With the Feb. 21 trade deadline fast approaching, the Los Angeles Clippers that pretty much no one bothered to talk about in trade rumors until point guard Chris Paul went down has to take quick stock of how all of its primary pieces re-click and then decide how badly it needs to make a move. The suspicion here, though, is that the Clips already know.

In a win-now season, they look more and more like a team that needs to take a midseason trade gamble.The whispers of optimism emanating from Staples Center about how confident they are that Paul will commit to sign for the long term when free agency hits in July have been rampant for months.

As one source close to the situation put it this week when asked to grade the Clips’ chances of retaining CP3, keeping in mind his well-chronicled love of the Hollywood scene and the fact that this team was good enough to reel off 17 wins in a row earlier this season: “I’m saying 99.5 percent.”

via Marc Stein of ESPN