Chris Paul traded to the Los Angeles Clippers
After several days of drama, it appears that Chris Paul will finally find a new home with the Los Angeles Clippers.
According to multiple sources, the New Orleans Hornets and Los Angeles Clippers have agreed in principle to complete a trade which would send Paul from New Orleans to Los Angeles in return for Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Fariq Aminu and Minnesota’s 2012 first-round pick. The Clippers will also receive two future second-round picks.
NBA commissioner David Stern vetoed a three-team trade earlier in the week which would have sent Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers for “basketball reasons.” What exactly these “reasons” were have not become clear, but evidently this same standard did not apply to a trade with the Clippers.
Ultimately, it’s another case of a large market team being allowed to continue to get larger at the expense of a small market. The Hornets– under the current de facto ownership of the NBA– will continue to barely tread water until the time comes for them to either be contracted or moved.
From a business perspective, David Stern needed Chris Paul to be in a major market, but that market was obviously going to be the market of his choosing. In choosing the Clippers, Stern is promoting some “balanced star power” on the West Coast which is hardly a surprise.
From a basketball standpoint, Chris Paul will add an instant burst to a Clippers offense which continually improved during the course of the 2010 season, and seemed to just be missing a final piece. Along with Blake Griffin, Eric Bledsoe and DeAndre Jordan, the Clippers’ offense should be dynamic and high-scoring with consistency.
A strange aside is where this leaves the perpetually-embattled Chauncey Billups. After being amnestied by the New York Knicks and picked up off the waiver wire by the Clippers, Billups again appears destined for a backup role, albeit a primary role, with the Clippers.
Chris Paul got what he wanted. He no longer has to bust his butt to build a small market team into an NBA Championship contender.
Can he do this for the Clippers? This season will go a long way in showing us all.
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