NBA TradeNews

Suns, Clippers, Mavericks, Thunder Working On 4-Team Trade?

Suns, Clippers, Mavericks, Thunder Working On 4-Team Trade?

The Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder are reportedly discussing a massive trade.

Late Tuesday afternoon, reports surfaced that the Suns and Thunder were talking about a possible deal that would land veteran point guard Chris Paul in Phoenix. One day later, Jonathan Macri of Knicks Film School confirmed that these discussions were in fact being had, and added that they were growing increasingly serious.

“The Paul/Suns thing, from what I’m told, is very real,” he reported. “Talks have advanced past preliminary stages, and there is already discussion of this expanding to a four-team deal involving the Clippers and Mavericks. The names I’m hearing are Kelly Oubre, Ricky Rubio, Landry Shamet, and Dorian Finney-Smith, plus a few others, with the 10th and 18th picks changing hands.”

A few weeks back, ESPN NBA insider Zach Lowe suggested that the Suns might be a sneaky suitor for Paul’s services, but nobody took the idea particularly seriously. That all changed when his partners at ESPN, Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps, reported that talks between Phoenix and Oklahoma City “have been ongoing and have continued to gather traction.”

Paul has history with Suns head coach Monty Williams, having played for him in New Orleans back in 2010. Since then, the 35-year-old has spoken extremely highly of Williams’ abilities and acumen.

“His basketball mind … I used to get so excited before the games about the plays he was drawing up,” Paul previously admitted.

The big issue with Paul at this stage of his career is the steep price tag that accompanies him. He is owed $41.4 million in 2020-21 and $44.2 million in 2021-22, which is obviously a nice chunk of change for someone who annually missed at least 20 games between 2016 and 2019.

That said, last year is hard to ignore. Paul’s run with Oklahoma City this past season speaks for itself. He carried a team that most figured was lottery-bound within a single victory of the second round of the NBA Western Conference Playoffs. In the process he averaged 17.6 points and 6.7 assists per outing and was named second-team All-NBA.

Up to this point, Paul has also been linked to possible trades involving the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks.

The other interesting question in all this is what the Clippers and Mavericks are hoping to achieve by being involved in the deal. Oubre, Rubio, Shamet and the like are all intriguing role players, but this feels like either the lead-up to freeing up cap space, or acquisition of assets in pursuit of a big star.

Over the past few weeks the Mavericks have expressed interest in Milwaukee Bucks MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, as well as Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert.

The Clippers, meanwhile, were just linked to a potential trade for Houston Rockets star Russell Westbrook.

Is assisting in this Suns-Thunder swap for Paul these teams’ way of paving the road for a bigger procurement down the line? Time will tell.

One way or another, this promises to be an intriguing few weeks ahead.

Related: Michael Jordan Gets Brutally Honest In Deleted ‘Last Dance’ Clip

Anthony Amador

A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.

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