The Golden State Warriors could flip an aging Chris Paul to a much younger, potential long-term piece to extend their championship window with Stephen Curry.
In a proposed trade by Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley, he bats for the Warriors to flip 38-year-old Paul into Toronto Raptors’ two-time All-Star and All-NBA forward Pascal Siakam.
Golden State Warriors receive: Pascal Siakam, Christian Koloko
Toronto Raptors receive: Chris Paul, Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski and a 2026 first-round pick (top-seven protected)
“The 29-year-old [Siakam] could be Curry’s scoring co-star, a secondary creator, a pick-and-roll screener, a rebounder, a versatile defender and a transition attacker. Koloko would be a dart throw, but he could carve out a small niche as an athletic rim-runner,” Buckley wrote.
The extension-eligible Siakam’s future in Toronto is uncertain following an August 8 report from The Athletic’s Shams Charania that there is “no substantive conversations surrounding an extension.”
But according to a Toronto Star report leading to last June’s NBA Draft, Siakam “put word out that he would not entertain contract extension talks with any team that might have traded for him.”
Siakam is entering the final season of his four-year, $136 million max extension he signed in 2019. He is coming off his best individual season in the NBA, averaging 24.2 points and 5.8 assists, both career highs, along with 7.8 rebounds while shooting 48% from the field.
Is Klay Thompson on the Decline?
Following two major injuries, Klay Thompson had dropped to a career-low ranking in The Athletic’s NBA Player Tiers entering next season.
From as high as the third tier pre-ACL and Achilles injury, Thompson hit rock bottom as he will enter next season in the fifth tier despite producing better numbers last season compared to the previous season before his injury.
The extension-eligible Thompson averaged 21.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists while hitting a five-year high 41.2% on a career-high 10.6 3-point attempts last season across 69 games. During his ill-fated 2018-19 season campaign, Thompson put up 21.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists while shooting 40.2% on 7.7 3-point attempts in 78 games.
Klay Thompson Will Seriously Consider Playing for Bahamas
Thompson will seriously consider playing for the Bahamas, his father’s home country, starting in the Olympic qualifying tournament next summer.
“When that time comes, I’ll give it serious consideration just because of what the Bahamas has meant to the Thompson family, especially my father,” Thompson told Manila reporters during his Asian Tour for sportswear brand Anta in the Philippines.
The Bahamas recently made history after beating Argentina twice to earn a shot at qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
His father, Mychal Thompson, is a Bahamian who was selected as the No. 1 pick in the 1978 NBA Draft and later starred for the Warriors’ present-day rival Los Angeles Lakers.
But there will be obstacles Thompson and the Bahamas need to hurdle since he already played at the senior level in FIBA tournaments with Team USA, winning golds in the 2014 FIBA World Cup and 2016 Rio Olympics.
The Bahamas can invoke the FIBA eligibility exception, which they did with Gordon, who already won a gold with Team USA in the 2010 FIBA World Cup. But if Thompson gets clearance from USA Basketball and FIBA to play for the Bahamas, the rising basketball power will have to choose between him and Gordon.
