According to an ESPN report, that appears to be confirmed by Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski as well, the three team trade that would send Chris Paul to play for Mike Brown’s Los Angeles Lakers has been resubmitted to the League office for approval.
One form of this “Chris Paul trade” was previously vetoed by David Stern late this week, a move that was supported by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert in an email to the commissioner. The terms of this trade, or more directly how and why it’s different from the last one, are not specifically known at this time.
This is what ESPN’s Chris Broussard and Marc Stein are reporting though:
The New Orleans Hornets’ three-team trade with the Los Angeles Lakers andHouston Rockets that would land Chris Paul in L.A. has been resubmitted to the league office for approval, according to sources close to the talks.
The specific changes to the original trade scenario were not immediately available, but sources told ESPN.com that a reconfigured trade has been presented by the league-owned Hornets to NBA commissioner David Stern in hopes that he’ll approve this construction after vetoing Thursday’s trade in principle.
Woj has also added that the structural changes in the deal will come between the Lakers and Hornets according to his sources, which basically means the Rockets still get Gasol and probably still deal Kevin Martin and Luis Scola primarily.
I don’t think it should be automatically assumed that Dan Gilbert will explode in rage if Chris Paul does eventually get dealt here though. That depends on what the Lakers are forced to give up. The part of Gilbert’s email that is overlooked in my opinion by most people is this line:
I cannot remember ever seeing a trade where a team got by far the best player in the trade and saved over $40 million in the process. And it doesn’t appear that they would give up any draft picks, which might allow to later make a trade for Dwight Howard.
Now to be clear, I don’t think the NBA should have vetoed this deal in the first place. That’s too much meddling in my opinion, and almost solidifies notions like the Patrick Ewing lottery was rigged and all that kind of stuff. That said though, I also don’t think that simply pairing Chris Paul with Kobe Bryant in his 16th season at the cost of both Gasol and Odom make the Lakers a super-team either.
Both Bryant and Paul are ball dominant players, they each need to have it in their hands during the last five minutes of games, and that would be a tougher adjustment than people think. LA does become a super-team if they are able to add Paul and Howard though, obviously, and I think that had a lot to do with why owners like Dan Gilbert were against this trade earlier this week. The position it put them in to make the next trade, more than simply just getting Chris Paul.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens when the League makes a decision on this one though to know that for sure.
