How the LA Clippers Can Capitalize on Chris Paul Trade Talks

Rumors are flying about Chris Paul’s destination in the trade market. Here’s how the LA Clippers can profit, including a four team trade!

One of the biggest questions of the shortened offseason revolves around Chris Paul. Does the star point guard want to come to the LA Clippers? Does he want to be in New York, or a Laker or somewhere else?

Recently, a name that not many of us expected entered the mix, when we learned that the Phoenix Suns were engaging in trade talks for CP3.

This is good news for fans of the LA Clippers. If the Suns are serious about making a play for Chris Paul, then the Clips can get involved and improve themselves.

There are a few ways this could happen. The most simple would be the Clippers approaching the Suns after a trade for Paul is finalized and inquiring after Ricky Rubio.

If CP3 is on the Suns, they effectively can’t keep Rubio as well. That would be almost $60 Million tied up in the point guard position, and that’s assuming Ricky would be happy playing a reserve role, which he very well may not.

In this scenario, the trade with the Suns would likely center around Patrick Beverley being moved in exchange for Rubio, alongside McGruder for the money. That would give the Suns a guard who can play off the bench or beside CP3 and Booker, and would save them a few million after this coming year.

But then some more rumors came to light that might make the scenario just a little bit more complicated.

A four team trade! We’ve jumped right past a simple swap and gone into the realm of fantasy trade-machine trades. This was clarified a bit more by Arizona sports show host John Gambadora, who said OKC may not be interested in any multi year contracts, and aren’t interested in Kelly Oubre or Rubio.

Hence the trade needing to be much more complicated. And this is where things start to get really interesting for the LA Clippers. If the Thunder are only interested in getting cap space for the coming years, the Clippers have a Lou Williams + Rodney McGruder package that has no guaranteed money next year and is worth $13 Million right now. They could also toss in Landry Shamet; OKC probably wouldn’t care about a second year at $2 Million, and Shamet’s a promising player.

In that case, we’ve got enough money that’s almost all for 1 year to bring back a Ricky Rubio. The question then is, what’s Dallas’ role in the trade?

If the Thunder are willing to take on a bit of money for the next year for a good player, Dallas might be looking to send out some package involving Delon Wright and maybe Justin Jackson to bring in Kelly Oubre. That could be the role they’re wanting to play – give more expiring money and a solid young player, and get back Oubre.

But there’s another question to ask here: whom does Dallas like more between Patrick Beverley and Kelly Oubre?

Last offseason the Mavs courted Bev before he ultimately signed here. He’s a player who fits really well with the roster they’re building, and they’ve shown plenty of interest in the past. If they prefer him over Oubre, then there’s an avenue for sending somebody like Dwight Powell to the Suns, Oubre goes to the Clippers and Beverley goes to Dallas.

Look, I’m not going to pretend to have an idea of what’s going to happen. I’m hesitant to make fake three team deals; there are so many moving parts in a four teamer that I’m scared to make any sort of concrete guess at what it will look like.

But if the Clippers and Mavericks are getting involved, there’s a solid guess that some combination of Rubio, Oubre and Beverley are on the move. It remains to be seen what exactly the combination will be, but no matter what, the LA Clippers have a good chance at bettering themselves by participating in a Chris Paul to Phoenix trade.

What do you think? Would you like to see the Clips get involved in this? Let us know on Twitter, and check back here for all things LA Clippers!