After weeks of speculation, the Oklahoma City Thunder have agreed to trade Chris Paul to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for a package headlined by Ricky Rubio, Kelly Oubre, Jr. and the Suns’ first-round draft pick in 2022.
News of the deal brings to close a period of uncertainty with respect to the future of Paul, who was reportedly being pursued by the New York Knicks and the Milwaukee Bucks, as well.
From time-to-time in the NBA, though — as is the case with Dennis Schroder’s being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers — deals are often agreed to in principle before being officially executed. Schroder, for example, isn’t expected to be officially dealt to Los Angeles before Wednesday’s draft.
According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, it’s possible that the Suns could attempt to convince the Thunder to delay executing their trade, as well, though for a much different reason.
According to reports, Paul will be packaged with Abdel Nader and will be sent to Phoenix for the aforementioned pieces, as well as two younger prospects — Ty Jerome and Jalen Lecque.
Mark points out that by waiting to finalize the trade, the Suns would operate as a team over the salary cap, which would allow them to re-sign both of their pending free agents and have access to salary exceptions afforded to teams that are over the cap. Teams that drop under the cap, alternatively, have access to salary cap exceptions that are lower in dollar amounts, which would usually lead to signing less talented players.
In other words, the Thunder would be doing the Suns a favor by waiting to execute the trade, and if that is something that Phoenix deemed to be a material part of the transaction, it would have likely come up during the negotiation stage.
One direction that Phoenix can go is to hold off on the trade until the moratorium is lifted on 11/22.
That would allow them to use cap space first (up to $18M) and circle back acting like a team over the cap. https://t.co/52Z11HXSiw
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) November 16, 2020
Of course, with the truncated offseason, every day matters. Training camps will convene on Dec. 1, meaning that, if the trade was executed on Nov. 22, the players involved in the transaction would only have about a week to report to their new teams, pass their physicals, secure housing and begin working out with their new teammates. It seems like a lot to accomplish in a little bit of time, though it should be pointed out that NBA players commonly arrive to their home markets a few days prior to camp beginning. So waiting to consummate the trade might not necessarily negatively impact the players involved.
Knowing Sam Presti, unless he has a good reason, his history suggests that he would agree to the condition if the Suns requested it. If the club isn’t too keen on significantly expanding its payroll, though, the additional maneuverability may be of no consequence. When the trade is executed could actually tell us a lot about how aggressive the Suns intend of being as it relates to adding to their payroll.
Regardless, at this point, everyone — especially Chris Paul — can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that his immediate future has been settled.
In all likelihood, he will spend the next two seasons of his career flanking Devin Booker and throwing lobs to DeAndre Ayton.