Grading the Chris Paul trade
The Toronto Raptors finally made a move one day prior to the actual trade deadline of February 5th at 3 pm.
Toronto received Chris Paul, who is set to retire at the end of this season after being exiled from the Los Angeles Clippers by head coach Tyronn Lue. The Los Angeles Clippers are only getting the rights to Vanja Marinkovic, and they clear $7 million in tax while also opening up a roster spot. The third team involved in this deal, the Brooklyn Nets, receives Ochai Agbaji and a 2032 second-round pick from the Toronto Raptors.
What would I grade this deal? A C, as it will get the Toronto Raptors under the luxury tax, which is set at $187,895,000 for the year. If the Raptors were to go over it, they would have to pay an extra amount depending on how much they were over. They also don’t get anything outside of that for now, as Chris Paul won’t be asked to report to the team, and Toronto might look to flip him before tomorrow’s deadline for assets, and if that’s the case, the grade would definitely go up. Also, not a fan of giving up on Ochai Agbaji after he had a very efficient 2024/25 season of shooting just shy of 50 percent from the field and 40 percent beyond the arc, but I totally get it since the team wanted to go under the tax, and Agbaji was shooting an abysmal 18.5 percent beyond the arc.
We’ll see what the plan is for Toronto’s open roster spot. Will Chris Paul fight for a spot in a contending team and try to convince the Toronto Raptors to keep him? Will they trade him for another player? Or will his market be dry like a desert, as the 40-year-old point guard hasn’t touched an NBA court since December 1st of 2025. Will there even be a market for the legendary guard who is set to retire at the end of the season?
Another outcome I can see is that Toronto will just decide to use that roster spot to convert one of their G Leaguers, more specifically Alijah Martin or A.J. Lawson, who have both impressed in the G League stage and the big leagues, as Toronto relied on them multiple times around a few weeks ago when the team was really beat up. They showed that they could really contribute winning minutes to the team.
The most likely outcome seems like a buyout and letting CP3 figure out his market on his own, but who knows what will happen. A C might seem harsh for a financial move from Toronto, but I was a fan of Ochai’s game and that 18.5 percent three-ball was definitely bound to go up. Also, for a day that started with so much hype surrounding rumours with Domantas Sabonis and Anthony Davis, for this to be the first move that Bobby Webster made before the trade deadline was such a huge letdown, but perhaps the biggest splash of them all is just hours away.
PSA: For those that care, Top 10 Raptors Plays of the Week have been pushed back to Friday due to trade deadline coverage.
Your next read: Check out Zulfi’s thoughts on the new NBA landscape after a big day of trades last night.
“It was just under a year ago that I was sitting on my couch, doom-scrolling while my wife and her mom watched White Chicks, when the most surprising trade in NBA history went down.“
“As I received the X notification from ESPN’s Shams Charania that Luka Doncic had been traded for Anthony Davis, my face went paler than Marlon Wayans in 2004 with movie makeup on.“
“What do you mean, Doncic is now a Laker and Davis is now a Maverick? Why? How? WHO is Nico Harrison?!“
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