NBA Trade Rumors: Hornets Reportedly Place Chris Kaman on Trading Block

On Thursday, word came out from John Reid of The Times Picayune that New Orleans Hornets head coach Monty Williams will start limiting Chris Kaman's minutes, so Williams can give his younger frontcourt players some more time out on the floor.

Getting younger players more playing time apparently isn't the team's only motivation to keep Kaman off the court. Here's the latest from ESPN.com's Marc Stein:

In an extended report, Stein noted that no deal is imminent. The Hornets are, however, "actively" shopping Kaman, and they even went so far as to keep him away from the team on Friday while they field calls.

Kaman is the oldest player on the Hornets, and he is earning a salary of $14 million.

That the Hornets are trying to trade Kaman should come as no surprise. Kaman was something of a throw-in in the trade that sent Chris Paul out of New Orleans. He's shown this season that he is still capable of performing after missing much of last season with injuries, so the Hornets are looking to sell while Kaman's value is high.

If there aren't buyers already, there soon will be. Kaman's a big man who can pitch in, and acquiring his expiring contract will mean some nice cap flexibility down the road.

In other words, he's a perfect rental.

Trading Kaman is presumably what the Hornets had in mind all along when they agreed to trade CP3 to the Clippers. They got some nice assets in that deal, and now they can spin Kaman for additional assets. The CP3 trade is a gift that is going to keep giving.

As for where the Hornets might look to trade Kaman, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports has a list of teams who are apparently interested:

As for what the Hornets are hoping to get for Kaman, Eric Pincus of HOOPSWORLD had this to report:

So either prospects or draft picks. That's another thing that's not surprising.

The Hornets are dreadful now, but they're going to be good again in a hurry at this rate. They already have a solid core to build around, and they have the assets to make it even stronger.

Well played, David Stern.