Chris Paul Lakers: Why Hornets Ruined NBA Future by Dealing CP3 to Lakers

Chris Paul has been reportedly traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in a deal that involves Pau Gasol going to the Houston Rockets, with Lamar Odom, Kevin Martin and Luis Scola going to the New Orleans Hornets, according to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski.

The Hornets were incredibly foolish to make this trade. I really do not understand, this was a major gaffe that could cost the organization for years.

First of all, New Orleans gets a player past his prime in Odom, a guy who is not anything special in Scola and a player in Martin who is a good scorer, but not a dominant player.

Scola has averaged 14.3 points per game with eight rebounds per game for his career. He will give the team a good offensive player and rebounder at power forward, but he will not intimidate anyone in the paint with his defense. The Hornets still have a massive void at center.

Odom is a good player who has versatility, but he is 32 years old. How much of his recent success was due to the fact he played with several great players on the Lakers?

Odom's best years were with the Lakers, and without Bynum and Gasol alongside him in the frontcourt, defenses can focus on stopping him better.

Martin is a quality scorer, and averaged about 24 points per game last season. He can shoot from the outside and drive to the basket well. However, he cannot dominate games. Martin can be shut down against elite perimeter defenders.

The Hornets really hurt themselves in this deal. Neither player they acquired can dominate in any aspect of the game, and they now have no point guard to run the team.

Jarrett Jack, who is average at best, is the only point guard on the Hornets roster who is not a free agent.

With the NBA owning the Hornets, I cannot believe they would authorize this deal to go down. How is the league supposed to sell the team to potential buyers when its best players are an aging forward and two decent players?

Where do the Hornets go from here? Well, David West probably was not going to sign an extension. He has been their second-best player to Paul for years, and with Scola taking his spot at power forward, West is as good as gone.

The Hornets should have taken the Celtics' offer of Rajon Rondo, Jeff Green and two first-round picks. Rondo is a top-five point guard and Green is a versatile forward who can score effectively in many ways.

The Hornets should have gotten more than what they got for Paul, they now have no point guard and have no quality low-post defenders.

Without a good center or point guard, the two most important positions in basketball, the Hornets will once again be an average team.