{"id":102517,"date":"2025-07-29T16:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T16:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/102517\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T16:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T16:37:09","slug":"chris-paul-calls-return-to-clippers-a-no-brainer-and-doesnt-know-if-this-will-be-his-last-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/102517\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Paul calls return to Clippers a ‘no-brainer’ and doesn’t know if this will be his last season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Paul had options. Coming off a strong season for the San Antonio Spurs, entering an unrestricted free agent market where there might not have been a ton of cash to splash, but where there were a number of teams in need of a steady hand at the wheel of their offense, the future Hall of Famer reportedly<\/a> drew interest from a handful of would-be suitors.<\/p>\n

Giannis Antetokounmpo\u2019s Bucks. Anthony Davis\u2019 (and, now, Cooper Flagg\u2019s) Mavericks. The Hornets, the home-state squad of a player born in Winston-Salem who starred at Wake Forest. The Suns, his old flame, the team he helped lead to the 2021 NBA Finals \u2014 the only title-round appearance of Paul\u2019s illustrious career.<\/p>\n

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In the end, though, there was only ever really one option.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a no-brainer. It was a no-brainer,\u201d Paul said Monday at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. \u2014 the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, the team for whom he starred from 2011 through 2017 and to whom he\u2019ll return next season<\/a> \u2014 during a press conference reintroducing him to the franchise and its faithful.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe easiest decision in this is sitting right up here,\u201d he said, indicating his wife, children and mother, all seated in the front rows at his press conference. \u201cRight here. It\u2019s my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to forget, given how fast life moves in the world of the NBA, but Paul has now spent more time away from the Clippers than he spent with them.<\/p>\n

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Paul\u2019s six seasons in L.A. featured plenty of individual and team success \u2014 five All-Star selections, five All-NBA nods, six All-Defensive Team berths, five 50-win seasons and three playoff series victories, more than the Clippers had totaled in the previous 35 years. But they were also marked by numerous brutally timed injuries, a historic ownership scandal and a persistent inability to advance past the second round of the postseason \u2014 a staggering amount of baggage that, come the summer of 2017<\/a>, left Paul feeling like the time had come for a fresh start elsewhere.<\/p>\n

In the eight years since he secured his exit from L.A., Paul has accomplished plenty. He finally got out of Round 2, partnering with past-and-future teammate James Harden on an incredible Rockets team that pushed the Kevin Durant-era Warriors to the absolute limit (and might well have toppled Golden State if not for yet another brutally timed injury<\/a>). When the Houston experiment ran its course, he briefly brought the basketball gospel to Oklahoma City, producing a completely unpredicted and extremely fun playoff berth<\/a> while helping shepherd the development of a gifted but green young guard named Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Then came Phoenix, where he helped Devin Booker achieve superstardom, got Deandre Ayton a max contract, finally reached the Finals (before Giannis Antetokounmpo put an end to all that<\/a>) and steered the Suns to a franchise-record 64 wins (before Luka Don\u010di\u0107 put an end to all that<\/a>). When new owner Mat Ishbia decided that trading for Bradley Beal<\/a> gave Phoenix a better chance to win a title \u2014 which, you know, hindsight is 20\/20 and all<\/a> \u2014 Paul was on the move again, with one-year stops alongside Stephen Curry in Golden State and Victor Wembanyama in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

[<\/strong>Get more Clippers news: Clippers team feed<\/strong><\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s five stops in eight years \u2014 a prolonged sojourn for the greatest point guard of his generation, with his young family remaining in L.A. as he journeyed across the NBA landscape. And that, he decided this summer, was enough time away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of those things I kind of manifested for a long time, sort of tried to speak it into existence,\u201d Paul said Monday. \u201cBut you just never know if it\u2019s really going to happen. Because I love to hoop. I love to play this game. But I love my family more than any of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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And Clippers fans, it turns out, still have plenty of love for him. Whatever sour feelings might have attended his 2017 exit seem to have long since dissipated. As the fan reaction at Monday\u2019s reintroduction reminded us, and as Paul\u2019s reaction to it underscored, time has a way of healing all wounds \u2014 especially when the arc of that time bends back toward home:<\/p>\n

Amid the outpouring of love surrounding Paul\u2019s return, one question kept coming up: Just how much time do he and the Clippers have left? Paul signed a one-year contract for the veteran minimum. Could this season be his last?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know that,\u201d Paul told ESPN\u2019s Malika Andrews<\/a>. \u201cI think throughout this season, at some point \u2014 guys that I know who\u2019ve retired, and all this different type of stuff \u2014 you know, and you sort of figure it out yourself. It tells you. But I think more than anything, this season, I will definitely enjoy it. I don\u2019t take this for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Paul struck a similar note in a conversation with Clippers play-by-play broadcaster Brian Sieman<\/a> and in his news conference with reporters. He repeatedly emphasized the importance of remaining present, of trying to stay in the moment, and of approaching this coming season with excitement for the opportunity available to what could be an awfully good<\/a> (if also awfully old<\/a>) Clippers team without looking too far ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a lot of gratitude or whatnot to still get a chance to play at this age,\u201d Paul said. \u201cBut I’ve always believed in, keep stacking days. And that you just have to show up every single day. Every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That approach \u2014 combined with all-time vision, touch and a legendarily maniacal competitive streak \u2014 has made Paul just the seventh player to last 21 years in the NBA, joining LeBron James, Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett, Kevin Willis and Robert Parish. That type of longevity would represent a towering achievement for any player. For someone who barely stands 6 feet tall, though, it\u2019s nearly unthinkable \u2014 as is the fact that, if you weren\u2019t paying attention last season, Chris Paul is still good.<\/p>\n

Paul averaged 8.8 points per game on 42.7% shooting last season, taking just 4% of his field goal attempts inside the restricted area<\/a> and using only 14% of San Antonio\u2019s offensive possessions when he was on the floor \u2014 all career lows. Even so, he remained a net positive offensive contributor by virtue of remaining one of the league\u2019s highest volume distributors, dishing 7.4 assists per game (seventh in the NBA) with an assist-to-turnover ratio<\/a> better than every big-minute contributor besides Tyrese Haliburton and Tyus Jones, and continuing to drill shots from floater range (52%), midrange (47%) and 3-point land (38%)<\/a> at elite rates.<\/p>\n

Long possessed of perhaps the league\u2019s most larcenous hands<\/a>, Paul also made his presence felt on the defensive end, snagging steals on 2.2% of opponents\u2019 offensive possessions. His steal rate has topped 2% in all 20 of his NBA seasons, the most of any player in NBA history<\/a>, one season ahead of a pair of similarly ageless ball-hawking point guards, John Stockton and Jason Kidd.<\/p>\n

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The introduction of an all-time table-setter helped expedite the development of the ascendant Wembanyama, who struggled at times during his rookie season to find consistent service, but experienced no such concerns during Year 2 \u2014 at least, not when CP3 was on the case. Paul-to-Wembanyama produced 121 baskets last season, the 15th-highest total of any assist combo in the NBA, according to PBP Stats<\/a>; in a possibly related story, Wembanyama made his first All-Star appearance, and had an awfully good case for an All-NBA selection before being diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in February that brought a premature end to his season<\/a>. (He\u2019s been cleared for a full-steam-ahead return<\/a> next season.)<\/p>\n

The Spurs, who were outscored by 3.9 points per 100 possessions<\/a> over the course of last season, actually outscored their opponents by 6.8 points-per-100 in the minutes when Wembanyama and Paul shared the court<\/a>. And while plenty of the credit for that belongs to the biggest guy on the floor, don\u2019t overlook the impact of the smallest guy on it: Spurs lineups featuring Wemby sans CP3 got their doors blown off by 12 points-per-100<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paul finished the 2024-25 season ranked somewhere between 10th and 25th among all point guards in win shares (total<\/a> and per 48 minutes<\/a>), estimated plus-minus<\/a>, value over replacement player<\/a>, player efficiency rating<\/a>, estimated RAPTOR<\/a> and xRAPM<\/a>, among other metrics. He also ended the season healthy, playing all 82 games for the first time since 2014-15 \u2026 and, perhaps even more importantly, he ended things feeling like he hadn\u2019t ended things<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Paul feels like he\u2019s still got something left in the tank, and the Clippers feel like he \u2014 alongside incumbent superstars Harden and Kawhi Leonard and new arrivals Beal, Brook Lopez and John Collins \u2014 can help them push the likes of SGA\u2019s champion Thunder, the newly Durant-ified Rockets and Nikola Joki\u0107\u2019s Nuggets atop the perpetually crowded West. That created the opportunity for a homecoming eight years in the making.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I’m really honest, I wanted to get back and play here by any means necessary, right?\u201d Paul said Monday. \u201cI didn’t even care what the team looked like. I just wanted to be home, be here with the Clippers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Paul had options. Coming off a strong season for the San Antonio Spurs, entering an unrestricted free…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":102518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[7234,20540,28733,10446,2494,3372,7196,41243,3368,4345,18169,36252,3370,22029,3363,3142,3365,6650,1260,3578,3369,7198,6949,5565,7202,3138,3371,62,3366,7231,3374,21594,67,132,68,4714,40989,7201],"class_list":{"0":"post-102517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-bradley-beal","9":"tag-brook-lopez","10":"tag-bucks","11":"tag-chris-paul","12":"tag-cooper-flagg","13":"tag-deandre-ayton","14":"tag-devin-booker","15":"tag-dirk-nowitzki","16":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","17":"tag-houston","18":"tag-james-harden","19":"tag-john-collins","20":"tag-kawhi-leonard","21":"tag-kevin-garnett","22":"tag-lebron-james","23":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","24":"tag-luka-doncic","25":"tag-mavericks","26":"tag-nba","27":"tag-nba-finals","28":"tag-nikola-jokic","29":"tag-nuggets","30":"tag-oklahoma-city","31":"tag-rockets","32":"tag-san-antonio","33":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","34":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","35":"tag-sports","36":"tag-stephen-curry","37":"tag-suns","38":"tag-tyrese-haliburton","39":"tag-tyus-jones","40":"tag-united-states","41":"tag-unitedstates","42":"tag-us","43":"tag-victor-wembanyama","44":"tag-vince-carter","45":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}