Trail Blazers Shouldn't Add a Third Guard Over 35 Years Old

The Portland Trail Blazers have several perimeter players who can score the rock and can definitely use a facilitator to bring it all together. Portland arguably has several point guards who can set the table, but one of them is sidelined for the start of the season, and the other will be out for the entire year.

Just because Scoot Henderson and Damian Lillard are on the shelf, though, doesn't mean the Blazers need to make any panic moves. Signing free agent Chris Paul, as some have suggested, would be the definition of a panic move.

Paul has a complicated image right now. While his presence is being painted as toxic because of not seeing eye to eye with the Los Angeles Clippers' leadership, presumably being Ty Lue and Kawhi Leonard, he's made a career out of leaving locker rooms better than he found them. The Oklahoma City Thunder, the Phoenix Suns, and the San Antonio Spurs are obvious examples of that.

It's undeniable that he's a strong presence, though, and that doesn't always work. Trying to force a fit in a locker room built on star-less cohesion from the likes of Deni Avdija, Jerami Grant, and Toumani Camara is risky business. Mainly, because there's no guarantee Paul has the stamina left at 40 years old to engineer one last culture overhaul.

Paul shot 32% from the field with LAC, averaging a career-low in points and assists in the fewest minutes per game he's ever played. At this stage, he's an undersized defense-first guard who you can mostly ignore on the other end. His PER was in the single digits for the first time ever.

Can that all be put on the Clippers? His numbers across the board had been steadily declining in the years prior to returning to Tinseltown. Sure, he didn't join a franchise with a solid foundation. Careers go to die on LA's second team.

But at some point, you have to ask questions about a guy who's about to be on his fifth team in four years.

You also have to ask questions about your roster makeup if you're Joe Cronin.

Trail Blazers Do Not Need a Third Point Guard Over The Age of 35

Do you really need a third point guard over the age of 35? Not only did the Blazers re-sign Lillard this past offseason, but they also traded for Jrue Holiday from the Boston Celtics. That's two 35-year-old point guards on the roster, though Holiday is versatile enough to play positions 1-4.

Adding Paul would make three. While Lillard won't return from an Achilles tear suffered this past May, and Paul could essentially be his placeholder on the roster, the latter serving as a fill-in-Lillard is a strange role to sell CP3 on during his final professional season.

Portland needs to go young, not get older. Paul doesn't make sense for the Blazers, given his likely final landing spot should, and likely will be, a team that has a chance to play deep into May and into June.