33-year-old Chris Paul to demand contract worth $47m annually - report
Houston Rockets point guard Chris Paul has made his choice when it comes between making money and winning championships.
The 33-year-old nine-time All-Star has chosen the money, according to ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski.
“When the Rockets made that deal for Paul, knowing they would re-sign him, they made a conscious decision that they were gonna have to live with a $46-47 million-a-year salary when he’s not nearly the player anymore in his late 30s,” Wojnarowski said.
Paul, who is a free agent, is eligible for a max contract worth $47 million dollars annually.
Of note, he turned down a massive five-year, $200 million contract with the Los Angeles Clippers last year, which he would only do with plans to recoup that money with his next contract.
From a business standpoint, it’s hard to blame Paul. Despite his playoff foibles, Paul has been one of the best floor generals in recent NBA history. He has been the platonic ideal of a traditional pass-first point guard, the likes of which had effectively died off as Jason Kidd began to get older.
From a leadership standpoint, it also makes a lot of sense for Paul to demand such a lucrative contract. He is president of the National Basketball Players Association and has long pushed for star players to always seek out the maximum contract possible.
Both Paul and NBA star LeBron James have advocated that NBA owners make more than their fair share of revenue off the league, and that players shouldn’t offer teams any sort of discount. It would be very poor optics for Paul to push others toward max contracts, only to take a discount himself.
Based on the NBA’s current contract economy, it’s not unreasonable for Paul to demand such a hefty contract. Paul’s Rockets teammate James Harden recently inked an extension that could be worth up to $228 million total, which will pay him $46 million in the final year of the deal.
But therein lies the big problem with Paul’s decision. While next season’s NBA salary cap hasn’t been set yet, many are expecting it to increase marginally, from about $99 million to about $101 million.
If Paul and Harden both sign max deals, the star duo would account for nearly all of the Rocket’s salary cap. While Houston may be more than willing to exceed the cap, and possibly even flirt with the luxury tax penalty (wherein a team must pay a set amount of money for ever dollar it goes over the luxury tax threshold), it would still severely limit the avenues in which the team can improve. If anything, the contracts would put the Rockets perilously close to losing talent.
One of the big revelations for Houston in its 65-win season was Clint Capela. The athletic Swiss big man was in the final year of his rookie contract and is due for a massive raise. Capela is a restricted free agent, meaning the Rockets can match any offer he signs.
But what if a desperate team offers Capela a max contract? Capela would qualify for a “lesser” max than Harden or Paul, which would put him around $20 million a year. If the Rockets match that, that would mean the contracts of three players alone would take them dangerously close to the luxury tax.
That’s to say nothing of current incumbent Rockets such as Ryan Anderson, who accounts for about $19 million per year himself, or key starters like unrestricted free agent Trevor Ariza.
In theory, the Rockets could perhaps view Capela, Paul and Harden as their “Big 3” and build around them accordingly. But that also presents a whole slew of other issues. Is that “Big 3” enough to topple the Warriors’ “Big 4”? Can a bevy of minimum contract veterans really put them over the hump? Will the team even have enough depth to survive head coach Mike D’Antoni’s manic pace through 82 regular season games?
Of course, this could all be a moot point. There’s always the possibility the Rockets will simply pay boatloads of money to keep a championship team together. New Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is worth about $4.4 billion and might not care about losing money with his latest acquisition.
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