Although the Thunder acquiring Chris Paul from the Houston Rockets creates the potential for an Oklahoma City homecoming, with the point guard playing for the Oklahoma City/New Orleans Hornets in the first two years of his career following the devastation of Hurrican Katrina, it appears he won’t get the chance to play a minute for the Thunder.
Reports indicate Oklahoma City is already looking to shop Paul, who’s set to make $38.5 million, like Westbrook, in 2019-20, $41.4 million in 2020-21, and $44.2 million in 2021-22. The one team to already surface as a possible suitor: the Miami Heat — who were also reportedly in on Westbrook.
While Thunder general manager Sam Presti had time to get a move done for Westbrook, he may not have the same luxury with Paul, nor does he necessarily want the point guard to play a minute for the Thunder, based on Adrian Wojnarowski’s report on ESPN’s “Get Up.”
The market for Chris Paul is going to be small. But, Miami’s at the top of that list. They’d like to try to get that deal done as soon as they can, and I was told there’s some other teams, too, that are gonna be discussed. But their hope in getting this deal done with Chris Paul was that he doesn’t play a game in a Thunder uniform.
