David Stern MUST reverse the decision to block the Hornets trade

Just the pick alone makes it a better trade than the Lakers which only offered Lamar Odom as a significant player. The Hornets ended up with an All Star swingman, a SF with tons of athleticism and potential, a draft pick that could very well end up being the top overall pick and a big body with options to trade and make room under the cap or use as a solid backup to their oft-injured center.

Plus, today Carl Landry signed with NOLA.

If the season started today this is what it would likely look like:

PG: Jarrett Jack, Terrico White
SG: Eric Gordon, Marco Bellineli
SF: Trevor Ariza, Quincy Ponexter
PF: Carl Landry, Al-Farouq Aminu
C: Emeka Okafor, Chris Kaman

I can live with that. Next year they'll add probably two very high draft picks from a draft with some pretty special players.

 

They have 4 point guards and will need to trade some to get some more depth in the front court. Health could be an issue with CP3, Butler, and Griffin. I wanna see them do well but I will reserve judgement until they even out the roster a bit. And you prob knew but I think you mean DeAndre Jordan.

 

Don't forget the Hornets pick which could be high as well. Andre Drummond and Harrison Barnes would look great in a Hornets uni...

 

I would be more surprised if he and Griffin re-signed with the Clippers than if both left. They're notorious for having the NBA's worst ownership. It's going to be fun to watch those two play together for a couple years at least, though.

 

Despite their large market, the Clippers are a joke because of their ownership and this trade shows you why the Clippers are so terrible.

If I was a team, of course, I'd want to trade for Chris Paul. But, I wouldn't have given up as much as the Clippers did. I would have been very reluctant to either trade Eric Gordon or Minn's draft pick, and there's no way I would have bent over and given up both.

The Clippers were the only team left with the assets to trade for Chris Paul. The Lakers were rumored to be setting up another deal, but they didn't have the pieces especially after they traded away Lamar.

So, the Clippers were essentially negotiating against themselves when the Clippers had all the leverage. The NBA was the one that came crawling back to try to salvage a deal against a timeline where the NBA had to trade Chris Paul- the longer they waited, the more Paul's value would drop until they risked getting nothing in return when Paul left New Orleans as well as face an impeding lawsuit by Paul if he hadn't been traded in a few more days.

If the Clippers had stuck to their guns and told the NBA essentially that they were happy with the team they already had and would only trade for Chris Paul for the right deal, they could have kept Gordon or Minn's draft pick and maybe even both.

Having said all that, I wouldn't necessairly say that the Clippers packagae was better than the Lakers package.

With the Lakers package, the Hornets were getting some really good players that could have been a good team just not one good enough to win a championship. I like Gordon but the Lakers package gives you a better team right now whereas the Clipper package has more potential in the future which doesn't necessairly guarantee it will live up to that promise.

The thing that will determine which will be the better deal will be that draft pick from Minn. If Minn is really bad, the lottery balls bounce your way, and you get a franchise player in that draft, then the Clippers package was better than the Lakers. But, if Minn improves with Rubio and a new coach or if the Hornets squander that pick by drafting the wrong player, then the Lakers was the better package.(When the Patriots traded Seymour to the Raiders for their 2011 pick, I think we all expected it would end up much higher but the Raiders are actually in contention for a playoffs spot this year.)

Although, with the way the NBA stepped in and took over negotiations from Dell Demps with the Chris Paul trade, does this mean the NBA will step in and also decide who the Hornets pick with that draft pick?