Many teams are upset about NBA Commissioner David Stern’s decision to not trade Chris Paul to the Lakers. But the nixed deal didn’t just alter the fates of the two teams in Los Angeles and the Houston Rockets. Several other franchises were affected less directly, but still affected enough that they had to alter their plans.

Boston, for example, was in the process of trying to get the Hornets to sign-and-trade them free agent power forward David West. Now, just because the CP3 saga was going on, it doesn’t mean New Orleans were necessarily unable to get involved in a different deal involving West. But team GM Dell Demps seemed hand-cuffed, and it’s quite possible that West and his agent saw the ensuing turmoil and began thinking that relying on the Hornets to facilitate an agreement with the Celtics was more trouble than it was worth.

I don’t know that any of that occurred, mind you, but it seems reasonable that it could have.

Regardless, West, as you know, ended up signing a two-year deal with Indiana rather than going to Boston. And Celtics starting shooting guard Ray Allen doesn’t seem particularly pleased about it. [Emphasis added by me.] (via I Am a GM)

[Ray] Allen first heard of West’s potential interest in Boston last month when Allen was playing golf in Augusta with his private banker, who coincidentally also handled West’s financial affairs.

“He told me how much I would love [West], that he and I were the same kind of guy — cognitive thinkers,” Allen said. “He said West was interested in coming to the Celtics and would be willing to come for less.”

So why does Allen think West had a change of heart?

“Once it got down to the end, I think his ego kicked back in,” Allen said. “He wanted the dollars. I guess it comes down to ‘What is a championship worth to you?’

“Think of all the guys who have made $20 million and could be considered one of the best ever, but they get chided because they never won. We [the Big Three] all had to do less when we won. We’re still taking less to make it work. But it’s worth it. No one can ever say to KG, Paul or me, ‘You guys never got your ring.’”

Theories abound on why West chose the Pacers over the Celtics. Included among them is the notion that since West opted out of a contract that would have paid him $8.5 million, he needed to “save face” among other players (and agents) by not accepting a Celtics contract that included a first year of just under $8 million, even though the average value over the life of the contract would have been higher.

The other factor could be that West preferred a two-year deal so he could re-establish himself as the two-time All-Star he was before he was injured, rather than commit for three years to a team with an uncertain future.

It’s one thing to lose a free agent to Los Angeles. It’s quite another to lose him to Indiana, a franchise that won just 37 games last season and is a small Midwest market that has always struggled to draw high-caliber free agents.

This whole Jackie MacMullen article is worth reading, particularly since it states that West could have made $29 million over three years in Boston — a significantly larger sum than the offer that had been previously reported: a $24-million-over-three-year contract. [Ed note: this sentence was altered cause it initially was written even more poorly than it reads now.]

Because of salary cap restraints, the Celtics could not offer a two-year deal. They were required to acquire West in a sign-and-trade, which means the contract had to be a minimum of three years. In what team and league sources described as a creative but complicated package, the Celtics were prepared to offer West a four-year contract with a buyout that, in the end, amounted to three years and $29 million. In other words, the average of their offer was just under $10 million (about $9.6 million)

This is good news for Pacers fans.

If the 31-year-old David West was significantly concerned about how he would bounce back from his offseason ACL surgery, it stands to reason that he would want to get as much guaranteed money as he could on the open market. If his knee might never fully recover, it would be fiscally prudent for him to try to get that one last, big contract before the wheels fell off. Especially if doing so meant playing next to KG, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen for arguably the most successful franchise in pro sports history.

But he didn’t do that.

He opted to sign only a two-year deal for $10 million per season as opposed to getting a guaranteed third year at almost the same annual salary. To me, this seems like a decision that would only be made by a guy who thinks he will be so productive and healthy for the next two years that, even as a 33-year-old NBA veteran, he will be able to sign another contract to make up for the $9 million he left on the table by not signing with Boston.

His own confidence in the stability of his knee doesn’t mean there is nothing to worry about. But if West did turn down a $29 million deal, he essentially just bet $9 million that his leg is structurally sound. That has to be at least somewhat reassuring for Pacers fans.

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UPDATE: I also offered some thoughts on the post-trade Clippers to ESPN, who was asking whether or not I thought Chris Paul makes them actual contenders.

Yes. The Mavs lost their defensive cog, the Thunder’s best players still need to figure out how to co-exist in crunch time, the Lakers lost Lamar and the Spurs are 700-years-old. There is no West favorite so the Clips can potentially make the Finals. And if you can make the Finals, you’re a contender.

Oddly enough, I even forgot to include the Grizzlies.

These guys are going to sneak up on everyone on their way to a two-seed.

No related posts.

* Correction: Changed the title from “Seven Degrees” to “Six Degrees” after realizing I’m dumb.

Related posts:

1. Trade Rumor: A Chris Paul-to-Boston Trade Could Net the Pacers Rajon Rondo
2. Danny Granger, Chris Paul and the Miami Heat
3. On David Stern’s Decision to Not Approve the Chris Paul Trade

As you may have heard, the Lakers made a trade offer for Chris Paul to Hornets GM Dell Demps yesterday. After including Rockets GM Daryl Morey in the transaction to include the right combination of players to satisfy the needs of all involved parties, the Lakers (presumably with the approval of team GM Mitch Kupchak and recently hospitalized owner Jerry Buss), Morey and Demps all agreed to make the deal.

At this point, the news of the blockbuster move (which reportedly would have sent — perhaps among other assets — Paul to Los Angeles, Pau Gasol to Houston, and Lamar Odom, Kevin Martin and Luis Scola to New Orleans) was leaked to the media. For hours, Twitter and ESPN and all the other sports media outlets reported a completed deal.

Then, at some point — and I’m definitely not purporting to know the time line or exact events that occurred during this process — David Stern said New Orleans would not be doing the transaction.

This is where things get murky and all the outrage is stemming from.

See, Stern is the commissioner of the league. And the league owns the Hornets.

The 29 other teams each put up an equal stake to purchase the franchise in December 2010 from a debt-laden ownership group led by George Shinn, who was unable to find a local buyer for the team he wanted to sell. So Shinn approached the league suggesting that they buy the Hornets. He wanted to be out from under the burden of ownership — and a presumably a huge chuck of money — and had exhausted the possibility of finding anyone in New Orleans willing to pay the price he was asking.

Especially following the fiasco that was the Sonics relocation to Oklahoma City, the NBA (and, at least when speaking publicly, Shinn) believed that keeping the Hornets in New Orleans was a priority. So it came down to either the NBA buying the team or Shinn opening the bidding for his franchise nationwide, which would presumably include suitors who, like Oklahoma City Thunder owner Clay Bennett, would be buying the team with the intention to relocate it to a location where it is easier to run a profitable professional basketball franchise (like perhaps San Jose, Kansas City, Anaheim, Chicago, Las Vegas or, somewhat ironically, Seattle.)

So the league told the owners about all this and got them all to agree to pony up enough money to pay 1/29th of the price Shinn demanded for the Hornets. Just like that, the NBA owned the team. And under the stewardship of the league — not to mention a lease with Louisiana and a hefty re-location fee that from the NBA on any buyer who wanted to move the team — it seemed as though the process of finding an owner in New Orleans could continue along a time line that did not include the financial pressures that massive credit financing imposed on the Shinn ownership group.

“I wanted to ensure that the team remained in New Orleans, if that was possible, and recognized that the league could provide the necessary funding while a new owner was sought in New Orleans and negotiations with the city and the state could continue,” Stern said.

But the major question presented by the Chris Paul trade fiasco is not who owns the team; it’s who runs the team. Ultimately, the league and David Stern can step in and micromanage any aspect of the team’s operations. But should they? More importantly, throughout the duration of the league ownership, the league has maintained that the day-to-day operations and decisions would be made by the Hornets’ managemenn team in place at the time of the sale (Demps and Hugh Weber) and the league-appointed top boss, Chairman Jac Sperling.

On December 6, as the league was in the process of buying the Hornets, Stern said the following during a media conference call. [Quote marks added by me.]

while this [league takeover] process has been going on, there have been two significant transactions [made by the team]. And our response to both of them was “you guys are management, you understand your budget and your instructions, just go ahead,” because we’ve got Jac Sperling, Hugh Weber here, and if they recommend it, then we’re going to be approving it.

That certainly sounds like a commissioner stating that management has autonomy. As far as I know, there aren’t any GMs across the league who are allowed to make major transaction (or, for some, any transactions) without consulting their owners. I don’t believe, for Larry Bird can just say “I’m trading Danny Granger for Al Jefferson” and not at least run it by Herb Simon. He probably can, however, sign Jeff Pendergraph to a low-salaried two-year deal without anything more than a courtesy call/email/text to Simon so the owner doesn’t have to read about it on the internet.

So a large issue here, to me, is whether or not Demps should be able to make a major, franchise-altering deal with Los Angeles/Houston with only the approval of his immediate supervisors, namely Jac Sperling. If Sperling gives the OK, which he reportedly did, should the trade be done? Or do they have to consult the true owner of the team, the league and, effectively, Stern?

Stern, by words and all previous actions, to my knowledge, had been hands off with team management. I don’t believe he was engaged in the decision to, for example, trade Marcus Thornton for Carl Landry last season. To my knowledge, the league office and Stern found out about that decision the same way they found out about, say, the Jermaine O’Neal trade to Toronto: the teams agreed to a transaction and sent the particulars to the league office for processing. Stern did not get a call from Sperling telling him about the Landry acquisition and say “that sounds pretty good, but try to get them to throw in a second-round draft pick.” He was not involved in the decision in any way.

So there is, to my knowledge, no precedent for Stern serving as the de facto owner of the Hornets when it comes to player personnel decisions. I could be wrong. And I don’t know to what degree Stern has been involved with other aspects of managing the team. I would expect that Stern, via his marketing and sales teams, have had some input into things like season ticket sales strategy. Those types of matters would directly impact the finances of the team in a way that payroll does not.

But many would reasonably argue that Stern should have no role in player personnel decisions. They are arguably “below his pay grade.” Try to improve the team’s overall finances in things that occur off the court, but give the basketball operations staff the autonomy over decisions related to winning basketball games — which are what trades and free agent signings are by and large.

The flip side to all this is whether trading Chris Paul, the best and most important player in Hornets franchise history, is just a player personnel decision. It is also reasonable to suggest that the fate of Paul could significantly impact the valuation of a team that someone higher up than Sperling is responsible for overseeing.

This certainly seems to be the argument that Stern has made in his official statement on the current uproar over the proposed Chris Paul trade.

“Since the NBA purchased the New Orleans Hornets, final responsibility for significant management decisions lies with the Commissioner’s Office in consultation with team chairman Jac Sperling. All decisions are made on the basis of what is in the best interests of the Hornets. In the case of the trade proposal that was made to the Hornets for Chris Paul, we decided, free from the influence of other NBA owners, that the team was better served with Chris in a Hornets uniform than by the outcome of the terms of that trade.”

Whether or not he is correct in his assessment of how keeping Paul, especially now after all the fallout, will effect the team’s valuation is really not all that significant. You can look at that either way. Mark Haubner, an excellent basketball writer from The Painted Ares, questions Stern’s logic.

if there’s one team that got screwed over today, of course it’s the team the NBA owns, the New Orleans Hornets, in one of the league’s smallest markets. Now they apparently can’t trade Chris Paul, and are presumably stuck with him for a lame-duck season, in which the story of the blocked trade will follow him and the franchise around all year, at the end of which, New Orleans will end up with no compensation. This helps increase the value and facilitate the sale of the Hornets how?

Compelling argument.

And that’s what everyone else is doing today: questioning Stern’s logic. But not about how the proposed Paul trade — or how the effect of the Paul trade being called off — affects the team’s valuation. No, people are questioning how Stern thinks he can the right to interfere with the personnel decisions of a management team we were all under the impression was authorized to direct basketball operations autonomously. People are questioning if the league is now effectively run by an irate, stubborn group of small market owners who demanded that the Los Angeles Lakers, of all teams, not be allowed to employ the best point guard since Magic Johnson. People are questioning if the league is rigged.

What gives Stern the right to do this? Well, the sale of the team to the league is what gives it to him.

The question is whether or not he should have exercised it.

Related posts:

1. Trade Rumor: A Chris Paul-to-Boston Trade Could Net the Pacers Rajon Rondo
2. Danny Granger, Chris Paul and the Miami Heat
3. And Starting at Small Forward, from New Mexico, Stern’s Bitch

Dave Navarro said it best when he released Trust No One. When it comes to NBA trade rumors, the trust old journalism axiom also applies: If your mother says she loves you, check it out.

Unfortunately, I have no sources to either confirm or deny the validity of the most recent Chris Paul-related rumor from Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski. But if they come to fruition, good lord, the Pacers would be proving just how valuable having some cap space can be. Just by jumping in to help facilitate a Paul-to-Boston deal, Woj is saying that Larry Bird can get Rajon Rondo without giving up all that much.

We have heard about this rumored deal before, but never with some many of the moving parts so fully detailed.

Ainge and Rivers believe they can convince Paul to stay with the Celtics beyond this season. That’s why Ainge has been so relentless on the phones, trying to secure the players beyond Rondo and Green that New Orleans would want for Paul.

The Celtics had discussions with the Indiana Pacers about the framework of a deal that could’ve sent Paul to the Celtics, Rondo to Indiana and a package, including former Hornet Darren Collison, Tyler Hansbrough,Brandon Rush and draft picks, to New Orleans, sources said.

New Orleans would have keener interest in small forwardsDanny Granger or Paul George, but Pacers president Larry Bird has declared those players “untouchable” in trade talks, sources said.

Losing Collison is something but not really when you upgrade to Rajon. So all you’re really losing there is Hansbrough, a valuable piece but not irreplaceable, and a few picks, which are crap shoots anyway and unlikely to be of the lottery variety, and Brandon Rush, who isn’t good.

This doesn’t really pass the smell test though.

Really, New Orleans can’t get anything better for the league’s best point guard than Jeff Green, Darren Collison, Tyler Hansbrough, Brandon Rush and a bunch on non-lottery picks? I dunno. There are a few fringe starters there, sure, and I like DC and Bro Hands (and very much don’t like Jeff Green), but this sounds like the opposite of the Herschel Walker deal.

Then again, if Paul is only a four-month rental who won’t commit to an extension and no teams will give up a sizable asset on that type of gamble, perhaps this is the best offer? It’s a least good volume. They do need warm bodies just to field a team next season, particularly since it’s hard to believe David West will re-sign with a team that lacks both an owner and, soon, an all-world point guard.

The Hornets have only six players under contract, and had hoped they could find a trade for Paul – who has told them he will leave as a free agent after the season – before the start of Friday’s training camp. That scenario looks less likely, because, as one executive in the talks said Thursday, “They’re bringing in more teams, more scenarios, when we thought they wanted to narrow it down.”

More than anything, however, I’m just shocked that the Warriors and Clippers have put, repectively, Steph Curry and Eric Gordon “off limits” in a Paul deal. Really? Then again, who am I to judge. It’s decisions like these that have left the Clipps and Dubs mantle’s littered with Larry O’Brien trophies.

Oh wait …

Related posts:

1. Danny Granger, Chris Paul and the Miami Heat
2. Pacers Trade Rumor: Danny Granger for the #2 Pick, Ricky Rubio and Michael Beasley
3. Trade Rumor: Bird Reportedly Targeting Derrick Williams, Offering Roy Hibbert for the #2 Pick

Given the George Hill trade, and just what we’ve seen from the team’s big men in recent seasons, the Pacers need for front court help is paramount. And with Roy Hibbert theoretically entrenched at center and Tyler Hansbrough still unproven as a reliable starter in this league, power forward is presumably the area ripest for a talent infusion.

Coincidentally, it just so happens that David West opted out of the final year of his contract with New Orleans. He has said he wants to play somewhere that he can contend for a title, but we have heard that story before from many players who soon after sign wherever the best offer surfaces. Realistically, West is a player who has “only” made around $40 million in gross salary so far in his career and is presumably both looking for a final pay day and just as worried about his long-term future coming off of knee surgery as any GM who signs him will be.

So if we can assume that he indeed wants to sign for what most would agree is his market value (about $10 million per year under the old CBA), the three most likely destinations who can afford and have the need for the two-time All-Star are New Orleans, New Jersey and Indiana. A few other cities may be in play, but those three stand out. And since he is the only marquee power forward in this year’s free agent class (other than Thaddeus Young, who is restricted and likely to remain in Philadelphia), it stands to reason that some team will throw some money at him.

Will it be the Pacers? They reportedly will pursue him.

As noted, we’ll dive into this fully next week. But for now, I discussed this very topic with the good chaps who run Hornets247 the other night. They know him better than anyone and offer some interesting insight into a guy who may be a Pacer next season — whenever it starts.

Here’s that podcast. Go listen.

I put the odds of DWest becoming a Pacer at around 50/50 but also question the logic of rolling the dice on a 31-year-old coming off significant knee surgery. I just think it’s too big of a risk if you have to invest $45-50 million. We also discuss former Hornet Darren Collison’s first year in Indiana, which, if you were watching, was fairly underwhelming.

How much of the 17-Foot Assassin’s productivity was predicated upon the amazing creativity of the Hall of Famer pictured here on the left? How will he, at 31-years-old, recover from knee surgery? And most importantly, how much are the Pacers will to pay to find out?

Related posts:

1. The Pacers Might Sign-and-Trade Marquis
2. Indiana Loses One They Should Have Won: Bucks Beat Pacers 94-90
3. “Indiana Was Not Able to Get It All Together,” Says Grizzlies Owner About Failed OJ Mayo Trade

Then things got increasingly sloppy and the increasingly bad play of Roy Hibbert (2 points on 1-for-10 shooting and 0-for-0 from the line, 3 rebounds and 3 turnovers in 24 minutes) started to make it look like the Pacers would lose. It just started to feel like Indy had blown too many opportunities to put away a team that wasn’t playing well. Someone was going to have to win this one, and the Pacers looked just as uninterested in doing so as the Hornets.

As it so often does, it came down to the end.

Neither team executed beautifully throughout the final two minutes, but each team made some big plays. In the video below, I’ve done a breakdown of the final six possessions, highlighting both the good and the bad points for the Pacers.

Here’s a complementary written breakdown from Tim Donahue on the pick-and-pop from CP3 and David West that put New Orleans up by 1 with 3 seconds to play.

The Hornets run that play better than anyone else in the league, and Paul and West are the best pick-and-roll/pick-and-pop combination in the game. They executed it perfectly.

Foster was staying in the lane, and West came all the way out the three-point line to set the pick. Ford tried to go under, but West actually hopped a little to his right and caught Ford — hanging him up for a second. It was an illegal screen, but the type that never gets called. (Watch a replay of Foster sliding to his right to try to set a screen for Danny on the following play.)

Paul, meanwhile slides at an angle towards the elbow, creating enough space so to make it hard to cover both players. After Ford gets disengaged from West, he frantically tries to recover, and then — and this makes the play — Paul pump fakes a shot. The pump fake does two crucial things.

First, it gets Ford in the air and moving between Paul and the basket, which opens up a pristine passing lane to get the ball back to West. Second, it gets Foster to take one step up to challenge the shot — a half-jump that delays his recovery to West just enough to make sure West doesn’t have to rush it.

Beautiful work by the best in the business at it.

The other big thing was what New Orleans did with the other three guys. They got them completely out of the play. The wings — Jarrett Jack and Marco Belinelli both stood on the the sideline outside of the three-point arc, and Okafor actually set up out of bounds on the baseline. Jack and Belinelli drifted waiting for the pass, and Okafor came in bounds directly under the basket and started pushing Posey out to get rebounding position.

It was set up so that any help besides from any of the three defenders not involved in the pick-and-roll defense would have opened up a guy for a good look at the basket — leaving Ford and Foster on an island of sorts.

I criticize the Pacers for this play a little bit in the video, but Tim’s take is definitely more nuanced. Ultimately, this play is a lot like the Andrew Bogut tip-in game-winner: really good execution. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap. (Still, TJ letting himself get man-handled that badly can’t be considered good work.)

Related posts:

1. Breaking Down Andrew Bogut’s Tip-In
2. Game #12 Recap – Too Little, Too Late
3. Pacers Weekend Recap: Breaking the Losing Streak and Getting Embarrassed

The best point guard on the planet is coming to Conseco Fieldhouse, which we just found out will not be renamed for CNO Financial (the new name of the re-branded sponsor company). This is perfect timing considering the trade proposal that 8 Points, 9 Seconds recently proposed to a Hornets 24/7 blogger during a game preview Q&A.

24/7: You are the Pacers GM and the Hornets are on the phone. We already made one deal this summer, make me another offer that benefits both teams.

Tim Donahue: We give you Conseco Fieldhouse to play in. We get Chris Paul. We’ll even deliver.

Seems fair to me.

I’m pretty tapped out for the day on this whole Pacers blogging thing, but you can read the rest of that Q&A for more on Darren Collison, James Posey and Tyler Hansbrough. If you’re not impressed enough already by CP3, check out this post on how well Chris Paul is doing so far this year statistically. Tragically, the sister and cousin of Hornets reserve guard Willie Green both died in a car accident last night on the way home from his game against the Detroit Pistons.

Our deepest sympathies go out to Willie and his family.

Pacers vs Hornets By the Numbers

Related posts:

1. Game #54 Preview: Just Win a Game
2. Game #3 Preview: The One Where The Pacers Try Not to Get Smacked in the Mouth by Melo
3. Game #9 Preview: Honey, Get Me My Business-Taking-Care-Of Shoes — We’re Going Home

It remains to be seen whether Trevor Ariza will do right by NOLA. Or, to put it another way, whether Chris Paul will be one step closer to not leaving, and the era of the super-teams kept at bay. Certainly, the Hornets think so; in trading Darren Collison, they parted with the league’s ultimate contingency plan. But the Paul situation was getting thorny, the man wanted some help, and circumstances demanded sooner, not later.

Except while all eyes were on Paul, wondering if he would squander valuable prime on a team treading water, we forgot about Indiana’s Danny Granger.

It’s okay, most people do. And unlike Paul, Granger isn’t in contention for greatest ever at his position. Yet the new, harsh logic of the NBA goes something like this: the finest players are entitled to quality teams, or else, they will join forces and form encampments of their own.

Just because Danny Granger wasn’t asking for a trade, or seen as likely to make trouble before his 2014 free agency, it doesn’t mean he lives in a different league.

Chris Paul may have Trevor Ariza to toss alley-oops to, but Granger — who should see the playoffs a few times before he retires — is the star whose needs were really addressed. The irony, of course, is that we had all spent the last month guessing at Paul’s state of mind.

Granger, however shoddy the Pacers were, never raised a fuss or forced the issue. And yet he ended up the biggest winner in the trade.

Okay, it was the Pacers who won, since the team filled their most glaring need with a top-flight player. Teams are bigger than their stars; Collison could go on to surpass Granger; no one man is bigger than an entire roster, a whole that a point guard can bring real coherence to. Yet getting Darren Collison showed that the Pacers have been paying attention.

You can’t take your stars for granted, or leave them high and dry as other teams load up. Hate the Heat if you want; it’s because of them that Indiana made sure to make a move. In the end, it’s not about player demands, empowerment, expectations, or labor issues. It’s not about competitive imbalance. It’s about teams realizing that players want to win.

Yes, I know, making it too easy to win is a sin against the sport. The more important principle at play, though, is that talent is a terrible thing to waste. That goes for players who never become who they are; it should hold equally for franchises lucky enough to land Danny Granger late in the first round. He’s shown them loyalty by committing long-term. The least they can do is reward him as they would a Chris Paul potentially looking to bounce.

I have nothing to add.

Related posts:

1. Danny Granger’s Flip Video Diary
2. Wolves Offer Al Jefferson for Danny Granger. Larry Bird “Immediately” Turns It Down
3. Danny Granger Featured as a Guest Writer for SLAM Magazine’s “How to Improve Every Year”

TrueHoop will be posting some of our responses in the coming days, but I wanted to share this with you in advance since me and you are tight like that. So even though this isn’t Pacers-related at all, here ya go: The reason I love watching the Hornets.

The devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused throughout New Orleans in 2005 represented the most unforgivable breach of fiduciary duty I had ever witnessed. So it was through the lens of recent tragedy that I was delighted to watch, just a few short months later, the all-world ascension of Chris Paul, a player to whom I would donate both my kidneys if necessary. Basketball, of course, is no elixir for recovery, but if there was one place that deserved the unique joys that only a pure point guard can provide, it was NOLA.

I was instantly hooked.

In Paul’s third year, I must have watched 40 Hornets games and, much to my surprise, David West and Tyson Chandler evolved into more than just role players. They were legitimate forces in the NBA. The CP3-to-Chandler alley oop, aka the Crescent City Connection, became my nightly highlight delight as West’s mid-range accuracy and Peja’s Barry-Pepper-in-Saving-Private-Ryansque marksmanship spaced the floor for Paul to dribble wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

As we now know, however, the wheels came off the ’07-08 Nawlins’ team in Game 7 against the Spurs. Then, last season marked a downtrodden decline back to mediocrity as injuries decimated the roster and Tyson Chandler became a shell of his former self.

Still, with Paul at the helm, Emeka Okafor bringing new blood to town and the city still enamored with the NBA, there’s no other team I would rather watch win than the Hornets — aside from my beloved Pacers that is.

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