NBA Free Agency 2024: Chris Paul reportedly moves to Spurs for 1 year and $11 million after being released by Warriors

The San Antonio Spurs spent the first few months of Victor Wembanyama’s rookie season experimenting with Jeremy Sochan at point guard. It didn’t work, and some observers wondered if they should go with a more traditional player. In the first year of the Wembanyama era, they decided against it and instead simply inserted Tre Jones into the starting lineup in early January.

In the second year of the Wemby era, Chris Paul will throw lobs at the French sensation. Hours after To get picked up from the Golden State Warriors on Sunday, the 39-year-old future Hall of Famer signed a contract with San Antonio, as Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes first reported. Paul will give the team a one-year deal worth over $11 million, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Paul, according to Haynes, wants to improve Wembanyama’s game and show that he can still play at a high level. In his 20th season in the NBA, he shouldn’t be expected to create as much space as he once did or to stay in front of the league’s fastest defenders on defense. However, during his one year with the Warriors, Paul hit 48% of his mid-range shots and 42.3% of his catch-and-shoot threes, according to Cleaning The Glass. He’s still a weapon and will keep the Spurs organized.

It’s not exactly the same situation, but I wonder if Paul was thinking about his year with the Oklahoma City Thunder when he made this decision. He was five years younger then and the Thunder team wasn’t quite as inexperienced (Steven Adams, Danilo Gallinari and Dennis Schröder all played important roles), but for one season Paul gave everything he had to a team that was definitely not in “win now” mode. His leadership helped Oklahoma City exceed expectations and become more than the sum of its parts.

“OKC was incredible,” Paul said during his appearance on the Pivot Podcast last year. “I might not be playing anymore if I hadn’t had that year there, because I had that joy again.”

Paul was a good fit in Golden State, but the team was under pressure to recapture its former glory. Paul’s previous contract, which included a non-guaranteed $30 million salary for 2024-25, meant he served as both a sixth man and potentially a trade exception. In San Antonio, the situation is much simpler: His job is to put people in the right spots, impart his knowledge and, ideally, help the team win more games than they did the year before. Given that the Spurs went 22-60 in 2023-24, that last part shouldn’t be particularly difficult, if only because Wembanyama will be even better (and presumably they won’t wait 30+ games to draft a proper point guard and use Wembanyama as a center).

Before Wembanyama had even played an NBA game, it was frequently suggested that San Antonio should sign Paul. The appeal of Paul-Wembanyama pick-and-rolls needs no explanation, and it seemed like the kind of place Paul would like to be, too. The Spurs were patient, though, and were rewarded for it with the chance to sign Paul without giving up anything other than some of their considerable salary cap space (and, I assume, the opportunity cost of acquiring another point guard). This is one of those transfers that makes perfect sense for the free agent, the franchise player, and the coach. Even if Paul drastically declines or can’t stay on the court, his presence will be felt in San Antonio. If you can think of a real downside, I’d love to hear it.