Chris Paul

Hor­nets coach Monty Williams says that All-Star point guard Chris Paul never asked the team for a trade.

New Orleans named Williams their new head coach in early July and soon after Paul rumors begin to kick up.

“You can say it has set­tled down now, but it was set­tled before that,” Williams told Sport­ing News.

“For me, it was never an issue. Chris never said any­thing about a trade. He never asked for a trade. He wants us to be a bet­ter team, but we all want that and Dell [Demps] and I are going to do all that we can to make it a bet­ter team. We’re going to make this a bet­ter team with Chris here.”

Real GM

Chris Paul

Despite pos­i­tive state­ments about his future in New Orleans fol­low­ing Monday’s meet­ing with the team, Chris Paul is still seek­ing a way out, accord­ing to a source close to the point guard.

It at first appeared as though the Hor­nets had com­pletely ended the Paul saga, but Ken Berger of CBS Sports reports that is not the case.

“The tell­tale thing is that Chris Paul won’t com­ment pub­licly other than what was released about it,” said a per­son famil­iar with Paul’s strategy.

Real GM

Chris Paul

The Hor­nets have been turn­ing away the lat­est series of calls from other teams on point guard Chris Paul, accord­ing to front-offices sources.

“They say they aren’t mov­ing him,” one rival team exec­u­tive said of the Hornets.

Sources with knowl­edge of New Orleans’ think­ing said over the week­end that the Hor­nets’ stance is unlikely to change.

ESPN.com

LeBron James, Chris Paul

Nobody is blam­ing Chris Paul for want­ing out of New Orleans. The ros­ter is a wreck, the Hor­nets fired a coach he liked, fired their gen­eral man­ager and own­er­ship is chang­ing hands.

And today, CP3 got an endorse­ment for some­one that may sour some on Paul’s demands. LeBron James tweeted: “Best of luck to my brother @oneandonlycp3 . Do what’s best for You and your family.”

Brian Wind­horst of the Plain Dealer put it rather bril­liantly in just 140 char­ac­ters : “These days ‘brand man­age­ment’ & ‘doing what is best for your fam­ily’ appar­ently means turn­ing off as many of your fans as possible. ”

HoopsWorld

Chris Paul

Accord­ing to a source with knowl­edge of his plan, Chris Paul has requested that the Hor­nets trade him to the Knicks, Magic or Lak­ers before the sea­son begins.

“He wants out,” the source told Ken Berger of CBS Sports. “He wants to play with another super­star. He wants to fol­low LeBron’s model of team­ing up with other great players.”

NBA sources say that mem­bers of Paul’s camp told them recently, “He’s not going to start the sea­son in New Orleans.”

Real GM

Jerry Colan­gelo

USA Bas­ket­ball chair­man Jerry Colan­gelo said in an inter­view that Rajon Rondo has com­mit­ted to Team USA.

Dur­ing the week­end, Colan­gelo learned offi­cially that Deron Williams and Chris Paul, both holdovers from the 2008 Olympic team, will not be playing.

Colan­gelo also said Sun­day that Phoenix cen­ter Robin Lopez has been added to the ros­ter, mak­ing it 22 play­ers who will be in Las Vegas for the July 20–24 train­ing camp. His twin brother, New Jer­sey cen­ter Brook Lopez, already is on the roster.

HoopsWorld

Chris Paul

Chris Paul may have used a toast to set the table for Knicks fans.

Dur­ing Carmelo Anthony’s wed­ding Sat­ur­day night at Cipriani’s on 42nd Street, Chris Paul pre­dicted a future Knicks Dream Team.

Accord­ing to a per­son who spoke with wed­ding attendee Amare Stoudemire, Paul made the ref­er­ence dur­ing a speech of a poten­tial union of him­self, Stoudemire and Anthony, say­ing, “We’ll form our own Big 3,” Paul allegedly said.

Attendee Spike Lee nearly passed out at the suggestion.

Fan­Na­tion

Chris Paul

Hor­nets point guard Chris Paul revealed that he is open to a trade if the team is not com­mit­ted to win­ning a title.

“My first choice is to be in New Orleans,” Paul said. “I just want to make sure we’re com­mit­ted to win­ning. If we’re not com­mit­ted to win­ning and try­ing to get bet­ter so we can con­tend with the Lak­ers, the Celtics, these other top teams, then I’m open to being traded.”

Reports that the other teams were call­ing the Hor­nets about Paul sur­faced ear­lier this week.

Real GM

Chris Paul

There are indi­ca­tions that the Griz­zlies have joined a long line of teams try­ing to con­vince the New Orleans Hor­nets to part with one of their point guards: Chris Paul or Dar­ren Collison.

One of the Griz­zlies’ stated goals this off­sea­son is to bol­ster the point guard posi­tion. Paul, an all-star, all-defensive team mem­ber, would eas­ily sup­plant incum­bent starter Mike Conley.

Col­li­son would rep­re­sent a dynamic backup at the posi­tion or some­one who could push Con­ley for the start­ing job.

HoopsWorld

Chris Paul

New Orleans Hor­nets All-Star point guard Chris Paul will miss the remain­der of the sea­son due to a lig­a­ment tear in his right mid­dle finger.

No surgery is required for the injury. The timetable for his return to bas­ket­ball activ­i­ties is approx­i­mately seven weeks.

“It has been a very dif­fi­cult sea­son for me in terms of injuries,” said Paul. “I hate not being out on the court help­ing my team, but the best thing for me to do is to get com­pletely healthy. I am hope­ful to be back play­ing bas­ket­ball by June.”

Inside Hoops