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Suns owner Robert Sarver didn’t sound too certain his star point guard Chris Paul will be back next season if he opts out of the final year of his contract.
Sarver left things more open than expected, considering Paul led the Suns to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1993.
“I don’t know — it’s kind of interesting,’’ Sarver said on the Phoenix radio show “Burns and Gambo.”
“I had some discussions with him after the season. I said, ‘You’ve only been part of the organization for nine months. There’s really not a lot of history here. From a team perspective it was my best season in 17 years and it was your best season in 16 years.’ So there’s really a lot there to keep the two of us together — the Suns and him.
“But he’s got a decision to make. A business decision, family decision. Unfortunately, it’s not our decision. It’s his decision. He’ll have to decide whether he’s going to become a free agent or opt into his contract. We’ll know that in the next three days.”
Paul is set to receive $44 million in the final year of his deal. But he can still opt out and re-sign to stay in the Valley of The Sun and help the team defend its Western Conference crown.
League sources believe Paul would seek a three-year, $100 million package. With sufficient cap space, the Knicks would be keenly interested, as team president Leon Rose is his former agent. The Lakers are reportedly interested in a sign-and-trade to pair Paul with one of his best friends, LeBron James.
Sarver can still match any deal to bring Paul back, but it sounded like he’s got his limits for the 36-year-old.
Asked if there was any way Paul can be on the move, Sarver said, “I’m sure there probably is. Our first priority is to try to get him back.
“That will depend on his agent, [GM] James [Jones] and him and me. I don’t know. We’ll see next week, I guess.’’
Sarver said he has no idea if Paul will actually opt out, but he added, “But I do know is if you’d ask me when we made the trade whether I thought if this would even be a decision, I’d say no and now it is. He’s got a decision to make. He did what we thought he’d do based on how he’s played in the playoffs the past few years and he was outstanding.
“Are there other teams that would be interested? Yeah, there probably is. I do think he enjoyed being part of this team. And we loved having him on the team, so I hope he ends up back. But I don’t have control of that today.’’
The Knicks’ edge over the Lakers is their cap space, but Paul’s two kids live in Los Angeles.
When asked late in the season the difference with the Suns, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said, “Probably Chris Paul. You add the foundation and then you put a player like Chris into the mix.”
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