The San Antonio Spurs struck big on the first day of free agency. After picking UConn's Stephon Castle fourth overall in the 2024 NBA Draft, they added future Hall of Famer Chris Paul in a surprise move on Sunday.
The addition of Paul provides Castle with one of the best possible mentors and gives Victor Wembanyama an elite point guard he's never played with before. Because of that, the Ringer's Kevin O'Connor is a huge fan of the CP3 signing.
Spurs wasted no time in securing CP3
The Warriors swiftly waived Paul before his $30 million salary for the 2024-25 season became fully guaranteed. Golden State acquired Paul last summer in the Jordan Poole trade. But with Stephen Curry on the team, the Point God never got his bearings in Dub Nation.
CP3 came off the Warriors bench 40 times in 58 games last season, averaging 9.2 points and 6.8 assists in 24.6 minutes. Now, he will spend his 20th NBA season in the Alamo, helping Gregg Popovich unlock the full potential of the 2024 Rookie of the Year.
"26/12/6/4 for Victor Wembanyama this season. All-Star. All-NBA. DPOY." O'Connor added. "I could be underestimating btw. By the second half of the season, Wemby might be 32/13/8/5. His rate of improvement the last few years is unlike anything I've ever seen."
Wemby has never played with an elite PG before
Victor is coming off a season where he averaged 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and a league-leading 3.6 blocks per game. The 20-year-old Frenchman exceeded expectations and is coming off a freshman campaign where he finished second in the Defensive Player of the Year voting.
Wemby put up great numbers despite the Spurs spending the entire 2023-24 campaign without an elite point guard. Popovich experimented with Jeremy Sochan at the start of the year before going more traditional with Tre Jones. But clearly, neither matches the savvy and brilliance of the Point God in orchestrating the offense.
CP3 may be nearing the end of his career, but as we saw in spurts last year, he still has at least a year left in the tank. The Spurs hope the one-year $11 million deal he just signed will be worth their while helping, especially when it comes to helping Castle and Wembanyama grow as players.
Related: Kenyon Martin doesn't think Victor Wembanyama should work out with Jamal Crawford: "He's 7'5"; why he need that?"
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