Chris Paul Traded to LA Clippers, Eric Gordon Heading to New Orleans Hornets
Stop me if you've heard this before, but the New Orleans Hornets have agreed in principle to trade Chris Paul to a Los Angeles team.
This time, it's the Clippers. According to ESPN.com's Marc Stein, the Clippers and Hornets have agreed to a deal that would send Paul to LA in exchange for a nice package:
The only real surprise in that package is Eric Gordon, as word came out on Tuesday (see ESPNLosAngeles.com) that the Clippers were looking to sign him to an extension. That seemed to indicate that the Clippers were prepared to move on from the CP3 talks.
Apparently not. With the package all set, the only real question is whether or not the NBA, which owns the Hornets, is going to allow this deal to happen.
Stein noted in a subsequent tweet that the league's stamp of approval is expected to by the end of Wednesday night:
If the NBA is indeed prepared to allow this deal to happen, then it's pretty much all set.
Think about that for a second. Chris Paul is finally going to be traded.
It's been a long and rocky road, no doubt about that. It hasn't even been a week since David Stern stepped in and killed the deal the Hornets had in place with the Los Angeles Lakers (see Los Angeles Times report), and for a moment it looked like the Clippers' luck wasn't going to be much better.
But given what the Hornets are getting in return for Paul, there's no reason for the NBA to kill this trade. The Hornets are getting some good role players and a budding star in Gordon that they can build around. To boot, the Minnesota draft pick is a big chip because the 2012 draft is going to be fairly loaded with talent, and the pick itself is unprotected.
As such, this is a deal that will allow the Hornets to compete this year and beyond. Hard to ask for more than that.
As for the Clippers, they now have a starting lineup that features Paul, Caron Butler, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. Losing Gordon is a blow, but that's a foursome that every other team in the NBA would love to have.
That includes LA's other team.
