Paul Injures Hand, Eyeing New Home In 2017?

On Monday night, the Los Angeles Clippers suffered a blowout loss to the Portland Trail Blazers by a score of 98-84. Even with this loss, the Clipper suffered a much bigger blow when their point guard Chris Paul suffered a hand injury.  After being looked at, the medical staff confirmed this would be a fractured third metacarpal in his right hand.

There is no specific member of the Clippers claiming that the postseason is over for Paul, yet this injury would be too painful to play through without treatment.  In recent reports, there is a possibility that Paul can go through surgery and be back in about one week at the minimum.  On top of all this, Clippers forward Blake Griffin left the game in the fourth quarter due to a sore left quad, spelling out just how this Clippers team has been as of late.

The Clippers may currently be concerned about moving onto the next round of the playoffs, but even with that, there are multiple speculations that this Clippers squad may split up after 2016.  On Mike and Mike on Tuesday morning, there were opinions stated that either Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, or DeAndre Jordan may leave to a new home (with Paul being most likely to do so).

Would Chris Paul really do this to a franchise that has taken him in for years? With time flying by and Paul not getting any younger, he may view championships as his biggest priority right now.  Realistically, without any rings on his fingers or trophies to show for, Paul (in my eyes) will not be viewed even as one of the greater point guards the game has ever seen.

If the money was not an issue, I would expect Cleveland to make a run at Paul, or even the Thunder if they are not able to keep Westbrook in OKC this summer.  There are plenty of franchises that would love to make Chris Paul the face of their franchise, but the question is whether the rings are what matters at this point in his career.