NBA Rumors: Thunder Using Reverse Psychology On Chris Paul Availability

The Oklahoma City Thunder have yet to reveal their plans for Chris Paul, but there are people who believe that a trade will eventually happen. Since acquiring the veteran NBA guard, all has been quite on the end of the Thunder. Unless something comes up, it seems that OKC will enter the coming season with him on the roster.

Should that be the case, Paul is expected to act as a mentor to the young players on the team. However, it remains to be seen if this will be the case for the entire 2019-20 NBA season. Despite no trade talks, some executives believe that something is brewing and that the Thunder are using a different approach on how to handle the Chris Paul situation.

Brian Windhorst touched on this on ESPN's "The Jump," stressing how the Thunder do not want other teams that they are panicking to part with the 34-year-old guard. It appears they want to show that they would rather hold on to CP3 than surrender a draft pick.

“Here’s what executives expect to happen: they expect the Thunder to put out a message that we’re not looking to trade Chris Paul…We want him to work with our young guys. Because they don’t want anybody to think they’re panic-trying to trade him, and they want to hope that somebody has something happen where they need Chris Paul,” said Windhorst.

This makes sense and is looking more like a reverse psychology approach. And while it was not mentioned, the big obstacle scene in getting a trade done is Paul's hefty contract. The nine-time NBA All-Star is only in the second year of his $159.7 million deal and will be earning $38.5 million for the 2019-20 season. Teams who may end up with him need to face roughly $123 million until 2021. The 4th overall pick of the 2005 NBA Draft has a player option in the final year, according to Spotrac.

Seeing how most teams are trying to manage their team salary budget, taking in Paul will be a problem. That is unless some teams start cutting players to accommodate the 6-foot guard. For now, it looks like the Thunder will have Paul in tow for the coming NBA season. Things could change before the February trade deadline -- assuming teams have already crunched team salary numbers.