Hot Take Attack: Trading for Chris Paul

The Minnesota Timberwolves are probably stuck. They have few positive assets, a clogged salary cap, and a mid-range first round pick. For all the talk about moving up in the draft or opening up space to go after someone like D’Angelo Russell, it is painfully obvious that the team has really little maneuverability. The contract for Jeff Teague, Andrew Wiggins, and Gorgui Dieng are going to serve as albatrosses unless the Wolves use substantial assets to make space.

However, the NBA soap opera carousel never stops. Enter the Houston Rockets.

This is great and terrible. It’s great because NBA drama is our heroin. Why work and fulfill real responsibilities when we can refresh NBA reddit (RIP NBA streams) and play around on the trade machine? It’s terrible because the Rockets were so close and everything is going to fall apart so fast. They were a few missed threes from the NBA Finals last year. Now, who knows.

But one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. If most of the NBA is looking at Chris Paul’s contract like this:

Perhaps the Wolves can jump in.

Now, I am not saying that trading for Chris Paul is the best idea. It’s probably a bad one. But the Wolves are going to be mired in mediocrity forever if they do not make a major change. We even had a puff piece from The Athletic today about how this was “the year” for Andrew Wiggins to make the leap. That is not happening. Time to fire up the trade machine.

Assuming Jeff Teague opts into his player option, the Wolves could trade Teague and Wiggins for Chris Paul straight up. Who knows, maybe the Wolves could squeeze a 2035 first round pick out of Houston as well.

We would be living a dream life. Chris Paul would get a second wind running a pick-and-roll with Towns. A new lob city would form in Minneapolis (for about 40 games a year, gotta ice those knees) and the Wolves would be well on their way to a solid 7th seed in the Western Conference.

Everybody is happy, the Wolves get their second star to play with Towns. KAT gets a new person to yell at him for the next two years (he has been missing the feeling). Chris Paul gets to complain about living in Minnesota and hating every moment of his existence. Wiggins opens a hole in the fabric of the universe as Daryl Morey tries to force the most mid-range centered player in the league into Houston’s three-point approach. Best of all, the Wolves get to pay Chris Paul $44 million in 2021-2022, the same year that we begin to hear real rumblings that Towns is looking for a way out of Minnesota.

So, trading for Chris Paul. Good idea? Probably not. But, idea? Yes.