REPORT: There’s a trade package already on the table for Chris Paul

It’s November, which means it’s finally Draft Month 2020! But these are still the New York Knicks, so we should never count them out when it comes to the pursuit of big-name vets in their mid-to-late 30s.

With that in mind, Jonathan Macri once again updated us on the omnipresent Chris Paul trade rumors in his newsletter. (NOTE: Macri is going to start charging soon, and I feel obliged to pay, because he’s become one of the best in the game at disseminating Knicks news.)

I’ve been told by a league source that Chris Paul prefers his next basketball home to be either in LA or NY (Los Angeles is where he resides full time) and that has created some modicum of leverage in the ongoing negotiations between the sides. I’m also told that there is a deal on the table that is comfortable from Sam Presti’s perspective, and the ball is in Leon Rose’s court.

Thunder GM Sam Presti is usually a tough negotiator, and he absolutely fleeced the Rockets when he acquired Paul in the Russell Westbrook deal, so the fact that he’s allegedly comfortable with this trade should give Rose and the Knicks pause. As great as Paul was last season (and throughout his Hall-of-Fame career), he’s 35 years old, and the list of quality 35-year-old point guards in NBA history is almost nonexistent. Also, he’s had injury problems in the past, and looked like he was approaching washed up just two years ago in Houston.

The one hope for Knicks fans is that Presti is comfortable with the deal because the notoriously cheap Thunder ownership has ordered him to deal Paul and the more than $85 million left on his contract by any means necessary. Perhaps Presti knows that other teams don’t have the cap space to deal for Paul. We can hope, right?

We can hope.