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By Alex KirschenbaumShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberThe LA Clippers wrapped up the 2024-25 season having won 50 games and pushed the mighty Denver Nuggets in an eventual seven-game first-round playoff series defeat.
This offseason, they brought in some incredibly decorated help in an effort to remain at least a tough postseason out next spring.
More news: Clippers’ Chris Paul Plans to Retire After This Season
Unfortunately, LA forgot perhaps the most obvious rule in sports: don't sign a bunch of washed-up old guys.
Now, the Clippers are already cutting ties with the oldest of those guys, 12-time All-Star point guard Chris Paul, less than two months into the new NBA season, according to a new report from NBA insider Chris Haynes. Haynes reports that LA is "sending home" Paul, suggesting that he will be away from the team going forward.
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Whether Paul is ultimately cut or traded — or just decides to retire — remains to be seen.
Paul, 40, has looked borderline unplayable for LA this year — and that's saying something, since LA has been saddled with several perimeter injuries and is looking like a lottery team. At 5-16 on the young season, the Clippers are already among the worst squads in the Western Conference, and sinking fast.
Through 16 games off the bench this year, Paul has been averaging career lows of 2.9 points (on a brutal .321/.333/.308 slash line), 3.3 assists, and 1.8 rebounds across 14.3 minutes per. Things had gotten so bad, Paul essentially confirmed on social media that he would be retiring after this, his 21st year in the NBA.
The 6-footer out of Wake Forest had played six of his most productive seasons in a first-ballot Hall of Fame career during the Clippers' "Lob City" era, alongside All-Stars Blake Griffin and Deandre Jordan, from 2011-12 through 2016-17. Across 409 regular season games, Paul averaged 18.8 points on .475/.378/.881 shooting splits, 9.8 assists, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.2 steals a night.
...During his LA run, he was named to six straight All-Defensive First Teams and five All-Star and All-NBA teams. He finished among the top seven in MVP voting in five of seasons. His Clippers clubs won 51 or more games across five of those seasons, although they never advanced beyond the second round.
Paul enjoyed deeper playoff success later, leading the Houston Rockets to a seven-game 2018 Western Conference Finals loss against the eventual champion Golden State Warriors and powering the Phoenix Suns to a 2-0 lead in the 2021 NBA Finals... before the Suns dropped their next four games and fell to the Milwaukee Bucks.
But his family is based in Los Angeles, and Paul probably reached the apex of his celebrity while playing at the then-Staples Center.
After starting all 82 games for the lottery-bound San Antonio Spurs last season, Paul decided to sign a one-year veteran's minimum deal to return home.
It hasn't worked out.
LA has released a statement to Law Murray of The Athletic confirming the shocking overnight decision.
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"We are parting ways with Chris and he will no longer be with the team. We will work with him on the next step of his career," the Clippers verified, per Murray. "Chris is a legendary Clipper who has had a historic career. I want to make one thing very clear. No one is blaming Chris for our underperformance. I accept responsibility for the record we have right now. There are a lot of reasons why we’ve struggled. We’re grateful for the impact Chris has made on the franchise."
It's unclear who exactly the "I" is accepting responsibility for the Clippers' disappointing record, although one wonders if head coach Tyronn Lue, team president Lawrence Frank, or even majority owner Steve Ballmer is acknowledging their role in this mess of a 2025-26 run for LA so far.
To be fair, if this is the premature end of Paul's NBA career, he leaves behind a legacy as one of the last great classic point guards, a past-first wiz who was also a ferocious perimeter defender and a prolific three-level scorer. Paul was so good, his most endearing nickname is "The Point Guard." And, again, he even remained a valuable two-way rotation piece — albeit no longer an All-Star — up through his 20th season, a remarkable feat for a small guard.
Paul is hardly the only over-30 player who has regressed for the Clippers in this trainwreck of a campaign.
The Clippers' Other Aging Roster Pieces
LA also inked 37-year-old former All-Star and champion center Brook Lopez (whose Bucks beat Paul's Suns in the Finals) and 32-year-old former three-time All-Star shooting guard Bradley Beal to new contracts, while re-signing 36-year-old incumbent free agents James Harden and Nicolas Batum. The Clippers also already are fielding a roster that includes 34-year-old former two-time Finals MVP small forward Kawhi Leonard and 32-year-old combo guard Bogdan Bogdanovic.
None of these players have quite looked like their prime selves, although Harden and Leonard still seem capable of conjuring some of that old All-Star magic.
Health woes have hardly broken in LA's favor.
After playing just six discouraging games for his new team, Beal fractured his hip and underwent a season-ending surgery. Leonard, unfortunately, has already missed 10 games, mostly due to ankle and foot sprains. Swingman Derrick Jones Jr. sprained his right MCL last month and will sit out at least six weeks.
More news: Stephen A Smith Doesn’t Hold Back on Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard
For all the latest NBA news and rumors, head over to Newsweek Sports.
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