Hold up, wait a minute! (CP3 smokescreen?)

You are pretty much right. However, I would like to know a true list of teams Chris Paul prefers to go to, because there are different reports on the issue.

 

True, and we don't even know the order of importance of those things. I feel like what Chris Paul wants probably rates pretty low - but it could be NO is worried about souring free agents on the Hornets.

 

Well if we can't get him I do hope he is traded to the East. I posted that before so in that respect I can undertand their thinking. It would be nice if we could get CP3 though I know I'm the only one that thinks so.

 

Yeah I think you're pretty much all alone on that one mgb. Chris Paul? Pffffffffttttt....wake me up when we're discussing a real Point Guard.

 

Sanity!

 

Seems more and more that the Western Conference looks to be the cream puff conference for the coming decade, just like the East was for much of the last decade. So few of the major young stars are on Western teams....if Paul moves to a team that's capable of building around him in the East, yikes.

 

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that all this "only trade to an east coast team" etc etc etc is just to squeeze something out of the Blazers. I have a feeling that we're trying to lowball and they want Oden, or maybe they want us to take back more. I'm not sure. I just think this is all posturing.

 

Oden sure + filler. No to Oden + Batum. If CP3 is injured it's not worth it. If Oden is injured we'd still have Batum splitting our injury concerns.

 

Also if Paul doesn't come to Portland I would rather he went East. Let them beat each other up and injure themselves from strenuous competition constantly. The fresher we are when we face LAL the better. Also chalk up 3 more wins if Paul goes East and at most 2 more losses. If we don't get him send him East. I'm thrilled at the gutting of non-Blazers Western Conference.

 

I just think it's all bullshit. The whole country knows the Blazers have the most to offer. The Hornets know the Blazers have the most to offer. To say that they're looking at East coast teams is all nonsense. Like Shinn cares if he deals to a west coast team, and I'm damn sure he doesn't care about dealing a star. This is the guy who let Mourning go, Larry Johnson go, and Glen Rice. He'll blow shit up. He's a maverick like that

I think it's probably coming down to money. I think he wants us to take back Paul, Okafor, AND Posey. That makes things difficult. That's a LOT of money. It could be done if we moved Camby, Miller, AND Przybilla, along with some young talent, but that really guts our roster.

 

I hope you are right. I wonder if this is the deal the Hornets are proposing:
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=258f569
(Camby/Przy/Miller/Batum for Paul/Okafor/Posey, and maybe our pick next year and/or some of our drafts this year)

Because in the end, I can see Portland hemming and hawing over that one, trying to talk them out of adding Posey, chiseling out youngsters from our side of the deal. Maybe Portland uses up all the summer, saying "We'll do that deal if we keep Camby and you keep Posey. If you don't like it, show us the better deal you've got out there." And then the Hornets start rumors about how it only wants to trade to the East, and nothing happens until early October.

But in the end, that's a deal that Paul Allen eventually signs off on. And Shinn would too if nothing better comes up--it's $121 mil in contracts going out with only around $30 mil in contracts coming back. And maybe still a playoff team with a lineup of Collison/?/Batum/West/Camby, provided Collison lives up to potential.

 

This is the trade:

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=25y6fz3

Best value the Hornets can get and it consolidates our roster and solves the Hornets depth at SG. It also stomps any other trade out there without giving up Oden/LMA/Roy.

PG: Collison
SG: Thorton/Bayless/Rudy/Re-animated corpse of Peja
SF: Batum
PF: West
C: Camby

That's a competitive team and still sheds tons of salary for them and gives them three young talents. Ok, two young talents and one Emo fron tman. Also Bayless and Rudy expire next summer if they mope or don't perform. I think Bayless would start by the 20th game if not sooner.

 

I disagree.

The bottom line is, they'll take the best deal they can. They can concentrate on whatever they want to, but if we put together the best offer, they'll take it.

 

The Hornets may very well end up in the Eastern Conference after the needed realignment.

 

"Hold up, wait a minute! Come on! *whew* Just let me catch my breath!"

Fez, if your thread title was the first half of this reference, I heart you.

 

[video=dailymotion;xdsii6]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xdsii6?additionalInfos=0"[/video]

 

Hey Fez if you're on can you add a poll to this about whether people think it's all a smoke screen? I didn't want to start yet another thread on this.