NBA Trade Rumors: Teams with Assets To Lure Chris Paul from New Orleans Hornets
One thing that will absolutely dominate the headlines between now and the trade deadline or when the deal gets done is where Chris Paul will go. He's one of the top three point guards (where he fits on that list is a matter of debate but he's on it) in the NBA and a guarantee to make any team a contender.
So who has the assets to make it happen? I want to consider two ends of this. First, there needs to be the assets to acquire Paul, and second, there needs to be the assets to keep him. By that I mean Paul isn't going to extend just anywhere; he has to have incentive to stay.
New York Knicks
I feel obligated to include them because frankly, with the ubiquity of rumors surrounding him, it would be irresponsible not to. Having said that, the reality is that New York in some ways is the most likely and the least likely place to see Paul traded to.
It's the most likely in the sense that Paul has stated a desire to go there, albeit over a year and two max contracts ago. The "wedding toast" is evidence of that. However, the Knicks have used most of their assets to acquire Carmelo Anthony, and now have used most of their cap to keep him and Amar'e Stoudemire.
The best "asset" the Knicks have left is Chauncey Billups and his expiring contract, yet it doesn't seem to really have any value for the Hornets who can merely let Paul finish the season with his expiring contract. After that you're stuck with very little in the neighborhood of players or draft choices that are available.
The best trade I can come up with is Chauncey Billups, Landry Fields and Toney Douglas for Paul. It's a bit of a stretch to think that New Orleans would take that deal because it's hard to believe that they couldn't come up with more from someone else.
The reality is that the Hornets would prefer a player under contract to an expiring contract. New Orleans is hardly the Mecca of basketball, particularly with the team having the problems it is having. It's going to be hard for New Orleans, without any top players, to attract players to come there.
The other hitch in this plan is on the other end. I'm aware of Chris Broussard's piece, but I think he might be reaching to say that Paul will sign for $13.5 million. Theoretically, there is a possibility that Paul could sign a max deal and get $17.4 million, but ether way there is going to be a money problem with the Knicks.
Depending on how much he signed for, the Knicks would be left with a serious problem afterwards. They would be at somewhere between $52.8-56.8 million depending on where in that $4 million window he signed.
I'm not the only one doing the math here either. According to Hollinger, the best possible deal with New York would cost Paul $40 million over the life of the deal and would necessitate that literally every other player play at the minimum. That's not hating—it's math.
Simply putting three superstars together isn't going to do the trick, especially when another team with three bigger superstars is already assembled. There needs to be a complementary cast. New York will still have some other players under contract, and the likelihood is they'll be somewhere around $60 million after the trade, which is where they are at now.
Where they are going to hit a wall is next year when most of the current contracts expire and they are left with only four players under contract (the fourth being Renaldo Balkman), assuming Douglas and Fields are involved in the trade. All they will have then is a MLE and the veteran's minimum to fill out their roster.
Can they make the Paul trade and still fit under the cap? Barely. If they do though, they are going to have a hard time filling out the rest of that roster. Still, if it is what Paul wants then they have one big advantage no one else does.
In terms of pure basketball arguments, no one has a better one than the Clippers. Not only do they have the trade assets, they have the players that, if Paul comes, would mesh perfectly with his style of play. When you factor in age and style, I think a case could be made that a big three of Griffin, Gordon and Paul might win more championships than the potential NYC trio.
Furthermore, the Clippers could offer the Hornets a more attractive trade package than New York could ever hope to put together. In fact, they could work out a three-team trade that could be sensational, and that passes muster on the ESPN Trade Machine.
New Orleans would receive Chris Kaman and Maurice Williams, the Orlando Magic would receive Emeka Okafor, Eric Bledsoe and Ryan Gomes, and the Los Angles Clippers would receive Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. Additionally they'd be able to offer both of them max contracts.
They also have their own first-round picks in Al-Farouq Aminu and DeAndre Jordan, and the Timberwolves' first-round pick to sweeten the pot. Both New Orleans and Orlando could conceivably get more from the Clippers than anyone else.
On top of all of that, even after that trade and giving both players max deals, the Clippers would still be $8 million under the cap to sign a starting small forward like Andrei Kirilenko.
It's easy to see why the potential to run the floor with Blake Griffin, Dwight Howard and Eric Gordon might seem enticing to Paul, even if Donald Sterling is the owner.
One thing the Knicks fans reveling in the wedding toast fail to acknowledge is that New York is not the only team Paul has said he'd be interested in. He's also stated he'd be open to coming home to play for the Charlotte Bobcats.
Now admittedly, the Charlotte media isn't what the New York media is so the same sort of whirlwind fury hasn't developed around that statement, but it does show that his wedding toast wasn't exactly a wedding vow.
He hasn't made up his mind. That's clear.
Now the question is what does Charlotte have to offer him and what do they have to offer New Orleans? One thing they have to offer is their rookie Kemba Walker. They also could offer their next first-round pick that Chicago doesn't get. Packaging that together with Corey Maggette, Tyrus Thomas to replace David West and Gerald Henderson could give the Hornets a young nucleus to build around along with a veteran who can play.
Certainly that's more than the Knicks have to offer.
There would be two things enticing him to stay. First, it's his home. Secondly, with Diaw's contract coming off the books as well as a few others, the Hornets could easily get themselves into the Dwight Howard sweepstakes.
The general crux is this: New York might be grabbing all the headlines, but the Clippers seem to be holding the most cards and the Bobcats are a dark horse.
