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LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Chris Paul, a 40-year-old guard and 12-time National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star, has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, according to multiple reports on Monday.

Paul returns to a club where he enjoyed some of his best campaigns from 2011 to 2017 for his 21st and possibly final season, ESPN and The Athletic reported.

The deal, worth $3.6 million, would allow Paul to be near his family in Los Angeles and give him a final chance at an NBA title while declining interests from teams like Milwaukee, Dallas and Charlotte.

The Clippers have added guard Bradley Beal and center Brook Lopez while resigning guard James Harden and together with Kawhi Leonard could make the club a formidable Western Conference squad.

In the past 10 seasons, the Clippers have gone past the first round of the playoffs twice, reaching the conference finals for the first time in club history in 2021 before falling to Phoenix.

Paul played six seasons with the Clippers, joining stars like Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Jamal Crawford in forming a squad that was considered as a serious contender in the Western Conference but was held back by injuries some years and painful playoff collapses.

In his first five years with the Clippers, Paul never finished lower than seventh in Most Valuable Player voting, and was an All-Star, All-NBA, and All-Defense each of those five years. With the Clippers he averaged 18.8 points and 9.8 assists a game.

Paul’s role with the Clippers will be different this time around, and it will be different from last season with the Spurs, where he started all 82 games. He will likely come off the bench behind a starting backcourt of James Harden and either Bradley Beal for offense or Kris Dunn for defense.

This is a Clippers roster that looks good on paper but is older with players such as Paul (40), Brook Lopez (37), Nicolas Batum (36), James Harden (35), Kawhi Leonard (34) and Bogdan Bogdanovic (33).

Health and monitoring minutes will be a primary task for coach Tyronn Lue. The Clippers chose to get older and better this summer, with a chance to pivot and reshape this roster coming by 2027.

All in all, Paul ranks second on the NBA all-time assists and steals lists after two decades in the league playing for New Orleans, Houston, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Golden State, San Antonio and the Clippers.

The five-time NBA season assists leader and six-time NBA steals leader also helped the US Olympic team capture gold in 2008 at Beijing and 2012 in London.

Paul averaged 8.8 points, 7.4 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.3 steals last season for San Antonio. For his career, Paul has averaged 17.0 points, 9.2 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 steals a game.