The Clippers continue to get older.
On Monday, the team agreed to a one-year deal with Chris Paul, who famously led the organization out of irrelevance as the star point guard in the Lob City era. Paul spent this past season with the Spurs and next year will mark his 21st NBA season. The deal was first reported by ESPN.
The 40-year-old becomes the latest addition to a Clippers team that lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Nuggets in seven games.
On June 29, the team re-signed James Harden to a two-year, $81.5 million contract. Harden was eligible to sign a two-year deal worth more than $54 million in the first year, but took a discount that allowed the team to access the $14.1 million non-taxpayer exception.
So far, the Clippers have used that room to sign Paul, Brook Lopez (37), and Bradley Beal (32). Mark Bartelstein, Beal’s agent, has told Front Office Sports that Beal will seek a long-term deal with the team next summer.
“Without James, we can’t even get Bradley Beal,” Clippers director of basketball operations Lawrence Frank told reporters on Friday. “All James cares about is winning. He’s willing to sacrifice part of his game, part of his contract.”
In addition to those signings, the Clippers acquired John Collins, 27, the lone acquisition still in his prime. Collins and Ivica Zubac are the only two players in the team’s top-11 under the age of 31.
The new additions join Harden, who will turn 36 in August, and Kawhi Leonard, 34.
Including two-way players, the average age of the Clippers roster is more than 33 years old. This past season, the Sixers were the NBA’s oldest team with the average player age at 28.31 years. The Clippers are blowing past that. The champion Thunder were the youngest NBA champion since the 1977 Trail Blazers at 25.6 years old.
Being an older team doesn’t always hurt its chances at contention. The Spurs won their fifth and final title of the Tim Duncan era in 2014 when The Big Fundamental was 38 years old, but the average age of the roster was still just 28, half a decade younger than this Clippers squad.
