The Los Angeles Clippers surprisingly announced overnight that it parted ways with future Hall of Famer Chris Paul. Paul recently announced intentions to retire at the end of the 2025-26 season, and must now seek out a new path to closing out his career. The move comes as the Clippers sit at 5-16 this season.
“We are parting ways with Chris and he will no longer be with the team,” president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said in a statement to ESPN. “We will work with him on the next step of his career. Chris is a legendary Clipper who has had a historic career. I want to make one thing very clear. No one is blaming Chris for our underperformance. I accept responsibility for the record we have right now. There are a lot of reasons why we’ve struggled. We’re grateful for the impact Chris has made on our franchise.”
This is without a doubt the most confusing decision the Clippers could have made at this juncture. At 5-16 in the midst of a five-game losing streak, sending home the guy who averages just 14.3 minutes a game certainly isn’t the answer, especially when that guy is without a doubt the greatest player in your franchise’s history. Paul averaged just 2.9 points and 3.3 assists this season.
Paul shared on social media that the Clippers informed him of the decision in the middle of the night while the team is in Atlanta preparing to play the Hawks Wednesday night.
Paul did not initiate the decision to be sent home from the Clippers, per The Athletic, which brings into question why did the Clippers decide to make this move, and why now? Given that Frank didn’t use the word “waive” or “release” in the statement, that means the Clippers will in all likelihood look to trade Paul, who is eligible to be dealt on Dec. 15. But finding a team that would want to trade for a 40-year-old guard who plans on retiring at the end of the season may prove to be difficult.
Paul averages career lows in his 21st season, but he is by no means the reason the Clippers severely underperformed. He collected five DNP-CD’s in early-to-mid November, but after it was announced that Bradley Beal would miss the remainder of the season with a hip fracture, Paul found his way back into the rotation.
It’s unclear what the Clippers’ master plan is with all of this, because if the plan was to trade Paul, why announce this decision ahead of time before he’s even eligible to be traded? But more than that, this probably sours Paul’s relationship with the Clippers, the franchise where he experienced his most success. Paul is the reason the Clippers have any success at all, pulling this franchise up from obscurity and carrying them to six-straight playoff appearances between 2011 and 2017, which is still the most consecutive playoff appearances the Clippers have made in franchise history.
But this is by no means the first time the Clippers have had a rocky ending with a franchise star. Blake Griffin was similarly blindsided when he was dealt to the Detroit Pistons in the middle of the 2017-18 season, just months after he signed a contract extension with the team, which essentially confirmed his commitment to the franchise. Griffin has spoken about how upsetting that was for him, and now Paul joins him as another franchise great to get the boot unexpectedly.
There will certainly be tons of fallout from this decision, but right now it’s a puzzling move by the Clippers. Parting ways with Paul isn’t going to magically fix a defense that ranks 27th in the league, or the countless injuries to the roster. But it’s a decision that signals that the Clippers are taking steps to try and save what has been an otherwise disaster of a season.
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