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Clippers Land CP3!

The Los Angeles Clippers, in a potentially franchise-changing trade, have finally reached a deal with the New Orleans Hornets to acquire four-time All-Star guard Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets, sources tell TNT’s David Aldridge. The Clippers will send promising shooting guard Eric Gordon, center Chris Kaman, second-year forward Al-Faroqu Aminu and a 2012 first-round draft pick from the Minnesota Timberwolves that is currently unprotected to the Hornets.
A deal for Paul between the Hornets and the Clippers’ crosstown rival, the Lakers, was scotched last week by NBA Commissioner David Stern, acting on behalf of the league-owned Hornets. This one is widely believed to be good enough to pass muster.
The deal makes the Clippers a potential powerhouse in the Western Conference after almost three decades of being the NBA’s most laughably bad franchise, and shows the pull that third-year star forward Blake Griffin‘s presence has in luring marquee names to play there. With Griffin, Paul and newly signed small forward Caron Butler, the Clippers now have their own dynamic trio to compare with Miami’s “SuperFriends” of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, and New York’s new Big Three of Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and center Tyson Chandler, acquired last Saturday from Dallas in a sign-and-trade deal.
In the end, the Clippers abandoned their position that they wouldn’t include both Gordon and the unprotected first in the deal. The Hornets wanted five assets from the Clippers; the only one Los Angeles retained was second-year guard Eric Bledsoe.
But the Clippers still have dramatically changed the look and expectations of their roster, with the anticipation of the brilliant Paul throwing alley-oops to the high-flying Griffin already leading to the sale of around 1,000 season tickets in the last week, according to a league source. With Paul, Griffin, Butler and re-signed DeAndre Jordan taking over for Kaman at center, the Clippers could have one of the most athletic starting fives in the league.
Paul, according to sources, has committed to picking up his option year for the 2012-13 season, giving the Clippers at least two full years with Paul and Griffin together.



For New Orleans, it’s a reset for a franchise that has not been able to stabilize in recent years. Gordon, who averaged more than 22 points per game last season, is a top-notch two guard prospect. And the Draft pick may be especially valuable this year, as the 2012 Draft promises to be one of the deepest in recent years. With their own pick as well, the Hornets should get at least two young prospects to put on the court next season with Gordon and Aminu. The task now is to sell rebuilding as a promising concept for a fan base that committed to buy 10,000 season tickets before this season.
The NBA, which owns the Hornets, was adamant that in order to trade Paul, the Hornets had to get back a number of young assets that would both allow them to rebuild quickly and to be more palatable for potential owners who would keep the team in New Orleans. Aminu is 21; Gordon does not turn 23 until Christmas Day, and Kaman is 29.
It’s likely that the Hornets will flip Kaman, a former All-Star who’s in the final year of his contract and who would be in demand by many teams looking for a quality big man, by next summer at the latest for additional assets.
Paul originally was destined to go to the Clippers’ glamorous fellow Angelenos, the Lakers, as part of a three-team trade between the Lakers, Hornets and Rockets last week, but after the teams had gotten close to agreement, the NBA stepped in and killed the trade. In that deal, the Lakers would have gotten Paul, the Rockets would have gotten forward Pau Gasol and New Orleans would have received forwards Lamar Odom and Luis Scola, guards Kevin Martin and Goran Dragic and a 2012 first-round pick from Houston.
But Stern — after receiving withering criticism for getting involved — said the trade was rejected for “basketball reasons.” Several outlets reported that the league had been swayed by the concerns of small-market owners who didn’t want the Lakers to get another superstar player like Paul.

By David Aldridge

First Place - Curren$y feat Trademark, Young Roddy & Sir Michael Rocks

Lakers End Pursuit of Chris Paul

In a stunning development late Saturday night, the three-team talks between the Lakers, Rockets and Hornets that would have sent Chris Paul to Los Angeles collapsed, with the Lakers moving toward trading Lamar Odom instead to the Dallas Mavericks. Odom would be placed into the new traded player exception the Mavericks received earlier Saturday when they completed a three-team trade with New York and Washington that sent Tyson Chandler to the Knicks and Ronny Turiaf to the Wizards.
The Lakers apparently decided to move on while the league was contemplating various versions of the deal, and in doing so potentially cleared the decks to make a bid for Orlando center Dwight Howard. The initial version would have sent Lakers forward Pau Gasol to the Rockets, and sent Odom to New Orleans, with Rockets forward Luis Scola, guards Kevin Martin and Luis Scola, and a 2012 first-round pick going to the Hornets as well. But the NBA, which owns the Hornets, nixed the deal Thursday, citing “basketball reasons” for not letting it go through. The decision was derided when it was disclosed that several owners opposed the deal, thinking it gave the already talent-rich Lakers yet another superstar player, while saddling the Hornets with older and more expensive players.


Owners also were concerned, according to a management source, with the potential sale value of the team with all of the extra salaries the Hornets would be taking on over the next three years. The team had sold 10,000 season tickets this year in New Orleans Arena, and the league is looking to sell the team to an owner who will commit to keeping the team in New Orleans. The league instructed the Hornets to restart talks Friday, according to sources involved in the discussions, with an eye toward getting more young players and draft picks.
But after hours of exploring various scenarios, with the Lakers providing additional picks and the Rockets giving up some more players, the Lakers got tired of waiting.

“The league took too long to decide and may have overplayed its hand,” a source involved in the discussions said late Saturday night.

The collapse of the talks leaves the Hornets frustrated and in an incredibly difficult bind, with just six players in camp and with Paul still seeking to be dealt elsewhere. Several teams, including the Clippers and Celtics, have held off of other potential deals in the hopes that they might somehow be able to get into the Paul Sweepstakes. The Clippers believed late Saturday that there was still a way for them to get involved, but it wasn’t clear what pieces they would be willing to use to try and make an offer to New Orleans. They had adamantly refused to include guard Eric Gordon in any potential trade discussions earlier this week.Boston had offered a package centered around guard Rajon Rondo, young players and draft picks, but the Hornets weren’t interested.

The Mavericks have already let free agents Chandler and Caron Butler go, and appear to be ready to lose reserve guard J.J. Barea leave as well, citing the need to keep as much cap room as free as possible for the summer of 2012. Odom has two seasons left on his four-year, $32 million deal he signed in 2009, but only $2.4 million of his $8.2 million salary for 2012-13 is guaranteed, which would fall in line with Dallas’ approach for next offseason.
The Lakers would have cleared more than $20 million in cap room by dealing Odom and Gasol for Paul, which many around the league believe they would have tried to use next summer on All-Pro center Dwight Howard. Now it will be much more difficult, though there is still the possibility they could send Gasol elsewhere in a separate deal.
The Lakers, however, were one of three teams that have been given permission to enter into trade talks with the representatives for Howard on Friday, so it is reasonable to assume they’d be willing to package both Gasol and center Andrew Bynum in a deal for Howard. If the Lakers agreed to take back the salary of forward Hedo Turkoglu ($10.6 million this season), the deal could be made easily.

By David Aldridge