The past week has been a whirlwind. Since the lockout ended and Chris Paul made his intentions of not staying in New Orleans known, virtually every team with assets have been making overtures of how to get him. First the Knicks, then the Clippers, then Golden State, then the Lakers, then the Knicks again, finally settling on the Lakers. Then the league kills the deal. WTF?

There is going to be some real bad blood going on between owners and owners/players.

Why does this man have a franchise? Why did the league allow him in? What the hell man.

Dan Gilbert needs to suck it up. This is how the league works. Really, the Lakers open up cap space, but they aren't getting Howard (unless the owners veto the pending Nets trade).

Look, I am a Small Market Fan (GO JAZZ!) but you have to face reality. Reality is, Chris Paul IS NOT STAYING WITH THE HORNETS AFTER JULY 1!

The acting GM, looking for the best deal for his team, went with the Lakers because they get Odom, a bunch of good players/trade pieces from the Rockets, AND the Knicks 2012 #1 pick. It is a good deal, and a lot better than the nothing you get on July 1st when Paul leaves to be a free agent.

Personally, I thought this was a bad trade for the Lakers. Cap space aside, they need to have a deal for Marc Gasol worked out already or else they are going to be outsized and outmatched on the front court with Bynum as their only big of notoriety. I mean, sure, he's great at leveling undersized point guards when he's not injured, but other than that...

it was a wtf moment paul wants out the lakers want to blow up their roster to get paul and howard. they get paul in a trade and then it gets canc it really sucks to be the players that got traded and then were told to go back. what do You think of chandler going to the Knicks?

wow howard is going to the nets i got to check that out brb.

Not any more. Magic filed tampering charges...holy hell. Can we put to rest now that the owners were in fact the dumber party in the lockout debacle?

It's a great pick up for the Knicks. That legitimately put them into contender status. A little more tweaking and you have the makings of a champion caliber team.

Potentially brittle as hell though, which worries me a little bit.

And they opened up cap space to resign Paul with his bird rights at 100 mil or so putting them right back into luxury tax land. Seriously why did they let Dan Gilbert have a team?

Stern you are fooling no one

I don't know. I halfway understood his anger when LeBron left how he did. But this is just freaking ridiculous.

If you build a competitive team in a small market, you will keep players there. (See: San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns.)

Paul going to the Lakers would have been David Stern admitting that nothing had changed and the players won. While it is true that the players and big market teams were the clear winners of the lockout, and that very little is going to change in the "new" system, he can't say "we have a deal that will help small markets" one day and then screw over the small market team he runs the next.

What all of this does is make me wish the small market owners had stuck to their guns and not come back without a hard cap.

Odom for Paul even with draft picks and bench players is not a fair trade. Gasol would have been closer to a fair trade.Teams want Paul and while I agree that you need to trade him before July, I think you can get a lot more than a third or fourth option that is in the latter stages of his career, a few bench players, and pick in the late stages of the first round. A basketball team only really plays 8 or 9 guys a game and only relies on 5 or 6, if the Hornets are going to trade their number one guy away they need to get someone that can come close to filling that spot. Trading one for many works in hockey or football, but in basketball it is almost always a bad move.


Also I am glad the Warriors didn't get him. I think Stephen Curry is going to come into his own as an all-star this year and I would rather build my team's hopes on a rising talent than a guy that is prone to injury.

It wasn't just Odom. It was Odom, Scola, Martin and picks. From whom are the Hornets going to get a better deal from?

Granted not a champion team, but a team that could fight for a playoff spot.

Of course without Bynum for Howard, the Lakers aren't championship caliber either. And i'd think Orlando could do a better job than Bynum. Unless the Lakers could somehow swallow Hedo's contract, the Magic wouldn't do that deal anyway.

Though they did just send Bass to Boston for Big Baby, so Howard has to be on his way out. No way would he be happy with that swap.

Completely disagree. This was a very good deal for the Hornets, and would have made them a solid 5-8 team. Which is about where they are with Paul right now anyway. And frankly, with Paul's health issues... they are not going to get equal value. There is no pressure on teams to offer a superstar for superstar trade precisely because Paul becomes a free agent this July.

In this case, you have to get the best deal you can for him. And this is, really, the best deal.

Ok no picks were involved. But really are the Hornets going to get something better?

I think they can definately do better than an aging third option and two bench players. Plus they would be handing the Lakers a title. But really what it boils down to is Stern not wanting to admit that he got hosed by the players and the big market teams. Paul will move, and probably soon, but I would be shocked if he went to a team like LA, Dallas, NY, Boston, or Miami.