Chris Paul has indicated the 2025-26 season will be his final year in the NBA before retirement. The free agent guard has made a decision on where he’ll spend his last stop, and he’s going back to the place where he enjoyed the most success in his Hall of Fame career.
The Los Angeles Clippers have agreed to a one-year deal with Paul, according to insider Chris Haynes. Paul signed a $3.6 million deal to return to the Clippers, where he led he led the franchise to its greatest ever period of relevancy as the leader of ‘Lob City’ from 2011-2017.
Paul is 40 years old, but he’s coming off a very good season with the San Antonio Spurs where he was one of 11 players in the league to play all 82 games. Paul remains a gifted facilitator who can organize an offense. His scoring punched has dropped off some with age, and at this point he mostly just takes three-pointers. More than 63 percent of Paul’s field goal attempts were threes this past season, way up from his previous career high of 49 percent back with the 2019 Rockets.
The Clippers lost in Game 7 of their first-round series with the Denver Nuggets in the 2025 NBA Playoffs. LA has added Bradley Beal, John Collins, Brook Lopez, and now Paul to the rotation since then, while only losing Norman Powell among their major contributors. This team will still only go as far as Kawhi Leonard and James Harden can take them, but the way the Clippers have added depth while keeping their long-term salary sheet clean is impressive.
Paul and Harden once formed a fantastic backcourt for a 2018 Rockets team that won 65 games and lost in the Western Conference Finals. The Clippers never advanced past the second round in Paul’s first stint with the franchise, but they were in the mix every year. Paul’s signing with the Clippers is another example of a franchise legend going home after the Blazers signed Damian Lillard last week.
The Clippers’ decision to let Paul George walk in 2024 free agency has proven to be a masterstroke. George had a disastrous, injury-riddled year in his debut with the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Clippers were able to use their newfound cap flexibility to vastly improve their depth. You can now add CP3 to this list:
Letting Paul George walk allowed the clippers to sign:
– Bradley Beal
– John Collins
– Brook Lopez
– Derrick Jones Jr
– Kris Dunn
– Nicolas Batum pic.twitter.com/qYoiGdhe1G— clippa twitta (@clipfullyloaded) July 18, 2025
The Clippers are going to be the oldest team in the NBA next season. Paul is the second oldest player in the NBA behind LeBron James. Kawhi Leonard (34 years old), James Harden (36 in August), Beal (32 years old), Nicolas Batum (37 in Dec.), Bogdan Bogdanović (33 in August), and Lopez (37 years old) are all in the twilight of their careers. It does feel like the Clippers have enough young depth to keep everyone fresh to a certain extent.
Where do the Clippers rank in the West next season? This team feels a little better than last year’s squad that won 50 games and finished with the No. 5 seed. The Oklahoma City Thunder are the clear favorites entering the season, and it feels like the Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets are behind them. The Clippers could be competing with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers, and Golden State Warriors for homecourt advantage.
The Clippers still have plenty of flexibility to remodel their team in a couple years after Leonard and Harden age out. Their team this season will be deep and experienced and very good, even if they feel like they’re in the second or third tier of the West. The Clippers have somehow become one of the NBA’s smarter organizations, and the CP3 signing proves it again.
