Chris Paul's agent informs Hornets that star won't sign deal, wants to play in NY

I see what you're saying but the reality would then be to let a top 10 player walk for nothing in return?

NO/NBA can't do that.

And lest anyone think that Paul will fetch anything of significance in a trade while refusing to sign an extension, remember back to the Anthony situation last year. How many teams lined up with offers to trade for Carmelo Anthony last year sans contract extension?

If Paul refuses to sign a contract extension his "real worth" is an academic point. His actual worth as an impending FA with 20 odd games left would be for a 10th man on the roster, a late 1st and a couple of 2nds.

 

This is our best chance to land that star, you trade whatever it takes for Paul. Then we'll see how serious he is about playing with Dwight.

 

My (far-fetched) scenario

We trade for CP3 (we can now lowball because of his extension demand)
We send: 1st rounder (first non-lotto), Lowry, Budinger

We trade for Arenas + Dwight, if new CBA allows us to use amnesty clause on anyone under contract before Dec 9
We send: Martin, Patterson, Morris, JHill, Thabeet, NY 1st

Lineup
CP3/Flynn
Lee
Williams/Parsons
Scola
DH12/D-Mo

 

I don't think there's any need to trade for Howard. Trade for Paul, yes. I think we would have enough cap room to just sign Howard to a max deal, thus enabling us to keep the assets we would have to trade for him.

 

That would be ideal but somehow won't happen.

 

Of course it won't happen. Why is it that Houston never gets their dream scenario?? I don't see why we don't get more attention. Big market, warm weather, no state tax, excellent role players and an excellent front office. If we ended up with CP3 and Howard, we'd EASILY be able to field a team with depth around them. We'd be the Kings of the South. In Houston, all we do is dr34m

 

"Paul reached out to Dwight Howard.." could you imagine the line up with Howard and Paul?
PG - CP3
SG - Billups
SF - Melo
PF - Amare
C - Howard
If this is even possible, then the idea of parity and small market teams competing is a JOKE, and the new CBA is a joke. Also, anyone notice how 4 out of the 5 used to be in the West? With Kobe/Gasol and Dirk/Kidd declining, only young championship contending team I see is OKC. The west is becoming the new east.

 

That doesn't necessarily mean to go to NY. I took it as, he wanted to hook up and play with him somewhere else, but if that doesn't work out, then Paul by himself would go to the Knicks. There is NO chance both Paul and Howard would go to the Knicks.

 

It will be an interesting to see how they perform, because they will have only Stat, Carmelo, CP3 and Balkman. They will have fill out the rest of the roster with minimum salary players with the rest of the cap space. It's a little different than Miami, which had an MLE after doing sign and trades.


By the way, how does he lose 40-50 million? Is it all from an extra year? I am not up to date on some of the newer CBA details.

 

This is what the league wanted. There's a reason no franchise tag was pushed for, and it's not because players would have refused to accept it.

 

New Orleans will trade Paul this season to a team that offers the most and is willing to trade for him without an extension because otherwise they will lose him for nothing. I can see Morey take that risk, as long as he can clear enought cap room for next season to offer Paul a max deal to stay PLUS offer DHoward a max deal as well. As stated in the article, Paul wants to team up with Howard and that's not gonna happen in NY so I believe we have a chance to retain him if we trade for him as long as we can offer a chance for both of them to play together at max or near max contracts.

 

It has always been a joke, you just haven't gotten the punchline. Throughout its history, the NBA has always been an unbalanced league, and it has always been proven that having 3-4 elite teams and a bunch of also-rans is the best way to generate national interest and TV dollars. This CBA was never about preventing super-teams; it was all about allowing small markets the ability to turn a guaranteed profit regardless of winning and losing. Competitive balance was a bigger sham than Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian's wedding.

 

I'm so sick of this crap. It's going to be like a 4 team league if it happens. I use to be a die-hard nba fan but the lockout and reading about these so called superstars wanting to team up together is making me care less and less. You think Magic Johnson would of ever teamed up with Larry Bird? Pathetic.

 

It would be more parity, if the Knicks won. They have been a mediocre to lottery team for years.

"Sanford and Sons" was a new tv show, Elvis was still alive and disco music was king, when the Knicks won their last trophy.

While all three Texas teams picked up several championships, since the Knicks got their last trophy.

Go Texas!

I still don't see how they win a ring with D'Antoni as coach. He doesn't coach a lick of defense. Championship teams usually have to play elite defense to win a ring.

 

I don't mind players teaming up if they leave via free agency, I'm mad at players using their contracts to throw a hissy fit if they don't go to the team they want.

What's wrong with waiting until your contract expires?

 

Nothing at all wrong with leaving your team via free agency, but to me winning a championship with multiple stars in their prime doesn't make you a champion. Magic, Bird, hell even Dirk, those are champions, guys I can respect.

 

Right, then those same fans will throw a fit that you always knew that you were leaving and didn't allow them to get anything for you (see: Lebron).

The fact of the matter is, no matter how much you don't like it, its in small market's teams interest to trade their stars rather than to let them walk at the end of their contract. No matter how little return NO would get from a Knicks deal it would be better then getting nothing for him if he left via free agency.

 

It's voila not wah-lah

 

BTW, How many people would trade for an unextended Paul if it meant that they ALSO had to take back Okafor's contract back in return. I suspect that Okafor's 40 million remaining dollars will be part of any Paul package to allow NO to enter rebuild mode with very little salary.

I think that is going to be part of the problem in getting other teams to line up for Paul. NO knows that they're not going to get equal value for Paul so to offset that they are going to demand that you take back a bad contract w/o any guarantees that you can resign Paul.

There is no way that NO moves Paul w/o Okafor because then they'd be stuck with that contract.

My guess is that while some teams may be willing to gamble on extending Paul, you'll be lucky to find more than 2 teams who'd be willing to take on Okafor's contract just for the hope of signing Paul.

 

Morey should take this risk. It's the best shot we have at getting superstars and we actually have a shot now that CP3's agent just destroyed his trade value. Lowry + any pair of our young expiring contract fillers might be able to get a deal done.