Los Angeles Lakers: 4 free agents to sign away from other contenders

4. Chris Paul

The second that the Phoenix Suns lost the NBA Finals the speculation started for the Los Angeles Lakers to pursue Chris Paul. While NBA fans do have a tendency to overreact and expect trades that simply are impossible (see: Damian Lillard trade), this is something that absolutely could happen.

Chris Paul has a player option heading into the offseason and has all the leverage in the world. While his time in Phoenix seemed to be great, at the end of the day, they still did not get the final job done and CP3 likely knows that there is not much time remaining.

He has been a trooper throughout his career and manned up and played for a bad Thunder team then turned the Suns into a title-contender. His NBA days are numbered and it would not be all that surprising to see him orchestrate a sign-and-trade to the Lakers.

This is exactly what he did with the Los Angeles Clippers to get to Houston. The one hold-up would be Phoenix. Phoenix does not have to agree to a sign-and-trade and could be petty, not allowing him to go to the Lakers.

However, Paul could make it get really ugly by accepting his player option and then pulling a James Harden. I doubt it gets to that point, but he could do it, which gives him more leverage in the situation.

The Lakers would likely trade some kind of package centered around Dennis Schroder, Kyle Kuzma and Talen Horton-Tucker to get this deal done and Chris Paul would give the Lakers their third star.

Rob Pelinka could figure out the depth later and bank on winning a title simply for having those three guys. Of course, none of this happens if Paul does not want to be a Laker in the first place, but it is possible.