11:13 am: Paul clashed with members of the Clippers’ organization as a result of his leadership style, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link), who hears from sources that the team felt the veteran point guard had become “disruptive” in his efforts to vocally hold players, coaches, and front office members accountable.
Former Clippers guard Lou Williams made similar comments earlier in the day during an appearance on FanDuel’s Run It Back show, noting that Paul was attempting to hold players and coaches accountable and “had some criticisms” of the Clippers’ front office (Twitter video link).
According to Charania, head coach Tyronn Lue and Paul hadn’t been on speaking terms for several weeks. Haynes, meanwhile, reports (via Twitter) that Paul asked to meet with Lue a few weeks ago to discuss allegations that he had been a negative presence for the team and the Clippers’ coach refused to meet with him.
6:51 am: The Clippers have put out a statement announcing that they’re “parting ways” with future Hall-of-Famer Chris Paul, who signed a one-year, minimum-salary contract with the team over the summer for what will be his final year in the NBA.
NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link) first reported the news at around the same time Paul posted an Instagram story that reads, “Just found out I’m being sent home,” accompanied by a peace-sign emoji.
“We are parting ways with Chris and he will no longer be with the team,” Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said in a statement to Law Murray of the Athletic. “We will work with him on the next step of his career.
“Chris is a legendary Clipper who has had a historic career. I want to make one thing very clear. No one is blaming Chris for our underperformance. I accept responsibility for the record we have right now. There are a lot of reasons why we’ve struggled. We’re grateful for the impact Chris has made on the franchise.”
Sources confirm to Murray that the decision to part ways with the Clippers wasn’t Paul’s and wasn’t initiated by him.
A 12-time All-Star who made five of those All-Star appearances during his first stint with the Clippers from 2011-17, Paul returned to Los Angeles for his age-40 season in the hopes of providing his former team with some reliable depth behind star point guard James Harden.
However, the season hasn’t gone as planned for Paul or the Clippers, who are off to a miserable 5-16 start. The 21-year veteran averaged just 2.9 points and 3.3 assists in 14.3 minutes per game across 16 outings as a Clipper, shooting 32.1% from the floor. He fell out of the rotation for several games in November and has only returned in recent weeks as L.A. deals with a handful of injuries to key players.
Despite the apparent split between the two sides, the Clippers are unlikely to waive Paul anytime soon unless he agrees to a buyout. The team is currently operating just $1.28MM below its first-apron hard cap and doesn’t have the ability to sign a free agent to a prorated minimum-salary contract until January 7.
Since L.A. is carrying just 14 players on its standard roster, waiving Paul would drop that number to 13 and would require the club to get back to the 14-man minimum within two weeks. Given those roster and cap limitations, the Clippers will likely wait until Paul becomes trade-eligible on December 15 and explore the market for him at that time, assuming he’s not open to negotiating a buyout.
According to Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (Twitter link), the Knicks have discussed the idea of targeting Paul in a trade to add point guard depth. New York is dealing with a hard cap of its own and would need to send out at least a minimum-salary player in order to accommodate Paul, who used to be represented by Knicks president of basketball operations Leon Rose when Rose was still a player agent.
As Murray writes, this development with Paul represents the latest instance of the Clippers unceremoniously divorcing from a key figure of their “Lob City” era. Back in January 2018, the team traded Blake Griffin to Detroit just a few months into his new five-year, maximum-salary contract with L.A.