Phoenix Suns: A Chris Paul trade makes no sense, so stop asking

Chris Paul is reportedly on the trade block, but even the point guard-starved Phoenix Suns should join the rest of the NBA in avoiding one of the league’s worst contracts.

The Phoenix Suns need a starting-caliber point guard. Chris Paul, a nine-time All-Star who just so happens to play the position of point guard, is reportedly available, according to ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski. It isn’t hard to connect the dots.

As expected, Wednesday’s Suns Twitter was filled with reaction pieces and brainstorm sesh articles laying out potential Chris Paul trades — trades that will never happen.

It’s important to go through the various reasons why a trade makes zero sense for both sides in order to put such an ill-advised idea in the immediate past, where it belongs.

As mentioned in Woj’s report, the Houston Rockets are making pretty much everyone and everything — players and future draft picks alike — available on the trade block. It’s highly unlikely MVP James Harden is included in that bunch, but Paul, Clint Capela and the rest of the supporting cast could be had for the right price.

This isn’t surprising in and of itself, especially after The Athletic‘s Shams Charania had already reported on the discord between Harden and CP3 during the 2018-19 campaign, which featured a dismal 11-14 start and ended in a disappointing second round playoff exit.

With that being said, a CP3 trade wouldn’t make any sense for the Suns.

On the surface, Paul was still a productive player last year, averaging 15.6 points, 8.2 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game. He’s got the experience, veteran know-how and competitive spirit that a young team like Phoenix desperately needs to stop spinning in place with its youth movement. His skills as a ball-handler, facilitator, defender and all-around floor general would accomplish to goal of finding a 1-guard who could finally make Devin Booker‘s life easier.

While he sounds like a logical trade candidate on the surface, the surface of this particular Suns trade is still scalding hot, and would wind up burning a franchise that can ill-afford to make any more mistakes.

For starters, Paul is 34 years old, with an extensive injury history. Over the last four years, he’s missed eight, 21, 24 and 24 games, respectively, and that’s not including having his postseason runs cut short in 2016 and 2018 due to injury. His hamstrings have proven time and time again to be untrustworthy, and that’s not going to get better entering his age-34 season.

Even if CP3 stayed healthy next year, he’s still under contract for at least two more seasons, with a massive player option for a third year. He’ll be paid $38.5 million next year, $41.4 million in 2021-22 and will have a $44.2 million player option in 2022-23 that — spoiler alert! — he’ll most definitely be opting into, since he’ll be 36 years old at that point.

Chris Paul is essentially what the people who bashed a potential Mike Conley trade thought Mike Conley’s contract was.

That means it’s one of the biggest albatrosses in the NBA, and that’s before taking into account his slippage in play in 2018-19. In addition to missing 24 games, his scoring dropped to a career-low 15.6 points per game, he only knocked down 35.6 percent of his 6.1 long range attempts per game, and he shot a career-low 41.9 percent from the field.

Are his numbers slightly worse because of his backcourt arrangement with James Harden? Probably. But he had little to no burst off the dribble and looked far from his normal self on the defensive end too. He may be one of the greatest point guards in NBA history, but at this point, the Suns would be trading for the reputation of Chris Paul, not actual, in-his-prime Chris Paul.

There’s also the small matter of composing a trade for CP3’s whopping $38.5 million salary. A potential trade offer would start with Tyler Johnson‘s $19.2 million player option, which he still needs to opt into. From there, it’d probably take some combination of T.J. Warren ($10.8 million) and either Josh Jackson ($7 million) or Mikal Bridges ($4.2 million). If it’s Jackson, the Rockets would probably ask for a draft pick of some kind (maybe the protected Milwaukee Bucks pick).

Taking a look at that kind of trade package, why on earth would the Suns do that? They’d be trading a combo guard for the second unit (a.k.a. their current starting point guard), a useful scorer for another team’s second unit who learned how to shoot 3s this year, and one of two wings with potential — plus maybe a draft pick — for a 34-year-old point guard with an injury history who’s owed an average of $41.4 million over the next three years.

Followup: Why on earth would the Rockets do that? General manager Daryl Morey is always looking for upgrades to bolster a championship contender, but how would Tyler Johnson, T.J. Warren and some combination of Josh Jackson, Mikal Bridges and a draft pick serve that purpose?

Short story short, it wouldn’t. A Suns package would only make sense if Morey gave up and was willing to undertake a full-scale rebuild (won’t happen), or if new GM James Jones suddenly lost his damn mind and built the deal around Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton or this year’s No. 6 overall pick (won’t happen).

The Suns need a starting-caliber point guard to take their first step toward 30 wins for the upcoming campaign. Tangible growth in the win column is necessary, and it’s only natural to connect new head coach Monty Williams to his star point guard based on their time together in New Orleans.

However, a Chris Paul trade would be a massive long-term oversight for the Phoenix Suns, and the potential package they could offer would make zero sense for the Houston Rockets.

So can we please stop talking about this now?