Sure. And it then proceeded to change everything to be exactly like Overwatch. It used to have its own identity, now it has a knockoff version of every OW character, a near identical artstyle, and has even been caught using OW assets in marketing materials.
I actually think on the contrary, Paladins was like an Overwatch clone. But now I actually think Paladins is Paladins.
Sure it's style never appeals to me but hey, before saying Paladins have many characters based on Overwatch, Overwatch do have one or two characters that have similar abilities to some Paladins character as well.
You can say I am somewhat defending Paladins, but C'mon I still enjoy Overwatch (but mostly Splatoon 2 for now) , saying Paladins is an Overwatch clone in 2018 is pretty much a dead meme at this point lol. And moreover I definitely hate rip offs that are worse than the original content,like those stupid Overwatch mobile clones from China...
And you can then say that Fornite is a PUBG clone as well?