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As Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank conducted his Zoom with the media Saturday from the team’s practice facility, he looked to his right and mentioned how James Harden was in the gym working out and how Harden played a pivotal role in the team signing free-agent guard Bradley Beal.

But Frank is not done building a roster to compete in the rugged Western Conference, indicating that signing former Clippers guard Chris Paul is high on their list.

There have been so many rumors about Paul wanting to play for the Clippers in the upcoming season, about how he wanted to be close to his family in the Los Angeles area, and how the Clippers had interest in him returning to the franchise.

Frank didn’t shy away from how the Clippers view having Paul on the roster.

“He obviously possesses some of the qualities we just referenced about and of course we’re strongly, strongly considering him,” Frank said.

Paul, 40, played in all 82 games last season with the San Antonio Spurs. He averaged 28.0 minutes per game, 8.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 7.4 assists and shot 42.7% from the field.

He spent six years with the Clippers, from 2011-12 until the 2016-17 season, and ushered in the “Lob City” era with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan.

“What I’d say about Chris is he’s a great player,” Frank said. “He’s a great Clipper.”

Paul was traded in June of 2017 to the Houston Rockets, where he became a teammate of Harden.

Over the course of his 20-year career, Paul averaged 17.0 points, 9.2 assists and shot 47% from the field and 37% from three-point range.

If the Clippers do sign him, they will have three point guards — Harden, Kris Dunn and Paul.

Frank said the Clippers want to “lean into the ballhandling and playmaking” as they look to complete the roster.

“What we’ve seen is sometimes the problem of having too many guys and how that can impact the team,” Frank said. “So, we’ve learned from those lessons and I think the conversations that we have with anyone who’s going to join the Clippers next, they understand it’s a reserve role. They understand that kind of going into camp exactly what it looks like. So there’s no preconceived misconceptions yet.”

Adding Paul would give the Clippers five veteran guards — Harden, Beal, Paul, Dunn and Bogdan Bogdanonic — on a team that typically rotates 10 players during a game under coach Tyronn Lue’s system.

Harden played in 79 games last season and he averaged 35.3 minutes per game, ranking him 16th in the NBA. He averaged 22.8 points, 8.7 assists, 5.8 rebounds and shot 41% from the field and 35.3% from three-point range.

He’ll be 36 in August and having more playmaking guards like Paul will relieve some of the pressure off Harden.

“The reality is for any NBA team, the amount of times you have your top 10 all available, it’s usually 21 to 25 times throughout the course of a year,” Frank said. “So, you literally need everyone on your roster to be able to contribute. But to your point, because we do have a lot of versatility. …

“So, Brad Beal could give us more playmaking with the ball. … Kris Dunn can be the backup point guard. Bogdan can handle along with James. You just want to put everything on the table and then find the best person who can have total role acceptance and awareness and still if needed to play can play.”

Beal, 32, signed a two-year, $11-million deal with the Clippers, with a player option after next season. He averaged 17.0 points last season with the Phoenix Suns and shot 49.7% from the field and 38.6% from three-point range.

Beal probably will be the starting two guard next to Harden.

“As you guys know, Brad is a gifted two-way player who’s a three-level scorer who can create offense for himself and others,” Frank said. “He brings additional ball-handling, play-making and shooting to the group areas we wanted to upgrade.”

Antonio Guterres raises alarm over ‘dangerous escalation’ after hours-long Russian drone and missile barrage this week.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned a Russian drone and missile attack against Ukraine this week that has been described as the largest such assault in the three-year war.

In a statement on Saturday, Guterres’s spokesperson said the Russian strikes “disrupted the power supply to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, once again underlining the ongoing risks to nuclear safety”.

“The secretary-general is alarmed by this dangerous escalation and the growing number of civilian casualties,” the statement read.

Ukrainian officials said Moscow fired more than 500 drones and 11 missiles at the capital Kyiv overnight into Friday in an attack that killed one person, injured at least 23 others and damaged buildings across the city.

The sounds of air raid sirens, kamikaze drones and booming detonations reverberated until dawn.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “deliberately massive and cynical”.

Russia has been stepping up its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities as United States-led efforts to reach a ceasefire to end the war have stalled.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, warned of a possible new Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region, a part of northeastern Ukraine that has seen heavy fighting since Russia invaded in 2022.

Moscow has been slowly grinding its way along several parts of the Ukrainian front line in recent months, throwing forth continuous waves of infantry as it seeks to press home its advantage in troops and munitions.

Russian forces have already pushed into northern Ukraine’s Sumy region over the past months, carving out a small foothold there.

Russia fired 322 drones and decoys into Ukraine overnight into Saturday, Ukraine’s air force said. Of these, 157 were shot down and 135 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.

Ukraine has also ramped up its retaliatory strikes in Russia, with the Ministry of Defence saying it shot down 94 Ukrainian drones overnight into Saturday, along with 45 further drones in the morning and early afternoon.

Four Ukrainian drones also were shot down while approaching Moscow on Saturday, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Meanwhile, a woman was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Rostov region, the acting governor said.

Separately, the Ukrainian military said in a statement on social media on Saturday that its special forces struck Russia’s Borisoglebsk military airfield in the Voronezh region, hitting a glide bomb store and a trainer aircraft.

The military said that other aircraft were also likely hit, without giving details.

The governor of Voronezh, Alexander Gusev, wrote on Telegram that more than 25 drones were destroyed over the region overnight. He said a power line was temporarily damaged, but made no mention of a military airfield.

The attacks come as Ukraine’s Zelenskyy said on Friday that he had a “very important and fruitful” phone conversation with US President Donald Trump in his efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences.

The US president also spoke to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a day earlier in a conversation that he said was disappointing.

“I’m very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President Putin, because I don’t think he’s there, and I’m very disappointed,” Trump said after the call on Thursday. “I’m just saying I don’t think he’s looking to stop, and that’s too bad.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that it was “preferable” to achieve the goals of Russia’s invasion through political and diplomatic means.

“But as long as that is not possible, we are continuing the special operation,” he said.