The Mavs and Pelicans are locked into a battle pursuing Kyle Lowry in free agency.
"Kyle Lowry has intense interest from Dallas...New Orleans cleared cap space with all indications to add Kyle Lowry as their Chris Paul."
Source
https://twitter.com/HoopAnalysisNet/status/1420433082226810881
After the Milwaukee Bucks lost so handily to Miami in the second round of last season’s bubble playoffs, they assembled a list of players to pursue to flank Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton with a top-flight lead guard.
One of Milwaukee’s best options to create a true championship-worthy troika, seemingly, was Chris Paul.
The Bucks indeed considered a trade run at Paul for many of the same reasons that the Phoenix Suns ultimately did. Milwaukee was perceived to be far closer to title contention than Phoenix after posting the league’s best regular-season record in back-to-back seasons, but the Bucks had a clear need for Paul’s veteran know-how after bitter postseason disappointment.
Turns out that the Bucks, though, liked another Western Conference guard even better than Paul. One source familiar with Milwaukee’s thinking insists that constructing a trade with New Orleans to acquire Jrue Holiday was their preferred scenario.
Perhaps that’s what you would expect to hear now, since the Bucks are committed to Holiday for the next four seasons at nearly $135 million and relying on Holiday so heavily to emerge from his recent shooting woes entering Saturday’s Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Paul-led Suns in Phoenix. Yet that stance does compute when you note how enthusiastically Holiday welcomed a trade to Milwaukee, as I detailed in this New York Times piece heading into the playoffs, and then factor in Paul’s well-chronicled determination to play on the West Coast for family reasons. The Bucks were naturally drawn to a player who wanted them … and Holiday’s arrival duly helped convince Antetokounmpo to sign a five-year contract extension worth $228 million.
As a reward for the professionalism and leadership Paul displayed throughout the 2019-20 season, in the wake of his trade exile from Houston in July 2019, Oklahoma City promised to work with him on re-routing him to a contender via trade after one season together. A swap with Milwaukee would have sent the Paul in the wrong direction and proved a short-lived possibility. The combination of the Suns’ proximity to his family in Los Angeles and the presence of Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton as such promising sidekicks had Paul pushing to go to the desert.
Some eight months later, Holiday and Paul will match up Saturday night in the biggest game of the season to date, both desperate to re
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Source from Marc Stein's Newsletter - What's left for the Lakers
Full Quote:
>Now that he has committed to re-signing a four-year deal with Phoenix that sets him up to retire as a Sun, Chris Paul has to sort out the other unresolved element of his future.
>Paul’s second four-year term as president of the NBA Players Association ends this year. Portland’s CJ McCollum has been mentioned as a potential successor, but Paul has the ability to run for another term if he chooses.
>Oscar Robertson, who ranks as the most influential union figure in the sport’s history because of his role in the fight to establish true unrestricted free agency for players, is the only NBPA president (1965-1974) who has served longer than Paul’s eight years.
[Marc Stein] Tonight on @KingJames' @HBO special, @BarackObama said @carmeloanthony and @russwest44 joined James and Chris Paul on the phone call @CP3 initiated with Obama to seek advice from the former president in the wee hours of Aug. 26 after the @Bucks walked away from a playoff game
The next morning on Aug. 27, at the strong urging of Paul and @andre Iguodala, NBA players agreed to keep the bubble season going
https://twitter.com/TheSteinLine/status/1322350621480005634 https://twitter.com/TheSteinLine/status/1322350808143335425
