All-Star guard Chris Paul is being traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Phoenix Suns, where heβll play alongside one of the leagueβs most dynamic young scorers in fellow All-Star Devin Booker.
The Thunder are acquiring Ricky Rubio, Kelly Oubre, Jalen Lecque, Ty Jerome and a first-round pick that will be conveyed sometime between 2022 and 2025.
Rubio reacted to the trade news with a tweet: β... what a business,β he wrote.
It is a huge leap for the Suns, who went 8-0 inside the NBAβs restart bubble at Walt Disney World in a frantic, but futile, quest to make the playoffs.
Paul is owed about $41 million for this season and has a $44 million player option for next season, which was too much of an impediment for other teams that considered acquiring him last summer.
The Suns, however, deemed it worth the risk. They havenβt made the playoffs since a run to the Western Conference finals in 2010.
ESPN and The Athletic first reported details of the trade.
The Suns sent some young players to the Thunder in the hopes point guard Chris Paul can take them to the next level.
Paul was an All-Star for the 10th time this past season, averaging 17.6 points and 6.7 assists. Phoenix becomes his fourth team in less than four years; he was with the Los Angeles Clippers through the 2016-17 season, then spent two years in Houston, then last year with the Thunder after being acquired as part of the trade that sent Russell Westbrook to the Rockets.
Paul is also president of the National Basketball Players Association. The trade reunites him with Suns coach Monty Williams; Paul played for Williams in 2010-11 when Williams was in his first season coaching the New Orleans Hornets.
βMan, Iβm 35 years old and I still get a chance to play basketball every day and say thatβs my way of life,β Paul said last week, when asked about trade rumors during an appearance in the Time100 speakersβ series. βThat is crazy in itself so regardless what happens, Iβll be ready.β
Oubre averaged a career-high 18.7 points last season. Rubio is entering his 10th NBA season and has also played for the Timberwolves and Jazz. He signed a 3-year, $51 million deal with the Suns before last season and averaged 13 points and 8.8 assists per game with Phoenix.
Jerome was the 24th overall pick out of Virginia last season and played in 31 games as a rookie while averaging 3.3 points. Lecque played in five games last season.
Porzingis to miss opener
DALLAS β Kristaps Porzingis will miss the start of the season as the Mavericks star continues recovery from surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee.
President of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said in a radio interview Monday the club was being cautious with Luka Doncicβs European sidekick, who missed more than a season because of another knee injury earlier in his career.
The NBA is in the midst of a short offseason after the pandemic-delayed 2019-20 season ended on the final day of September in the playoff bubble in Florida. Training camps are set to open Dec. 1, with the 72-game season scheduled to start Dec. 22.
Porzingis injured his right knee in the opener of a first-round series against the Clippers in the bubble in August. The 7-foot-3 Latvian had surgery in October.
Pistons, Nets make trade
The Pistons agreed to trade Bruce Brown to the Nets for Dzanan Musa and a 2021 second-round draft pick.
The 6-foot-4 Brown, drafted in the second round in 2018, averaged 8.9 points per game this past season for Detroit. The 6-foot-9 Musa was a first-round pick in 2018. He averaged 4.8 points in 40 games last season.
