Rumors Are Swirling That Now Chris Paul To The Bucks Is "Unlikely"

Well those Chris Paul to the Bucks rumors were fun! This actually isn't all that surprising to hear when you took a second and actually looked at the Bucks salaries. I touched on it last week, they don't really have high salary players that the Thunder would want and they definitely don't have the draft capital. Now there's a chance this is all just a smoke screen from the Bucks side, for what reason I have no idea. Maybe they are leaking this as a leverage play in order to knock the Thunder's price down? Either way it's going to cost a lot to match the money so I'm not really sure that would even be a thing.

But what this does do is make you think about that meeting Giannis had with ownership. 

Alright so if they told Giannis they will spend into the luxury tax to bring in help, and that help is not going to be Chris Paul, well then who is it? Serge Ibaka? Gallo? Dragic? What other big names point guards are even out there for a trade, Russell Westbrook? Woof. Maybe I'm looking too much into it, but it sort of felt like it was a Chris Paul or bust move for the Bucks to make. Unless Giannis gave them a name in that meeting to pursue instead of Chris Paul, that report would make me nervous. They have to do everything they possibly can to convince Giannis to stay, and it's very clear they need an upgrade in terms of a playmaking point guard to play next to Giannis. Eric Bledsoe ain't it. 

The part about the "strong personalities" is also a little weird. If Giannis made it clear they need to bring in more help, you can't turn down Chris Paul because your star player has a strong personality that might clash. Does he care about winning or not? You can't put that bullshit aside to bring in the best collection of talent possible? That doesn't feel like Giannis to me, so I dunno if I buy that reasoning. 

Either way, if we were to remove the Bucks from the list for potential Chris Paul destinations, the options get pretty thin. The Thunder certainly don't have to trade him just to trade him, they can always wait until the deadline if they want. The bigger question is where the Bucks would go instead, and would that player even make a difference like I think we all think Chris Paul would.