The NBA has approved the trade sending All-Star point guard Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets to the Los Angeles Clippers.
The trade, first reported by ESPN.com’s Marc Stein, brings guard Eric Gordon, forward Al-Farouq Aminu, center Chris Kaman and a first-round draft choice to New Orleans. Here’s what ESPN.com’s Marc Stein first reported on the trade:The Clippers, sources said, will send guard Eric Gordon, center Chris Kaman, forward Al-Farouq Aminu and Minnesota’s unprotected 2012 first-round pick to the Hornets for Paul.
The Clippers will also receive two future second-round picks, according to sources.
A previous Clipper trade, as well as a deal three-team deal that would have had the Lakers trade away Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom to acquire Paul, were both vetoed by the NBA for “basketball reasons.”
The Hornets made out quite well in this trade -- Chris Kaman is a quality center, Eric Gordon is one of the league’s best young shooting guards and was the Clippers’ best non-Blake Griffin asset, Al-Farouq Aminu is young, athletic and talented, and the Minnesota pick could be a very high one in what is expected to be in a very good draft.
The Clippers are the real winners here, though. The team can now build around two superstars, and Paul and Blake Griffin should develop great chemistry with each other instantly. The uber-athletic DeAndre Jordan, who the Clippers recently re-signed to a new contract, should also benefit tremendously from having Paul to feed him the ball.
The Clippers now appear to have a surplus of point guards -- Paul, Eric Bledsoe, Chauncey Billups, and Mo Williams are all on the roster -- and a lack of wing players with Gordon and Aminu gone, even though they signed Caron Butler to a large contract this off-season already. We’ll see what Clippers GM Neil Olshey does about that situation going forward, but for now, the Paul/Griffin combination is enough to make the Clippers more exciting and relevant than they’ve been since...well, ever. The Chris Paul situation was a fiasco this off-season, but it will likely be quickly forgotten when the first Paul-Griffin alley-oop is thrown down next year.