Last Thursday the NBA was all the buzz as All-Star point-guard Chris Paul appeared to be on his way to the west coast to become the newest member of the Los Angeles Lakers. A three-team trade which included the Lakers, Hornets and Rockets was agreed upon and only needed the approval of the Commissioner's office given the Hornets are currently a league-owned franchise. In exchange for Paul, the Hornets would've acquired Lamar Odom from the Lakers as well as Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, Goran Dragic and a 2012 first-round pick from Houston, sending Pau Gasol to the Rockets. Several hours later, however, NBA Commissioner David Stern pulled the plug on the deal after receiving a slew of calls and e-mails from team owners against the trade.
Determined to reconstruct a deal, all three teams continued to negotiate on into the weekend before the Lakers withdrew their name from the hat in the Chris Paul sweepstakes on Saturday evening, instead trading last year's Sixth Man of the Year, Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks. Upon first hearing the news that he was dealt to New Orleans in the Chris Paul trade, an emotional Odom was heard on sports-radio where he sobbed and began crying after expressing how much he wanted to be a Laker for the rest of his career. Once the trade was vetoed, Odom took to his Twitter account by tweeting, "When a team trades you and it doesn't go down, now what?" With training camp the next day, many were pondering what the akward scene would be like in L.A. and if Odom would even arrive to camp.
Unhappy about being included in the trade, Odom showed up to the Lakers' training facility 90 minutes late according to sources and left early after meeting with general manager Mitch Kupchak where he requested to be traded. Less than 24 hours later, Kupchak granted his wish by dealing him to the defending World Champions in exchange for a first-round pick. I can see why Odom was angered about being included in the three-team trade considering how valuable he's been to the franchise having helped them win back-to-back titles in 2009-10, but Kupchak expressed his interest in landing both Chris Paul and Dwight Howard days earlier and said everyone on the Lakers' roster not named Kobe Bryant was available. So unless Odom didn't get the memo, he should've known there was a possibility of him being dealt.
The day following Odom's departure, both Kobe and Lakers point-guard Derek Fisher let their discontent be known regarding him being traded to the Mavs of all teams who have recently become a rival of L.A.'s. Though the Lakers are still a contender without him, the team will surely miss Odom's defensive presence as well as his versatility.
As for the state of the Hornets, the vetoed trade that was of the team's best interest according to Stern, could instead hurt the franchise in the future with the unlikely scenario of them landing a group of players as good as or better than what they were receiving from the Lakers and Rockets. And what a shame it would be if the Hornets fail to get rid of CP3 and the team is forced to move on next season without getting anything in return for their star player. If so, good luck finding someone interested in buying the franchise then.
The most recent trade talks involving Chris Paul, however, has the Hornets jumping back into the trade-o-sphere with a deal that would send the star guard to the team the Lakers share the same building with -- the L.A. Clippers. According to sources both teams were working on a proposed deal that would package Eric Gordon, Eric Bledsoe, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu and Minnesota's unprotected 2012 first-round draft pick. That trade was also put to rest, this time under the power of the Clippers who backed out after saying the Hornets' asking price was too high. As of now a deal for Paul is on hold, but both teams are said to be re-working on a proposal. If the deal eventually goes down, a tag-team of CP3 and Blake Griffin could be one of the more lethal duo's in all of basketball.
From a fan's standpoint: Personally, I wasn't the biggest fan of the initial trade for Chris Paul given the Lakers were dealing a huge part of what most teams feared them for -- size, but at the same time they were upgrading at the one position they needed the most help in at point-guard not to mention with one of the game's elites. Having said that, I guess you can say I was 50/50. Other than Stern and company not wanting to see Paul land with a big market team, I can't come up with a logical explanation why the deal was vetoed given it was the Hornets who came out as winners in the trade. The Odom trade on the other hand was just plain dumb if you ask me. I understand that he wanted to play elsewhere after feeling unwanted and all once the Chris Paul trade collapsed, but why help the defending World Champs of all teams? The only thing I can come up with is that they're stocking up in preparation to send Orlando an offer they can't refuse for Dwight Howard.
One thing that's certain, however, is that under new head coach Mike Brown, the Lakers' season storyline will definitely be one to keep an eye on.
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