Hornets, Chris Paul keep saying he’s not on the trading block. Everyone else thinks he will be soon.

Once again today, someone from the front office of the New Orleans Hornets tried to shoot down Chris Paul trade rumors. ESPN’s Marc Stein tweeted about it:

Hornets prez Hugh Weber, at event WITH Chris Paul, when asked if it’s 100 percent CP3 starts next season as a Hornet: “No question, yes.”

The guys from Fox 8 in New Orleans asked Paul about being back and how much fans wanted him to be back

“Met too. I hope so too. Just like I said, I would love to be here and hope I am here.”

And yet, the trade offers keep pouring in. Portland was rumored to be close (Andre Miller, Joel Przybilla, Nicolas Batum, Jerryd Bayless and the 22nd pick to New Orleans for Paul and Emeka Okafor). New Jersey tried. Cleveland (where he could be reunited with Byron Scott, who he likes a lot). Orlando. Each time the Hornets say no.

But the time may come -- and it may come sooner than Hornets fans want to think about -- that CP3 starts to force a trade.

Two factors will play into this (and they are related):

First, when does the ownership situation get resolved? Or, more to the point, does it? Gary Chouest was going to buy the Hornets off penny-pinching George Shinn two months ago, and yet a deal has not gone through. There have been reports that Shinn wants Chouest to take on a lot of debt as part of the transaction and that is the holdup. The other factor is Chouest is the owner of Edison Chouest Offshore, a company that does offshore oil work in the Gulf of Mexico (as well as shipbuilding and more). His firm had nothing to do with the BP oil spill, but that disaster has hit that region and businesses like his hard. He is working to bring minority investors in with him now.

Which brings us to question number two: Do the Hornets have the money to build a champion? They won’t with Shinn at the helm, and it is fair to question if the Chouest deal will go through at this point. If it does, Chouest has been rumored to be willing to spend on building. But how much?

Paul wants to win. He watches this summer’s free agent moves and sees guys with the chance to go somewhere and win and he gets a little jealous. He wants to win in New Orleans and said so again yesterday. He added that wants his team to go after some of those free agents. But right now the Hornets sit on their hands. If that’s not going to change, at some point he will force the Hornets to take the trade offers more seriously.