Chris Paul-to-Clippers Trade is Dead, for Now

And the Lakers deal gave them assets for paul, instead of losing him for nothing. Plus they would have remained in the playoff hunt, and thus attractive to a perspective buyer, and their own fans. To say, letting Chris Paul go for nothing, rather than taking the Laker deal helps the Hornets more, is like waving a big giant “i’m clueless” flag over your head. Which you have just done.

Just asking – did you think it was ridiculous for him to veto that Lakers trade? Because we wouldn’t even be talking about the Clippers deal right now if he didn’t.

Yes I do. Considering he told Dell Demps he had full approval to make the best basketball decisions for the Hornets. And then said he vetoed the trade for “basketball reasons”. If he vetoed the trade because they didn’t get enough assets, or young players than no, I would not have had any issue. But given the way it went down, and the fact that he contradicted himself, I have a huge issue with him stepping in. It is totally shady. It really just looks like Stern is trying to use Chris Paul as an example, regardless of what it does to the Hornets franchise, Stern wants the players to know they don’t have leverage to make decisions, the Owners do. Whether it’s true, fair, right, or not.

Kevin Martin is not a liability, Luis Scola is not a liability, Lamar Odom also not a liability. That team will arguably be better then the team the Hornets fielded with Chris Paul this season, plus, none of those contracts are hampering to the Hornets future and are all tradeable in the future. That trade improved New Orleans more than losing Paul for nothing, that is 100% completely obvious. Explain with logic, how losing the best PG in the league for nothing, improves your team more than trading him for 3 fringe All Star quality assets and a draft pick or two?

Orange only likes this deal failing because he hopes in the back of his mind that New York can get Paul even though it’s impossible.

Neoarin is right in a sense.
At the end of this season, Chris Paul will see an NBA landscape where very few teams have cap space, and those that do will likely be losers just like New Orleans.
The exception, of course, being Dallas, which is rapidly clearly cap space to make a run at Paul, all while Cuban cheers as Stern vetoes trades.
Anyway, at the end of this year, Paul’s options are going to be pretty bad.
L.A., New York, Miami and Boston will still not have cap space. He will have to decide between taking a LOT less money, to play with a contender, taking less money to sign with a loser, or resigning with New Orleans. Don’t think Stern doesn’t know that.

I said what Chris Broussard said yesterday. Did y’all not notice it when I outlined what Stern is doing, and why Paul should REALLY be pissed.
If it was a regular owner, it would be fine for him to do what Stern did. That’s his choice.
What is happening is that Paul is going to be a free agent under the new League rules, which greatly effect the money you can receive if you change teams AND there are not going to be many contenders with cap space.
So his options will be limited. Take less money just to leave New Orleans in spite. Take WAY less money to play with a contender (we’re talking the vet minimum for three years before he can sign a real deal) or take the maximum payday and stay in New Orleans.
It feels shady because it’s the commish doing it, and because that letter from Gilbert leaked.

Sign & Trades will still be legal next summer. He could sign and trade for nothing if New Orleans has a new owner by then. Just an example. Paul can play this season out with the Hornets and do exactly what LeBron James, & Chris Bosh did to Cleveland and Toronto. Teams might not have cap space right now, but to assume there are GM’s on contending teams that don’t have the brains to create it, is a little crazy, given all the sh*t we have seen over the last 2 summers. What’s going to happen is Stern is going to end up punishing Paul and Paul is going to end up getting exactly what he wanted out of it, and New Orleans will be left in the lurch. It is NEVER better to let a top 5 player go for nothing. Especially in a place that is not attractive to any free agent. Betting that you’ll get lucky in the lottery is a much bigger risk then taking back assets. Because, you get assets out of one deal, and only get to hope for assets out of the other. And who knows how valuable those assets will actually turn out.

How would they dump salary?
That can only happen in other teams agree to trades with them, which meas that small market owners would have to be complete idiots. That is not impossible, but it’s unlikely. Why would they help the teams they despise?
Stern is trying to put Paul in a box and teach him a lesson. That’s what he does.

New Orleans would have to agree to a sign and trade. AGain, why do that when you can tell him “Either sign with us for the money, or take a hike.”
Cleveland could have done the same thing.
Toronto too.
But, they operated under the assumption that getting something was better than getting nothing. That is true, unless you’re trying to make a point.
Just like we said about players in the lockout. They wanted to make a point and they had to lose some money to make it. Now Stern is trying to make another point. It will be interesting to see if he caves because of the bad press he’s getting though.
If he doesn’t cave, he will either get a great trade, or Paul will have to make a hard decision this summer.

nbk: a small market team like NOLA can NOT build their core through trades. It’s a pipe dream. Their core can only come through the draft, and they can then add to that via free agency or trades. For that, they need high draft picks, as many as possible. For that, they need to bottom out – and doubly so this season, because there’s a bumper crop of rookies awaiting 2012. Scola, Martin and the rest puts them dangerously close to a meaningless playoff spot (yes, it really is. More than half the league makes the playoffs). And makes them pay a ton of money for that to boot, when they’re already hemorrhaging dough.

Allen P: Lakers and Clippers still have their amnesty. Similar to the Lamar Odom deal – or even Michael Beasley deal to clear space, you trade serviceable players away for mere scraps – Small Market teams will take serviceable players because they are often an upgrade. Then everything starts to fall into place as veterans flock your way to sign for minimums to get a ring. Worked for Miami and should work for both LA teams should they go that route. If u can recall before trading away Beasley Miami had like 4 players. Why do you think Lebron met with like 6 teams during his free agency? Because teams will be willing to shed players to add more cap space.

Building their core? They have to sell the team. Who the f*ck wants to purchase the worst team in the league with no player assets in New Orleans Louisiana for more than $350M (Larry Ellison offered $350,000,000 for the Hornets last year and was turned down) Playoff revenue, or the prospect of it, is the big cash cow in buying a team. The Hornets being stuck in the lottery for the next 3 years minimum (if they let CP walk for nothing) is not going to create a profitable situation in New Orleans for anyone to be excited about buying into. From a business perspective, losing CP, or risking losing him for nothing is a terrible decision.

Like someone said in another thread, if you don’t have a promising team with a real core, they sure as hell won’t buy a non-promising team with no real core AND with a higher payroll. The prospect of two playoff games is not what drives revenue. And that’s what they’re looking at, at most, assuming they would have made it, because Houston didn’t with those players. In fact they finished in the worst possible spot. The only other alternative is to give them as much of a clean slate as is possible, meaning no dumb contracts, and young prospects and/or high picks. Seriously I can’t prove to you that I’m right, until probably two years down the line. So let’s just drop it right here.

What the eff is this the NCAA ?

The NBA is just trying to “block” Paul into staying with the Hornets. News-Flash: Paul walks away from the Hornets at the end of the year and Hornets get nothing.

They should contract the Hornets. They struggle to draw a sellout with the League’s best PG and I could care less about basketball in the NO. The NBA would be better as a whole if there were 24-26 teams like in the 80s.

You missed the point again. They cannot really sell that team unless they have a real core or the perspective of one. You may be able to sell other teams without those requirements, but not the Hornets. They have been on the market for a while now. ‘Some assets’ ain’t gonna cut it, and especially not those overpaid and old assets in the LA deal – even yourself are only talking about prospectively moving them for something else, not keeping them. I am arguing that they can only build that core through the draft – and then sell the team with the perspective of competing and making some money. That’s all I am arguing. Peddling old players into any real part of a real long term core is a pipe dream for that franchise. The Hornets need to bite it and suck hard for a season or two if they want to become interesting for someone to keep them in Nola. peace

Stern doesn’t know sh*t. What has he done the past few months that makes you think he knows anything about running a team? The man turned down two great trades that would have made the Hornets just as good without CP as they were with him. David Stern makes David Khan look like Jerry West.

bike, stern doesn’t know the game better than anyone

he’s good at what he does but that doesn’t mean he knows how to play GM

it was the Clippers!

Lol the NBA didn’t purchase the Hornets for the long haul. They purchased them to avoid them defaulting, and the team would have been moved had they not reached the attendance requirement. The team must be sold soon, waiting for a core you might get at somepoint in the next few YEARS is not much of an option. The Hornets will have a buyer next season at the latest

Jarrett
Take a look at the Laker’s payroll. They are are so far over the cap it ain’t funny.
That’s why they are paying luxury tax. You don’t pay luxury tax until you are about $12 million over the salary cap.
LeBron was a different situation because teams were actively preparing for he and Wade and Bosh and Amare to be free agents. Very few teams are doing that right now.
But maybe I’m wrong, I don’t know.

IAMORANGE – JTaylor’s opinions on Stern represent the general consensus these days.
Yes, he’s done a lot for the NBA in his tenure but that doesn’t mean he’s not f*cking up right now.
The man is absolutely power hungry, he’s turned down three trades in four days and has handcuffed Demps and Paul and p*ssed of A LOT of people. A LOT.
Now you telling JTaylor to have some respect for the man is just downright laughable.
Stern isn’t signing JTaylor’s checks, and JTaylor, to my knowledge, isn’t employed by the NBA so he has a right to feel and say however he wants to about Stern.