Chris Paul Traded To The L.A. Clippers; Hornets Land Eric Gordon, Coveted Draft Pick And More

The Clippers wouldn’t open up cap space to add additional players by waiving Williams, but should another team claim him off of waivers, L.A. could stand to pay the guard less than that owed $17 million over the next seasons. The team is paying Billups just $2 million this season. L.A. still has its “room exception” to sign another player; the exception is for $2.5 million.

The deadline to use the amnesty clause for this season is Friday.

As it turns out, the 2010-11 Clippers turned out to be a very exciting lottery squad.

Expectations are much higher now, higher than they’ve ever been for Coach Del Negro. With Chris Paul in place, L.A. will be expected to not only make the postseason this year, but do some damage. Clippers GM Neil Olshey hired Del Negro, so there are no particular issues there, but if the team fails to get rolling quickly, Del Negro is the obvious fall guy. This team has the talent to win big, and CP3 is the best floor general in the game. But every good team needs a proper coach, and it remains to be seen whether V.D.N. can accomplish something with a better-than-average squad. We’ll see.

But Okafor, Ariza and Jack can be expected to be the subjects of trade rumors; Jack might end up a late amnesty candidate in 2012 if there’s a free agent that New Orleans likes. While the Hornets may want to hold off on exploring the pricey free agent market, they should have options in 2012.

For more on the Hornets, visit At The Hive.

For more on the Clippers, visit Clips Nation.

Rovell reported early Thursday morning that the Clippers decided to raise their ticket prices for single games -- they’re reportedly sold out of season tickets -- when they go on sale Thursday morning.

As you’d expect, the Lakers aren’t terribly happy with this turn of events. From the Los Angeles Times’ Mike Bresnahan:

The situation will only be made worse when the Lakers have to pony up a reported $50 million as a part of the league’s new revenue sharing program. The Hornets, who will be owned by the league for at least a few more months, will likely be a major beneficiary of the program, and could take in $15 million in redistributed funds this season.

There’s something bitter about the timing of all of this. The NBA took over the club in December 2010 on account of founding owner George Shinn falling apart financially; NBA commissioner David Stern revealed on Wednesday that there were concerns Shinn couldn’t make payroll for the entire 2010-11 season. Along with the NBA’s capital takeover, one that simply allowed the Hornets to pay their bills, make payroll and function as a (relatively) normal NBA club, the league sent in one of its vaunted swat teams of salesmen.

The good news for the NBA and New Orleans is that fans are so much smarter than anyone gives them credit for. Fans know why the Hornets will suck this season. Most of those season ticket holders will be fine with this trade, they will embrace Gordon and Aminu from Day 1, they will take the losses in stride and they will spend as much time as kindness allows rooting hard against the Timberwolves. The era of the informed fan allows teams to “get away” with the scorched Earth rebuild without any backlash; hell, these days it is often the case the fans are calling for a scorched Earth rebuild before teams are ready to make the dive. The timing on all of this stinks for all of those fans in New Orleans, because there is nothing like attending an NBA playoff game, and a lot of fans who plunked down thousands of dollars on tickets will be missing out on that for three, four years. But they understand, and they’ll understand, and they will stick around. The saving grace of the NBA’s weird takeover of the New Orleans Hornets is that the league has built a base that can survive this fire and come out green -- or make that Creole blue -- on the other side.

A favorite pastime of NBA addicts when a major trade goes down is to check the teams’ schedule to find intriguing match-ups. Chris Paul was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday, which provides just that opportunity.

For more on the L.A.‘s second team, visit Clips Nation.

But now that the Hornets have sent out a press release, we can go ahead and stand down. This one is official and Paul is bound for the Clippers. The last-minute roadblocks never sprung up and after a week of trying, a deal was finally consummated.

Oh, but you didn’t think things would go forward without getting a little awkward, did you? Take it away, Adrian Wojnarowksi.

It’s always interesting to find out how professional sports players learn they’re being traded. For all the things franchises do right, it seems trades are handled in incredibly awkward ways. Perhaps it’s because teams try to keep negotiations quiet and can’t keep up with the speed of social media or something.

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For an idea of just how bad the Wolves have been lately:

For more on the Hornets, visit At The Hive.

Gordon played one season of college basketball at Indiana and finished his freshman season leading the Big Ten in scoring and tied for 19th in the nation at 21.5 points per game. Gordon entered the 2008 NBA Draft and was selected seventh overall by the Clippers.

Gordon has played progressively less games in each of his three seasons with the Clippers, going from 78 to 56, mostly due to injury. That hasn’t prevented him from scoring in droves, averaging 22.3 points per game last season. He was on the NBA All-Rookie Second Team and was part of the 2010 FIBA World Championship gold medal team.

For more on the Clippers, visit Clips Nation. For more on the Hornets, visit At The Hive.

For more on the Clippers, visit Clips Nation. For more on the Hornets, visit At The Hive.

Given the purpose of the Hornets right now according to its owners, can you blame Chris Paul for wanting to be elsewhere?

Even if the franchise were a model of stability, the basic right of free agency -- of determining where you work -- should give CP3 the all-clear on making his intentions known. It’s sad that we’re still bitching about players choosing their homes almost 40 years after Oscar Robertson vs. the NBA ended the option clause. The NBA has built an incentive to entice players to stay with their incumbent teams. It tends to work on players’ second contracts, the ones most stars sign after their third year in the NBA. It has been less successful on those third contracts, signed after the seventh or eighth year.

But wait! Billups’ arrival may allow the Clips to sweeten their offer for Paul. At least, that’s the logic that league sources are telling Ken Berger of CBS Sports:

But here’s the rub: Billups has already threatened to retire if he was claimed, let alone claimed by a team intending to move him to the bench. “I’ve got a few good years left to play, and I’m not trying to come in and sit on the bench, or be a mentor,” he said in an interview with Yahoo!‘s Adrian Wojnarowski. “I’m not going to be that guy. I want to go somewhere and win. I want to choose.”

But a source told ESPN that the winning bid was for $2 million, which is not the type of financial commitment that would prevent the team from bringing in Paul. Los Angeles believed the Hornets’ asking price to be too steep, but remains interested if adjustments are made to the trade request.

For more details on the trade talks and to keep up with the latest news and rumors, check out SB Nation NBA’s Chris Paul X Clippers Trade StoryStream.

Mason is not the first player to support Paul publicly, so the above quote isn’t unique. The following quote, though, is. According to Mason, it was awkward for Paul during the new CBA negotiations, because so many of the rules the owners wanted to put in place directly impacted his decision.

“It was a little weird being on the board and in negotiations, when a lot of the parts we were talking about had a direct impact on Chris. It’s like, you have David Stern in the room, and then you had Chris in the room,” he said. “The dynamic was just a little weird.”

The deal was said to be off the table originally due to the league/Hornets’ steep asking price. However, it was noted at the time that the deal could be revived, but under different terms. Looks like that might be the case.

UPDATE: Berger now reports that as far as the Clippers are concerned, the deal is dead.

Wojnarowski reports that the trade could be revived, but under different terms. The Hornets are scheduled to play a preseason game on Friday and only have six players under contract.

For more on the Hornets, visit At The Hive. For more on the Clippers, visit Clips Nation and SB Nation Los Angeles.

Yahoo!‘s Adrian Wojnarowski reported early Monday that Gordon was not included in the deal as under review by the NBA, which owns the Hornets. That report matched a Los Angeles Times report on Sunday that did not include Gordon in the package.

We should find out whether Gordon is heading to N.O. soon enough.

When Stern vetoed the deal, he first suggested “basketball reasons” as the impetus, and later adjusted that into an explanation that the Hornets are more valuable with Paul on the roster. Should Stern allow this trade to go through, both rationales will be exposed as lies: the package involved in the Lakers’ would have kept the Hornets more competitive over at least the next three seasons than the Clippers’ deal will, and, obviously the league will have traded CP3 despite Stern’s concern about the value of the franchise.

Stern didn’t kill the Lakers deal because of basketball reasons or a concern with the Hornets franchise’s value. He did it because letting the Lakers acquired another young superstar on the day the 2011 lockout ended was untenable. Too many owners were too furious, and he was too unwilling to stand up for Jerry Buss’ right to make an aggressive basketball trade.