LeBron James and Chris Paul have never played together, and Paul has never been a Los Angeles Laker (although he came close that one time). News of the Phoenix Suns' plans to waive Paul, first reported by B/R's Chris Haynes, means both of those things are suddenly possible.

Between former teammate Kyrie Irving, one long rumored as a team-up option in Paul and several other candidates, the Lakers have intriguing options in their search for a point guard who can help James chase down a title.

CP3 and LeBron Together At Last?

We have to acknowledge the uncertainty here. This whole thing with CP3 and the Suns could just be a mutually agreed-upon tactic to get Paul back to Phoenix at a reduced salary.

We don't yet know whether the Suns intend to waive Paul, eating his guaranteed $15.8 million, waive and stretch him or try to trade him.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that all those options are on the table. The mechanics matter because they determine whether Paul would be eligible to return to the Suns on a new deal. Stretching his salary, for example, would make that illegal under the CBA.

If Paul looks elsewhere, we should assume he would only have eyes for contenders. That narrows the field considerably, and the presence of James, Anthony Davis and a roster that reached the West Finals in L.A. would be compelling.

James and Paul together would make the Lakers one of the most cerebral and experienced outfits imaginable. Brain power doesn't win titles on its own, but it's hard to think of many instances in NBA history where two such renowned on-court thinkers joined forces.

More specifically, Paul would fit well as a deferential setup man (career-low 11.3 shots per game last season) who could create easy chances for James, sparing him from the wear and tear of so much self-generated scoring. James has never played with a pure point guard as skilled as Paul, and Dwyane Wade is still the teammate with the most career assists on James' baskets.

For context, Wade set James up 361 times in four-plus years together. Paul assisted on 355 baskets by Devin Booker in the last three seasons. Imagine the stress-free looks he'll generate for James. And then try to comprehend the sheer dominance of a CP3-Anthony Davis pick-and-roll.

Paul is one of the greatest pick-and-roll operators of all time, and Davis' hands, mobility and finishing prowess make him one of his era's best PnR finishers.

In addition to Paul setting up James for easier buckets than he's ever had, the veteran point guard could spam deadly pick-and-roll possessions with AD that'd allow James to take breaks as a spacer or second-side attacker. Considering the Lakers' offense let down their dominant defense this past postseason, the specific upgrades Paul brings could be enormous.

It's fair to worry about Paul's health and durability. He's 38 with a long history of late-season and playoff breakdowns. But that risk is already priced into the Lakers' operation. James and Davis are similarly fragile. Plus, Paul played 59 games last season, 65 the year before and 70 apiece in 2019-20 and 2020-21. In the era of load management, those are acceptable totals.

The biggest key and the factor that makes Paul such an appealing option? Price.

Before the Paul news broke, it seemed the Lakers had just two pathways to adding a star point guard. They could gut the roster and renounce their own free agents to throw $30 million at Kyrie Irving, or they could make no significant outside signings, retain D'Angelo Russell and bring back their role players on new deals.

Adding CP3 for the taxpayer's midlevel exception of roughly $7 million would afford the Lakers a middle path—one in which they upgrade the point and keep a very good supporting cast together.

The Kyrie Option

Reports on a possible James-Irving reunion just won't go away, despite the Lakers' best efforts to speak them out of existence.

Irving has superior highlight culture clout compared to Paul, but it's difficult to say he's a better fit—even if he's clearly the more prolific scorer and seven years younger.

Irving's shot creation and undeniable bucket-getting acumen don't outweigh the fact that offenses led by Paul have consistently outperformed those featuring Irving. Individual offensive rating is a noisy stat, and deeper dives are almost always necessary to find the signal in the data. That said, CP3's offensive rating over the last five years has hovered between 118.0 and 124.0 points per 100 possessions. Irving's ranges from 117.0 to 121.0.

If we're going to knock Paul for games missed, we have to do the same with Irving. Despite his relative youth, Kyrie has missed 92 more contests than Paul over the last half-decade. Even if Irving's unavailability hasn't always owed to injury, the fact remains he's simply a less reliable lineup presence than Paul.

One could argue that Irving still gives the Lakers a higher ceiling—if he actually plays, behaves and doesn't find some way to disrupt, distract or otherwise compromise the function of his team. Those are iffy bets across the board. Yet even if the Lakers improbably land a mature and team-oriented version of Irving, the cost might still be too great.

To land the eight-time All-Star, Los Angeles would have to cut ties with virtually every free agent on its roster—a collection of players who helped the team amass the second-best record in the league after the break. That's too great a sacrifice for a player who comes with as much downside risk as Irving.

Don't Forget About D-Lo

D'Angelo Russell is one of the few starting-caliber point guards on the market, and he just so happened to play well for the Lakers down the stretch last season. You can't knock averages of 17.4 points and 6.1 assists on 61.0 percent true shooting— Russell's contributions to the Lakers' cause over 17 games after the trade deadline.

The playoffs were different. Opponents targeted Russell on D, and he fizzled offensively, shooting just 31.0 percent from deep. That'll stick in James' and the Lakers' minds, and it should have been a red flag when reports surfaced the team was concerned it'd "lose" Russell if it removed him from the first unit against the Denver Nuggets in the conference finals.

There's no room for conditional buy-in on a true contender.

Considering Russell is an offense-only contributor, it doesn't help his case that the team only scored at a rate that ranked in the 62nd percentile when he played with James during the season. Irving and Paul would figure to produce significantly better offensive numbers than that.

Russell would be the least effective of James' three main point-guard-counterpart choices, but he's also the youngest and would come at a palatable price somewhere between Paul on the low end and Irving on the high one. Los Angeles shouldn't go over $20 million per season on any offer for D-Lo, who proved to be little more than a break-even postseason presence and put up those stellar regular-season numbers in a small sample of a contract year.

Less Likely Alternatives

Fred VanVleet is the best free-agent point guard (player option) outside of the trio we've covered, but landing him would require the same roster teardown it would take to get Irving.

VanVleet doesn't have Irving's connection to James, so it's hard to imagine the Lakers moving heaven and earth to pay him $30 million per season—even if the Toronto Raptors guard profiles as a safer alternative.

The mini midlevel exception won't be enough to entice Gabe Vincent, and it'd be too much to throw at Patrick Beverley. Russell Westbrook certainly isn't coming back after the way his Lakers tenure worked out, and we've now pretty much exhausted the supply of quality free-agent point guards the Lakers could realistically acquire.

In the end, Paul gives the Lakers their only chance to make a significant upgrade at the 1 without losing a ton of their own impactful free agents. So it's not just that Paul is a better fit than Irving, which he probably is.

It's that Paul, Austin Reaves, Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura and all the rest give James a much better chance to chase down his fifth title than Irving, Russell or any other option out there.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@gt_hughes), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.