Chris Paul will reportedly decline his $44.4M player option this offseason in search of a new multiyear deal in the 3 year, $100M range. What would it take for the Chicago Bulls to offer him the deal he wants, and what would it take for Chris Paul to want to play here?
Cap Space
With the Chicago Bulls not having a lot of cap space to work with this offseason, it may not be that easy to offer Paul a deal. It would cost the Bulls a minimum of $33M a year for Chris Paul. For the Chicago Bulls to bring in Chris Paul they wouldn’t be able to bring back most of if not all of Daniel Theis, Thaddeus Young, Tomas Satoransky, Denzel Valentine, Javonte Green, and Garrett Temple.
Billy Donovan
A reason Chris Paul may want to play here is Billy Donovan. Donovan was able to coach Paul during the 2019-20 season with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Paul has been quoted saying, “I loved coach Billy Donovan” and called him a “great coach” when talking to Coby White. Could a reunion with his former coach help convince Paul to join the Chicago Bulls?
The Chris Paul Effect
Let’s take a look at the Phoenix Suns stats in the 2019-20 compared to the 2020-21 season with Chris Paul. In the 2019-20 season, the Suns were 34-39, just missing out on the playoffs. This season the Suns were able to finish 51-21, for the second best record in the western conference. In 2019-20 the Suns scored the 10th most PPG(113.6). This season the Suns scored 115.3 ppg, which is the 7th most in the league. The 2019-20 Suns had an SRS of 0.56 which was the 14th best. This year their SRS was 5.67, being the 3rd best in the league. A lot of what Chris Paul does doesn’t necessarily show up in the box scores. When you watch him play you can tell he makes everyone around him better, which is something this Chicago Bulls team needs. Last year while Chris Paul was on the Thunder, he carried them to a playoff spot in a tough western conference. Nobody saw that team making the playoffs, let alone the 5th seed in a stacked western conference. This year without Chris Paul, the Thunder have been quite honestly terrible. They went 22-50, good enough for 14th in the western conference. With Chris Paul on the team, the Bulls would be a whole new team. The Suns jumped up from the 9th seed to the 2 seed because of him, and so could the Bulls.
The Roster
The Chicago Bulls roster is very similar to the Phoenix Suns without Chris Paul. Both teams have a star shooting guard (Devin Booker, Zach LaVine), great post players(Deandre Ayton, Nikola Vucevic) and a need at the point guard position. With Chris Paul on the team, we could see a very similar boost to the team like he did for the Suns. The addition of Chris Paul could help many of the players on the Bulls as well. Coby White and Patrick Williams can both greatly benefit and learn from having him on the team.
With Chris Paul now getting towards the back end of his career, would it still be worth it to give him such a big deal at his age? With him on the team everyone would benefit. It won’t be easy for the Bulls to convince Paul to leave the Suns this offseason, Chicago would become a whole different team.