would, and it would likely force Boston to trade All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas.
If the Celtics are able to get a verbal commitment from Kevin Durant that hinges on the success of this trade, however, it’d be hard to justify their not pulling out all the stops to execute it.
Paul does it all, whether it be scoring, facilitating, defending multiple positions in clutch situations, spacing the floor, or attacking the basket—and he does it all with elite efficiency. To pair Paul with Durant would be to create the best 1-2 punch in the NBA.
That’s an opportunity Boston cannot afford to let slip away.
Next: The Gamble, Part II