Los Angeles Clippers: If They Want to Keep Chris Paul, They Need to Improve Fast
Chris Paul is viewed around the NBA as a stand-up, team-first guy. He is as unselfish a player on the court as there is in the league today.
Despite the admiration many have for Paul as a person and player, he showed little loyalty to the New Orleans Hornets, the team that drafted him and made him the face of their franchise.
That’s not a knock against Paul, because quite frankly, the talent surrounding him in New Orleans was abysmal. However, if Paul was willing to cut ties with the team he spent his first six seasons with, what makes the Clippers believe he wouldn’t leave them by the wayside if things start heading south?
The Clippers are currently playing their worst basketball of the season. The team has lost six of their last 10 games, including three straight.
They have fallen to a tie for seventh place in the Western Conference, and hold just a half-game lead over the eighth place Houston Rockets, and are a game ahead of the ninth place Utah Jazz.
The point is, despite all the hype associated with the Clippers this season, there is still a relatively-high chance that the team could miss the playoffs.
The team needs to keep star point guard Chris Paul happy, because if the team continues to struggle, they could lose him when he becomes a free agent in 2013.
Last season, Paul’s Hornets did make the playoffs as the seventh seed in the Western Conference and put up a solid fight against a talented Lakers team. Like the Hornets last season, the Clippers are also fighting for a playoff spot.
If the team is knocked out in the first round or misses the postseason completely, it would greatly hurt the team’s chances to hold on to Paul.
There is no question that the Clippers have more talent than Paul had with the Hornets. Still, if the team proves that they cannot contend in the conference, there is no way Paul is staying.
If he wanted to barely make the playoffs every season and lose in the first round, he could have stayed in New Orleans.
Many are saying that the team needs to fire Head Coach Vinny Del Negro. If that’s what it takes, fine, but the team somehow needs to figure out a way to play at a high level on a consistence basis.
The big factor the Clippers have going against them is the fact that Dwight Howard will also be a free agent in 2013. Paul wants to win a championship, and playing with Dwight Howard would give him a great opportunity to do so.
The Clippers do have a lot of young talent on their roster, and need to continue building and acquiring talent in order to entice Paul to stay with the team.
Obviously Blake Griffin is not as good as Dwight Howard, but if the Clippers can obtain other solid pieces to put around Paul and Griffin, it would show Paul that the team is serious about winning a title.
The Clippers need to be extremely aggressive in making their team better in order to keep Chris Paul. There is a possibility that Paul could leave for another team when he becomes a free agent in 2013, and that would destroy all the progress the franchise has made this season.
