The Chris Paul Trade Debacle
The NBA season is almost ready to begin and teams are making deals and trying to get their rosters ready. Emphasis on trying.
The Celtics were interested in trying to make a deal for point guard for the New Orleans Hornets Chis Paul. Thursday night reports were that a three-team trade sending Chris Paul from Hornets to Lakers was done, but NBA commissioner David Stern rejected the deal.
Gary Washburn joined Toucher & Rich to discuss what went on with the Chris Paul deal and what are the big stories heading in to Celtics training camp.
"The Hornets are owned by the NBA because their owner wanted to sell and the league bought the team and they wanted to spruce it up and then sell it to an interested buyer, and potentially keep the team in New Orleans. So when they executed this trade all of the other 29 owners, all of whom contribute to the running of the team, had an issue with this trade because they thought it was another case of the rich getting richer with the Lakers getting an All-Star player, the Hornets and Rockets getting scraps or getting the leftovers, and the Lakers probably winning or having a chance to win another championship this year," said Washburn.
If this trade does not end up happening and this ruling doesn't get overturned, does this mean where ever Chris Paul goes all team owners will have to vote on it?
"I would hope not and I don't think so," said Washburn. "I don't know if they'd say if you send Chris Paul to the Charlotte Bobcats or the Washington Wizards or even the Warriors, a bad team in a decent market, that's okay, but here are the five teams you can't send Paul to; you can't do that."
They went on to discuss the Celtics holding their first practice later this afternoon, and what some of the big stories we should be looking at as the Celtics begin their run. It all starts with the roster, as in, who the heck is going to be on this team?
"They've got six players signed, they've got two rookies that need to be signed, they have a restricted free agent in Jeff Green that makes nine and then, yeah Dooling; that's 10. There's usually 15 guys on each roster, generally, so they need to get five guys in and they don't have any salary cap space," said Washburn.
Are the Celtics going to re-sign Glen Davis? And could we see the return of Brian Scalabrine? Hear what Gary Washburn had to say when T&R brought up a Scal Reunion!
