New Orleans Pelicans: 3 team trade with OKC and the New York Knicks for Chris Paul

New Orleans Pelicans: A trade with the Knicks and Thunder for Chris Paul and Jrue Holiday

Why the Thunder would do it

The Thunder were the NBA’s surprise team last year. They were supposed to be rebuilding around Paul and a bunch of youngsters, but someone forgot to tell them and they made the playoffs anyway.

The Thunder have never been a team to hold onto a player for too long and figure they can finish their rebuild by trading 35-year-old Chris Paul.

In this trade, the Thunder get back the first-round pick and young player that they covet in Kevin Knox, but they also get Jrue Holiday, a veteran to replace Paul’s production.

They get the 13th pick in the draft, a ton of cap space cleared by moving both Schroder and Paul, a young prospect to add to their talented core, and still have enough to compete for a playoff spot.

With a core of Holiday, SGA, Luguentz Dort, Steven Adams, Kevin Knox, Darius Bazley and the 13th pick, the Thunder would still have a nice mixture of youth and experience to make the playoffs and be better moving forward.

If the Thunder could move on from Paul and still stay relevant in the Western Conference playoff picture that would be ideal, especially if they could set themselves up with a young player, future picks and a ton of cap space to play with.

An All-Star, young prospect and lottery pick is a good haul for Chris Paul, so the Thunder would definitely consider this, but would the Knicks give up this much for a 35-year-old point guard?