Report: No ‘unanimous’ support from Lakers front office to sign Chris Paul if waived

If Chris Paul hits free agency this offseason, it’s not necessarily a guarantee the Lakers go after him, according to the latest reports.

The Lakers will have a number of decisions to make in the coming week after hiring JJ Redick as head coach. Player options up and down the roster take a lot of the internal decisions out of the Lakers' hands, but there is still plenty to deliberate.

Externally, the Lakers will be looking for upgrades from a team that suffered a gentleman’s sweep in the first round against the Nuggets. One of those options, which many of hypothesized, could be Chris Paul.

The Warriors guard has an enormous $30 million contract for the 2024-25 season that is fully non-guaranteed. That deal becomes fully guaranteed, though, on Friday, June 28, giving Golden State a fast-approaching deadline to make a decision.

While the Warriors will likely be on the phone trying to find a trade for that contract, cutting $30 million off their tax bill would save them a small fortune. When/if Paul hits free agency, the Lakers will make sense on paper, and even more so after hiring Redick.

For one, LeBron James and Paul are Banana Boat buddies. For two, Redick was a teammate of Paul’s and the two have had a friendship since those days with the Lob City Clippers.

There has already been reporting that the Lakers could be an option for Paul if he hits the open market. However, as much as the move might make sense on paper, it’s not one that has complete support in the front office, at least according to Marc Stein in his latest Substack newsletter.

I keep hearing that Paul, if he actually makes to free agency at some point, would draw interest from the Clippers as well as the Lakers. Paul’s desire to play as close to his L.A.-based family as possible is well-known, but I’m told interest in bringing him to the Lakers might not be unanimous within the organization despite Paul’s well-chronicled friendship with LeBron James.

There are plenty of reasons Paul will be tied to the Lakers, but not many of them have to do with their actual roster because there isn’t a whole at the guard position.

D’Angelo Russell’s future could open some things up, but even without him, the Lakers have Austin Reaves, Gabe Vincent, Jalen Hood-Schifino and, likely, Max Christie. They will also either have Russell or, most likely, an exception to use to sign another potential guard.

It’s not a clear fit, then, for Paul. He’s also very old by NBA terms, having just turned 39 in May, and has not played 60 games either of the last two seasons due to injury. For a team that just had a host of injury woes last year, that’s not the type of player they’ll be looking for in free agency.

Paul could be an option for the Lakers this year, but it’s not a no-brainer option, nor a unanimous one.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.