Yahoo: Clips, Warriors, Celtics in Paul trade talks

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports 24 minutes ago

As the New Orleans Hornets push closer to making a decision on where to trade Chris Paul, the All-Star point guard has indicated the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors could significantly raise their chances of keeping him beyond this season if they also sign center Tyson Chandler, league sources told Yahoo! Sports on Tuesday.

Paul hasn’t promised he would re-sign with one of those teams following the 2011-12 season if they acquired Chandler, but league sources said Chandler could make a significant difference in ultimately swaying Paul to commit to a long-term deal.

Three teams in pursuit of Paul believe the Hornets will push for final offers – and make a decision – by the start of training camp on Friday, front-office sources told Yahoo! Sports. The Clippers’ and Warriors’ packages are the most intriguing to New Orleans general manager Dell Demps, league sources said.

So far, talks between the Hornets and Los Angeles Lakers have gathered little, if any, traction, sources said. The Boston Celtics remain aggressive in their pursuit of Paul and held discussions with New Orleans on Tuesday.

As New Orleans prepared to make a trade that could clear significantly more salary cap space for them, Hornets officials have reached out to see if they could still get involved in contract negotiations with free-agent center Nene and point guard J.J. Barea, league sources said.

Nene’s bidding could be pushing upwards of $14 million a season, with the Nuggets re-emerging as a serious suitor to keep him, sources said. The New Jersey Nets, Rockets and Indiana Pacers have yet to show a willingness to spend $14 million-$15 million a year to sign Nene, and that could ultimately leave him destined to return to the Nuggets. Still, many teams have yet to extend their best offers in free-agent talks.

“Dell has to figure out what he wants,” one team official in the talks said. “Does he want to rebuild, get players to flip [in other trades], or just fit guys into their roster. It’s up to New Orleans to decide the package they want now. No one wants this to extend into training camp – not them, or us.”

The Hornets were significantly engaged in talks with the Clippers in talks on Tuesday, but the Clippers have shown no desire to meet Chandler’s request for a contract starting at more than $12 million a year, sources said. The Clippers are worried about an ability to pay significant money to Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon, Paul and Chandler over the long term.

[ Related: Orlando billboard campaigns for Chris Paul trade ]

The Clippers would have to include 23-year-old restricted free-agent center DeAndre Jordan in a package to get Paul, along with forward Al-Farouq Aminu, guard Eric Bledsoe and the 2012 first-round pick they acquired from the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Clippers are more attractive to Paul than the Warriors or Boston Celtics, because of the chance to be paired with Griffin and Gordon. Golden State has been aggressive in its pursuit of Chandler independent of Paul, but the Warriors don’t have as appealing a supporting cast for Paul. The Warriors’ offer for Paul is centered around Stephen Curry and rookie guard Klay Thompson.

The Hornets consider the Clippers and Warriors to have the most desirable trade assets, but Paul has been hesitant to commit to signing a contract extension to remain with either team unless they surround him with enough talent. Paul’s ultimate hope has been a long-term pairing with Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, but Paul did play three seasons with Chandler in New Orleans, where they came within a game of reaching the 2008 Western Conference finals.

[Y! Sports Shop: Buy gear of your favorite NBA team]

As constituted, the Hornets prefer the Clippers and Warriors packages, but were still discussing several scenarios with the Celtics – including third-team trade possibilities and sign-and-trade money for restricted free agent forward Jeff Green. The Hornets prefer Curry to Rajon Rondo, sources said, but a third team could sweeten the Celtics package beyond the core of Rondo and Green.

The Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks also have aggressively pursued Paul. Dallas remains a long shot in the talks, but has been canvassing other teams for players that would interest the Hornets.

The Rockets would offer some combination of Kevin Martin, Kyle Lowry, Luis Scola, Patrick Paterson and draft picks. The Clippers are intriguing to the Hornets because of the possibility of the emerging young Jordan, who would likely receive a $45 million-$50 million, five-year contract in a sign-and-trade deal.

If the Clippers don’t trade for Paul, they will try to ultimately sell him on signing with them as a free agent in July, with the allure of Jordan on a less expensive long-term deal than they would have to pay Chandler now.

Yahoo! Sports NBA reporter Marc J. Spears contributed to this report.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...narowski_chris_paul_hornets_offers_nba_120611

 

Sources: Hornets line up trade targets

By Marc Stein and Chris Broussard
ESPN.com

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Los Angeles Clippers guard Eric Gordon are the two players New Orleans has pursued the hardest in the Hornets' fast-moving search for a workable Chris Paul trade, according to sources close to the talks.

But the Hornets continue to meet with resistance from the Warriors and the Clippers on Curry and Gordon, sources told ESPN.com, because both teams are reluctant to part with their young backcourt cornerstones with no assurance from Paul that he will stay beyond this season.

Stephen Curry
S. Curry
Gordon
Gordon

Sources said that the Hornets have actually been trying to convince the Warriors to part with Curry since before last season's trade deadline in February. But the Warriors could only stomach the inclusion of Curry if they knew Paul would extend his contract as part of the trade or at least commit to invoking his option for the 2012-13 season. According to sources, Golden State has received no such promises.

The Clippers, meanwhile, have been aggressive in their pursuit of Paul, but sources told ESPNLosAngeles.com's Ramona Shelburne that neither Gordon nor restricted free agent center DeAndre Jordan has been offered to New Orleans.

Said one source close to the situation of Gordon's inclusion: "That's a deal-breaker [for the Clippers]."

Shelburne reported that the Clippers are not pushing as hard as uber-aggressive teams like the Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets because they believe they are set up to win in the short and long term if they can re-sign Jordan and extend Gordon this month, re-sign Blake Griffin to an extension in the summer and also upgrade at the small forward position either through free agency (Caron Butler is their top target) or with Minnesota's unprotected first-round pick in 2012.

The players that the Clippers have made available to the Hornets, sources say, include center Chris Kaman and youngsters Eric Bledsoe and Al-Farouq Aminu. Yet it's believed that the Hornets will continue to seek out more offers and urge interested teams to try to recruit third- and four-team facilitators to make the trade offers more attractive.

ESPN.com reported Monday that in addition to the Warriors and Clippers -- New Orleans' preferred trade partners -- at least three teams have told the Hornets that they're willing to trade for Paul without any assurance that he'll extend his contract or re-sign next summer. They are the Celtics, Rockets and Dallas Mavericks, with Boston widely considered to be the strongest bidder in that group despite what sources describe as the Hornets' lukewarm interest to date in the primary players offered by the Celtics: All-Star guard Rajon Rondo and forward Jeff Green.

Paul
Paul

The Los Angeles Lakers, sources said, also remain in the Paul hunt even though they also continue to be regarded as the top trade suitor for Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard. The Lakers' intent to chase both superstars generated considerable skepticism from rival teams, given that center Andrew Bynum ranks as the Lakers' only highly coveted young trade asset. However, one source told ESPN.com late Tuesday that the Hornets have not yet ruled out accepting a trade package headlined by Pau Gasol. That would theoretically free up L.A. to build an offer for Howard around Bynum and a package for Paul around Gasol, although it remains unclear how the Lakers could make two separate offers sufficiently attractive to pull off what would rank as a tremendous trade haul.

The Hornets have reservations about both players, sources say, related to Bynum's injury history and Gasol's major struggles in a second-round sweep by Dallas last spring at age 31. But as ESPN.com reported Monday, there is also rising sentiment within the organization to trade Paul before the 2011-12 season even starts because he hasn't a signed a contract extension.

Paul and Hornets general manager Dell Demps did have their expected meeting Monday at the team's practice facility. The tone of the talk was amicable, sources said, but Paul did not tell the Hornets that he is prepared to sign an extension before the regular season opens Christmas Day, which only increases the likelihood that the Hornets will deal the star guard this month.

That, of course, is contingent upon finding a palatable deal, but sources say that the Hornets are determined to avoid the soap opera that engulfed the Denver Nuggets for much of last season when Carmelo Anthony's standoff dragged on until February's trade-deadline deal that sent Anthony to the New York Knicks in an extend-and-trade.

It has long been assumed around the league that keeping Paul made the league-owned Hornets more attractive to prospective buyers, but sources said Monday that the Hornets believe that they will be more appealing to potential suitors if they can stabilize the organization by bringing a resolution to the Paul saga as soon as possible.

Sources say that Paul has known for weeks that the Knicks, his No. 1 preferred destination to join Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, do not have the leftover trade assets after the Anthony deal to join the bidding. The Magic likewise appear to lack the requisite assets to make a suitable offer for Paul, who has privately expressed great interest in teaming up with Howard.

New York and Los Angeles are widely regarded as Paul's top two landing spots, in that order, but that hasn't stopped the Celtics from making perhaps the hardest push for a Paul deal. Although sources say Paul continues to express no interest in a long-term stay in Boston, Celtics front-office chief Danny Ainge is apparently convinced that trading for Paul now to make one more title run with the aging star trio of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen is a no-brainer gamble. With the contracts of Garnett and Allen expiring at season's end, Boston would have sufficient salary-cap space to not only retain Paul but also pursue a second young superstar to play with him.

Sources confirmed a Yahoo! Sports report from earlier Tuesday that Paul has let it be known that signing free-agent center Tyson Chandler would increase his chances of re-signing with any team that trades for him.

The Warriors, though, have been pursuing Chandler independent of the Paul talks since free-agent negotiations began last week and regard him as their No. 1 roster target for the new season. The Clippers, meanwhile, have shown no inclination that they plan to pursue Chandler, preferring to focus on re-signing Jordan at a lesser price and with Kaman still on the books.

One source familiar with the Clippers' thinking added that L.A., unlike the neighboring Lakers, has yet to have any substantive discussions with the Magic about Howard.

Marc Stein is a senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. Chris Broussard covers the NBA for ESPN The Magazine.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7...ng-eric-gordon-stephen-curry-chris-paul-trade

 

Ha-ha, what's funny is that teams are basically trading to merely rent CP3. There is no guarantee that he'll resign with the Clippers long term, especially since it seems he has eyes for the Knicks...

 

Is Chris Paul Trade Worth Risk For Warriors, Clippers?


By Tom Ziller - NBA Editor

If the Golden State Warriors or L.A. Clippers trade young studs for Chris Paul, they'll have no guarantee he will re-sign next summer. Given that, isn't the risk of losing it all too much to bear? Plus: the spinning Lakers get desperate.

Dec 7, 2011 - The trade offers for Chris Paul have gotten serious quickly. Instead of the Landry Fields-Iman Shumpert showstopper we were talking about last week, teams are mentioning Stephen Curry, Eric Gordon and others in apparently very serious rumors circling the New Orleans Hornets. Leading it all is CP3's apparent willingness to commit long-term to a team that brings in the point guard's old partner Tyson Chandler.

The Golden State Warriors have reportedly offered Curry, 2010 lottery pick Ekpe Udoh and 2011 lottery pick Klay Thompson. That's a mammoth package. What the L.A. Clippers have presented remains unclear, and the Chandler issue seems like a sticking point regardless, but reports have mentioned Eric Gordon and the Minnesota Timberwolves' unprotected 2012 first-round pick, which could very well end up in the top 5. (The Wolves have finished with a bottom-five record in each of the past four seasons.) These offers, if true, are not modest. They put a whole heap of stock into what Paul is and will be.

Are they veering into the insane?

If CP3 won't commit beyond 2011-12, yes, they are. Betting you can convince anyone to enjoy playing for the Clippers sounds more like a Funny Or Die sketch than a legit strategy. The Warriors are more alluring, thanks to a wonderful arena environment, fresh new ownership, the presence of Jerry West and the team's proximity to the greatest city in the known universe (Orinda, Calif., duh). But is it bet Steph Curry, Ekpe Udoh and Klay Thompson alluring?

Remember this: CP3 will not be signing an extension this season, period. Even if he were traded to the New York Knicks, his reportedly favored team, he'd become a free agent in July 2012 and sign a new contract. He's still on that path, the only one that makes sense financially. Like Deron Williams with the New Jersey Nets, CP3 has nothing to gain from extending his deal now.

If you're the Warriors, what assurances do you need that CP3 will re-sign with you if you're giving up Curry, Udoh and Thompson? What assurances can you get? What if CP3 remains vague about his intentions, even after Golden State signs Chandler in free agency? That's a pretty lovely team -- Paul and Monta Ellis in the backcourt, Dorell Wright and Reggie Williams in the wing rotation, David Lee and Chandler up front -- but is it a major contender from Day 1? Is it good enough that CP3 won't be able to bear to leave?

The Warriors have one playoff berth in the last 17 years. The Clippers have two in the past 18. These are not teams that ought to be getting picky about how they acquire top-flight superstars. But trading huge buckets of rising talent for a player who could become a one-year rental could end up just another flub, and it's something that has to be considered incredibly carefully. On paper, just about any deal either team could make (excluding Blake Griffin) for CP3 would make sense. But look beyond this season to free agency, and it's a pretty incredible dice roll. This could be a move to make fans forget all about the failure, or it could be a nice punctuation mark on the franchises' dark eras. And there's really no telling -- unless you're inside CP3's mind -- which way it will go.

Star-divide
THE LOLAKERS

Someone is still trying to push the narrative that the L.A. Lakers are in the mix for CP3. ESPN reported that the Hornets haven't ruled out a package headlined by Pau Gasol.

Yes, that makes sense. The Hornets are talking about 22-year-old stud Eric Gordon, 23-year-old stud Stephen Curry and maybe even stud 25-year-old Rajon Rondo ... but the 31-year-old power forward who makes almost $20 million a year is who the rebuilding team actually wants. That makes a lot of sense. The only way the Lakers land CP3 at this point is if Team Paul determines that the point guard won't re-sign in Golden State or with the Clippers, but that the Lakers can feel comfortably they'd be able to retain his services. Because, sure, a package led by Gasol is better than a package led by Andy Rautins. But it doesn't appear like CP3 is ready to rule out L.A.'s better half or Golden State quite yet.

You know, it's worth it just to see the Lakers act desperate. How does it feel to want something you're not going to get, L.A.?

(Oh god, I just jinxed it, didn't I?)

 

http://www.sbnation.com/2011-nba-fr...lden-state-warriors-los-angeles-clippers-hook

 

Yay, the Clippers will give up the Minny pick, Kaman, Bledsoe, and Aminu just for the chance to rent CP3 for 66 games. If CP3 leaves to the Knicks in the offseason, the Clippers are screwed...

 

Curry says he’s ‘safe and secure’ with Warriors

By ANTONIO GONZALEZ, AP Sports Writer 1 hour, 35 minutes ago


OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—Stephen Curry says he has received assurances from team executives that he is “safe and secure” with the Golden State Warriors despite the latest round of trade talks surrounding the point guard.

Following a voluntary workout at the team’s downtown Oakland practice facility Wednesday, Curry said he’s humbled his name comes up in talks. He said his phone has been littered with text messages from family and friends asking about his future but he expects to be with the Warriors this season.

New owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber have promised to make splashy signings and bold moves to revamp a team that has made the playoffs just once since 1994. Almost any big deal would involve parting ways with Curry or backcourt teammate Monta Ellis.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AjqYW31RhtjfvZltuyWkkEq8vLYF?slug=ap-warriors-curry

 

Chris Paul Trade Rumors: Warriors Willing To Deal Monta Ellis

Dec 07 2:04p by Avinash Kunnath

http://bayarea.sbnation.com/golden-state-warriors/2011/12/7/2618820/chris-paul-cp3-m

Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets are probably nearing the end of what's been a fairly fruitful relationship for both sides. CP3 wants to play for a contender though, and it's looking very much like New Orleans isn't that.

The Hornets originally seemed to be interested in making a trade with several parties, and one of them included the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors seemed to at first be highly interested in acquiring perhaps the best pure point guard in the NBA, but they cooled off when the Hornets set their eyes on Stephen Curry. While the Warriors would love to have Paul, they know that losing Curry would make it less likely for CP3 to agree to sign to a long-term deal in Golden State.

So Golden State is looking at their other big bargaining chip. Marcus Thompson reports.

However, there may be a circumstance in which the Warriors would take CP3 on a rental … if New Orleans takes Monta Ellis.

One of the sources said Golden State is trying to get the Hornets to take Monta and pieces for CP3 instead of Curry. Not only can Curry play shooting guard because of his stroke, but he clearly has the most value and may help the Warriors make a serious play for Dwight Howard. Chandler and Curry for Dwight may sound appealing to Orlando come February. Getting Howard would be the Warriors’ best chance of convincing CP3 to sign long ter

Makes sense for the Warriors to try and deal Monta. With a distributor like Paul and a shooter like Curry, they probably complement each other better than the possession-heavy Ellis. The Warriors would probably be a more appealing team for a superstar like Howard, who is expected to also sign elsewhere when he hits free agency next summer.

To discuss the idea of CP3 and the Warriors, head to Golden State of Mind. To discuss the thought of Ellis with the Hornets, check out At The Hive.