{"id":188971,"date":"2025-07-23T05:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T05:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/188971\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T05:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T05:48:12","slug":"chris-paul-is-a-natural-fit-for-clippers-as-reserve-point-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/188971\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Paul is a ‘natural fit’ for Clippers as reserve point guard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Clippers<\/a> had a need for a playmaker and ballhandler, and they were able to find that \u201cnatural fit\u201d with Chris Paul<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paul spent six seasons with the Clippers, a time when he had plenty of success leading them to relevancy and now he\u2019s back to play his 21st season, which might be his last.<\/p>\n

Paul, 40, a 12-time All-Star, agreed to a contract that will pay him $3.6 million next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris was a natural fit,\u201d Lawrence Frank, the Clippers\u2019 president of basketball operations, said over Zoom on Tuesday. \u201cHis roots with the organization are deep and meaningful. He obviously played a tremendous role in the upward trajectory of the franchise. He wanted to return to the Clippers and we wanted it the same, as long as it made sense with our current roster \u2014 and it does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul has spent his entire 20-year career as a starter in the NBA, playing in all 82 games last season with the San Antonio Spurs. He averaged 8.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists in 28 minutes per game while shooting 42.7% from the field.<\/p>\n

Over the course of playing in 1,354 regular-season games, Paul has started in 1,314.<\/p>\n

Frank said Paul will \u201cslot into our roster as a reserve point guard,\u201d a role the two of them discussed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we don\u2019t take that lightly when you\u2019re taking on a different role,\u201d Frank said. \u201cAnd so there were a lot of conversations. You put everything on the table and get everyone comfortable with it. But the fact that Chris wanted to come back, wanted to be at home, wanted to be with the Clippers, we obviously know what his skill set is, but we also wanted to make sure the role made perfect sense from both people\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so I thought it was a very, very thorough process in terms of how we went about it, just to make sure that everyone knows exactly what we\u2019re signing up for and we feel really, really good about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing time also could be tricky at the guard spot with Paul now on board.<\/p>\n

James Harden, who averaged 35.3 minutes per game last season, and Bradley Beal<\/a> are the likely starters in the backcourt for Clippers coach Tyronn Lue. Then there is Kris Dunn, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Paul who could be in the rotation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that ballhandling was a little bit of an issue for us last year and we wanted to get \u2026 Chris was the best guy for the job as long as everyone understood exactly what the role was and we can all embrace it,\u201d Frank said. \u201cAnd so, we\u2019ve been very, very honest and direct and we feel great that Chris is back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frank said Harden played a big role in the team acquiring Beal. Frank was asked if Harden talked to Paul about returning to the Clippers. Harden and Paul played two seasons together in Houston, from 2017 to 2019, and there were reports that their relationship was strained.<\/p>\n

Frank said, \u201cThey did.\u201d when asked if Harden and Paul had talked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when talking to James, talking to Kawhi [Leonard] \u2014 and we talked about what the role would be \u2014 both guys said CP would be the best guy for this role,\u201d Frank said.<\/p>\n

Paul and Beal have both worn No. 3 their entire careers. But Frank said Beal will let Paul wear No. 3 and decide later what his new number will be.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s awesome that Brad made such a great gesture like that,\u201d Frank said. \u201cAnd so Chris will be No. 3.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his six seasons with the Clippers, from 2011 until 2017, Paul helped the franchise reach new heights. He joined Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan to form \u201cLob City.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it sounds as if this will be Paul\u2019s last season in the NBA and it\u2019ll be with the Clippers and it\u2019ll allow him to play in front of his family that lives in the Los Angeles area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I think there\u2019s the nostalgic aspect,\u201d Frank said. \u201cBut I think the No. 1 question that we always say, is how can he help impact winning? \u2026 And yeah, look, there\u2019s the heartstrings part of it, of someone who was such a significant part of the Clippers\u2019 rise to be able to bring it back. Whether this is his last year or not, that\u2019s obviously Chris\u2019 story in terms of what he feels and what he wants. But I think No. 1 is his ability to help impact winning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Clippers had a need for a playmaker and ballhandler, and they were able to find that \u201cnatural…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,3086,2596,559,33860,10848,33858,141,560,4034,192,4032,4902,251,135,4033,4031,1379,33857,6,2612,33859,1841,2084],"class_list":{"0":"post-188971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bradley-beal","10":"tag-chris-paul","11":"tag-clippers","12":"tag-entire-20-year-career","13":"tag-game-last-season","14":"tag-good-guy","15":"tag-guard","16":"tag-james-harden","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-clippers","19":"tag-laclippers","20":"tag-lawrence-frank","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","23":"tag-losangeles","24":"tag-losangelesclippers","25":"tag-minute","26":"tag-natural-fit","27":"tag-nba","28":"tag-paul","29":"tag-reserve-point-guard","30":"tag-role","31":"tag-season"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114900979191702312","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}