Fans of the Los Angeles Clippers woke up this morning to the shocking news that Chris Paul will no longer be part of the team moving forward. Considering the circumstances the team is currently dealing with, this move served to confirm what a mess this organization is right now.
There's no getting around it: the Clippers are a disaster at the moment. The team currently holds a 5-16 record, with no real sign of things improving anytime soon. Fans were already feeling checked out, knowing that James Harden and Kawhi Leonard had a serious uphill battle to get this team in a position to win much of anything this season following a disaster start.
In fact, one of the only meaningful silver linings for this team was getting to see Chris Paul play his final season with the franchise he helped make a name for in his prime. Clippers fans might have felt disillusioned with this team and the direction of the organization, but at least they'd get to watch CP3 for even a few minutes every night as he rode off into the sunset.
Now, even that has been taken from the fanbase, and the way it was done was unfathomable. Paul wasn't waived, he was simply "sent home" by the organization in the middle of the night without having any prior knowledge of what was going to happen.
Chris Paul's departure is the latest symptom of the Clippers' struggles
This came after clear tension between he and the team was already present. Just three days ago on Instagram, Paul posted a photo on his story of the dictionary definition of the word "leeway," which now seems to serve as an eerie foreshadowing for what was about to come.
Ty Lue and Chris were reportedly not on speaking terms for weeks leading up to this incident. There have been whispers that Paul's verbal leadership style was upsetting some within the organization. But when CP3 attempted to talk things out with Lue, he refused the meeting.
It would seem that what happened here is that the organization ended up choosing Lue and Lawrence Frank over Chris Paul. That's of course just about the most frustrating thing possible for Clippers fans who have been begging for change at the coaching and management level, and wanted to see their franchise GOAT finish out his career in Los Angeles.
Overall, this points to how much the Clippers franchise is struggling at every level right now. The on-court performance can't be reconciled by the presence of draft picks, and now the greatest player in the organization's history has been let go. All I can say is that the fans who are still supporting this team should never have their loyalty questioned.