Dwyane Wade's Plea Amidst Chris Paul's Lakers Audition

Future Hall of Famer Chris Paul sent shockwaves through the basketball world Saturday when he publicly auditioned for the Los Angeles Lakers to sign him. The legendary point guard posted a video of himself knocking down a series of threes with the caption “342” while tagging Lakers head coach JJ Redick. As explained by Heavy Sports’ Erik Anderson, Paul’s caption was a callback to Redick’s offseason routine that involved the Duke alum making at least 342 shots per training session. Essentially, Paul was trying to convey to Redick that he was locked in. Redick Views CP3 as a Brother Paul and Redick, who were teammates on the LA Clippers more than a decade ago, are said to be close friends off the court. When Redick lost his home in the catastrophic Pacific Palisades wildfires in Jan. 2025, Paul and former San Antonio Spurs teammate Victor Wembanyama comforted Redick’s sons, Knox and Kai, by offering them autographed jerseys to replace the sports memorabilia they lost in the fires. At the time, Redick couldn’t stop raving about Paul’s kind gesture. “When you’ve been in the league long enough, you have this big circle, and it’s people you like, people you love and then it’s your brothers — and Chris is in that inner-inner circle of brothers,” Redick said of Paul, via ESPN. “He called me this afternoon and said, ‘Whether you win or we win, Vic and I are going to go over and give the boys our jerseys.’ … I appreciate all the love, and I’m not surprised Chris did something like that.” Dwyane Wade Endorses Rockets While Paul has seemingly chosen the Lakers as his next destination, retired Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade has urged the Houston Rockets to sign the veteran pont guard. “They need a quarterback, a conductor,” Wade said of the Rockets on the “NBA on Prime” telecast, referencing Fred VanVleet’s injury. “They need a guy who can get guys into their spots, a guy who can play with bigs like [Alperen] Sengun, [Steven] Adams… Chris Paul [is] out there. You need a veteran. They need a guy who don’t need to score. Chris Paul out there. Just throw that out there…These are all the things that Chris Paul does well.” Further to Wade’s point, the Rockets have been without a proper point guard since VanVleet went down with an ACL injury. In VanVleet’s absence, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka has entrusted ball-handling duties to third-year guard Amen Thompson and second-year guard Reed Sheppard, a plan that has yielded mixed results. While they’ve combined for 8.3 assists, both guards have routinely been forced into turnovers in clutch-time situations. As such, the Rockets have relied heavily on Sengun and Kevin Durant for their playmaking in clutch moments. Technically, Chris Paul is still under contract with the Clippers, who announced they were “parting ways” with the 40-year-old point guard on Dec. 3, but never really waived him. The Clippers have said they will work with CP3 to find him his next home, be that via trade or buying out his $3.6M expiring contract.