Although there are some teams like the Spurs who have taken precautions and made preparations in advance, most teams did not take action before the suspension.
Because they don't know how long the season will be suspended.
So as soon as the lockout ended, every team started to take action, trading or signing free agents one after another.
However, there are not many big fish in the free market this year, so there are not many big transactions.
The only shocker was the Paul trade.
Paul is the Hornets' top player and the top point guard in the league.
Paul played for the Hornets for a total of 6 seasons. He was a rookie in 2005. Although he was once a popular candidate for the No. 1 pick, he eventually fell to No. 4 due to his height. Among Bogut, Marvin Williams and
After Deron Williams.
But when the NBA game officially started, people found that everyone underestimated Paul's ability, or overestimated the impact of height on Paul.
People were surprised to find that Paul won the Western Conference Rookie of the Year honor throughout the entire season. From November to April of the following year, no rookie could challenge Paul.
Therefore, there is no doubt that Paul, who averaged 16.1 points and 7.8 assists per game, became the Rookie of the Year in the 2005-06 season.
This is just the beginning. Paul's glorious road continues. In his second season, Paul improved his statistics to 17.3 points and 8.9 assists. In his third season, he averaged 21.1 points, 11.6 assists, and 2.7 steals per game. He ranked fourth.
This season, he averaged 22.8 points, 11.0 assists, and 2.8 steals per game...
The dazzling statistics and personal performance made Paul quickly become the number one point guard of the new generation in the league. He and Deron became the new generation of Nash and Kidd, and became the new myths passed down by people.
Of course, all this came to an abrupt end with the emergence of Curry.
Curry immediately took over the first point guard position after his appearance, which made Paul's shine dim in comparison.
Historically, Paul was also very jealous of Curry. Every time he played against the Warriors, he tried his best to prove his strength.
However, the results were not ideal.
Paul also did well in terms of leadership record. In the 2007-08 season, he led the Hornets to the playoffs. This year, they easily eliminated the Mavericks, who were at a low point, in the first round, and fought against the Spurs in the second round.
After 7 rounds, he was finally defeated.
Although he lost, Paul's performance was still recognized by everyone. In the playoffs, Paul averaged 24.1 points, 11.3 assists, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.3 steals per game.
The next year, Paul continued his performance and led the Hornets to the playoffs again, but this time they lost to the Nuggets.
Since then, due to the overall strength of the team and Paul himself being affected by injuries, the team's performance has fluctuated.
This past season, due to the team's No. 2 player David West being injured for the season, the Hornets also unfortunately lost the playoffs and ended up ranked ninth, failing to enter the playoffs.
Paul's career in the Hornets can be said to be brilliant. He once scored 43 points in a single game twice. He had 9 steals in a single game against the Mavericks in 2008. In 2007, he gave up a career-high score against the Lakers.
21 assists, and with his sharp breakthroughs, he once created 17 free throw opportunities in a single game.
In addition to the above honors, Paul won 4 All-Star Games in 6 years with the Hornets, one Rookie First Team, one All-Defensive First Team, two All-Defensive Second Teams, and the most
Importantly, once the All-NBA first team, once the All-NBA second team, once the All-NBA third team.
Although it has only been six seasons, Paul has already left his name in the history of this team.
But unfortunately, Paul eventually left the Hornets.
In fact, Paul has wanted to leave the Hornets for a long time, but he has been unable to achieve his wish due to various reasons.
Why?
Because New Orleans is a relatively small market, the Hornets are a small-market team with limited influence, and stadium attendance is very dismal.
In addition, the Hornets are under league trusteeship.
The former controlling owner of the Hornets was team founder George Sheehan. Sheehan moved the team from Charlotte to New Orleans in 2002. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. After experiencing a battle with cancer,
, he decided not to be a team owner anymore and wanted to sell the Hornets and devote himself to charities fighting cancer.
Last year, Sheehan began preparing to sell the team's controlling stake to Joe Este, another minority shareholder of the team. However, in view of the current uncertainty of the economic conditions in New Orleans and Louisiana, Joe Este decided not to purchase the team.
En's controlling interest.
At that time, league president Stern pointed out that the league always hopes to do something for a city like New Orleans that has experienced hurricane disasters. In other words, the NBA does not want New Orleans to be moved away by foreign buyers because of the Hornets after the hurricane.
And suffered a blow.
On the other hand, the league did not want to see the Hornets sold at a low price, so it temporarily took over the team and waited until someone local wanted to buy the team before selling it.
As a result, the Hornets became the first team in the NBA's more than 60-year history to be fully owned by the league.
In other words, the Hornets do not have an owner, and all major matters need to be decided jointly by all owners in the league.
How well a team is run depends largely on the owner's financial strength and investment in the team.
In such a team with no future, it must be disorganized and without much cohesion.
Role players who don't have the ability can only resign themselves to their fate, while those who have the ability want to leave.
So Paul wanted to leave the Hornets very early.
Just after the lockout ended, a big deal was revealed on December 9th, Beijing time: the Hornets would send Paul to the Lakers, the Lakers would send Pau Gasol to the Rockets, and the Hornets would get Lamar Odom and Kevin
Martin, Luis Scola, Goran Dragic and a first-round pick.
This news immediately shocked the entire alliance!
Paul is one of the best guards in the league, and he is at his peak, while Kobe has not suffered any serious injuries and is in excellent shape.
If these two people get together in the Lakers, the Lakers may regain their glory.
Once they get Paul, will the Lakers go for Dwight Howard next? The Lakers' Super Big Three are very exciting.
But seeing that the two were about to cooperate, Stern suddenly stopped the deal!
The official explanation given by the NBA actually only has two words: basketball reason—basketball reason!
Outside media were the first to report that many NBA team owners were forcing Stern to suspend the transaction. However, this statement was quickly denied by the league. They claimed that the decision was made after internal discussions in the league office.
There is no such thing as "the boss organizes a group to force the palace".
The person most affected by this incident is undoubtedly Paul. CP3 has publicly expressed his anger and dissatisfaction with the league. He stated that he will never report to the Hornets training camp, and has appealed to the players union and plans to sue with union director Billy Hunter.
The NBA uses legal means to protect its rights.
Many people also question the league, saying that other teams are jealous of the Lakers, and this is completely jealous.
In fact, the Hornets were in a league-managed state at that time, and all teams had a share of management rights for the team's major affairs. If the general manager sold the top card at a bargain price, the team would not be able to sell at a good price, and all the owners would bear the losses together.
!
Of course, there is only one winner, and that is the Lakers! They earned an All-Star player!
Therefore, even if other team owners really come out to object, there is no problem!
This is to avoid the loss of real money and has nothing to do with jealousy.
It's no problem from Stern's point of view.
Because of Stern's status as the president of the Alliance, we can regard him as the representative elected by the 30 Hornets owners.
In this case, it turns out that the general manager of a certain team wants to trade with the Lakers and give the team's top card to the Lakers at a cheap price. In exchange, he only gets a first-round draft pick and a few not-so-good players!
Dragic is not bad, Scola, and Martin are also good, but none of the three can be regarded as the core players of the team, and both Scola and Martin have big contracts of three or four years!
So the team's "owner" immediately vetoed the deal.
If you remove the name, do you think what Stern did makes more sense?
Stern later explained in an interview: "At that time, the NBA was temporarily in charge of the Hornets, and I was running the team for these owners. I was the owner's representative. At that time, I had made a commitment to Paul that I would trade him. He has always been a famous player.
Very good player, a great community representative, but that deal was done without anyone monitoring the team, at least that deal was negotiated without authorization, and it didn't happen in the end.
Because someone asked me, 'Are we going to do this deal?' and I said, 'No, we're not going to do it,' so the deal didn't happen."
Stern continued: "Because we didn't get enough in return. In fact, at that weekend, we thought we could renegotiate the deal. We really thought that the Rockets would give more chips, and we had negotiated
Well, there was a trade for Odom. This trade could bring us a good draft pick, but Lakers general manager Kupchak panicked at the time and sent Odom to the Mavericks, so there was no more at that time.
Negotiable leverage! That's it, that's what it was about that deal that wasn't good enough for the Hornets."
Looking at the entire incident, we can see that although it is a pity that Paul failed to join forces with Kobe, there is no problem for the league to stop the deal.
In fact, just a few days after the deal was called off, on December 15, 2011, the Clippers offered far better bargaining chips than the Lakers.
Specifically, the Hornets acquired forward Aminu, guard Eric Gordon, center Chris Kaman and an unprotected first-round draft pick from the Clippers.
The Clippers acquired Chris Paul and two 2015 second-round picks from the Hornets.
Gordon is the best performer among the three players acquired by the Hornets. He averaged 22.3 points per game last season and was the Clippers' leading scorer. He also averaged 2.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. He has a three-year career.
His career statistics are 18.1 points and 3.3 assists.
Eric Gordon has proven last season that he is a first-class shooting guard. As the seventh overall pick in the first round of 2008, Gordon averaged 16.1 points and 2.8 assists per game in his rookie season. Last season
Gordon broke out in full force. Although he suffered from injuries for a period of time, the problem was not major.
Gordon ranked 13th in the NBA's scoring list last season, trailing only Wade, Kobe Bryant, Monta Ellis and Kevin Martin in scoring position.
Gordon undoubtedly has the ability to grow into the league's top shooting guard. He is the Clippers' second-best player, second only to Griffin.
Although Kevin Martin scored higher, the Hornets sent Paul away to rebuild. They definitely want a young cornerstone player.
Kaman is also outstanding as a center. He only played 32 games last season due to injury, but he still averaged 12.4 points, 7 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 1.4 assists per game. His performance was very comprehensive.
As long as Kaman can stay healthy, he will perform as a first-line center. After sending Gordon, the Clippers added Kaman, who can attack and defend, and they spent a lot of money in trading Paul.
In addition, the Clippers also sent forward Aminu, the eighth overall pick in the first round last season. He averaged 5.6 points and 3.3 rebounds in 81 games last season. He is a rookie with excellent athletic talent.
After sending away three players, the Clippers also gave the Hornets an unprotected first-round pick in 2012 (from the Timberwolves). If the Timberwolves' record in the new season is not ideal, this pick will be a very high draft pick.
.
Judging from the Clippers' bargaining chip, they sent an All-Star player, a first-line center and a potential second-year forward, plus a draft pick that is likely to be a high pick.
Overall, the bargaining chip provided by the Clippers is much better and more reasonable than that of the Lakers.
Of course, judging from Paul's performance and strength, and analyzing the Clippers' needs, the Clippers are undoubtedly the winners of this deal.
When Paul is healthy, he is undoubtedly the league's top point guard.
What Griffin of the Clippers needs is a point guard like Paul to pass the ball for him. With Paul and Griffin teaming up, the current Clippers are fully capable of defeating the aging Lakers after Odom left. In the new season
The Clippers are expected to overwhelm the Lakers in the Los Angeles Derby.
For the Hornets, there is nothing they can do about this transaction, because they want to stop the loss, and the less they lose, the better.
The completion of this deal also shocked the entire league.
The collaboration between Paul and Kobe failed, and the Alley-oop City was born!
…
Paul left, and David West, another Hornets general, didn't want to stay.
Before Paul officially joined the Clippers, that is, on December 12, 2011, "ESPN" reporter Mark Stern confirmed that the Celtics and Hornets' sign-and-trade deal for David West had been completed.
Bankruptcy. On the contrary, the Pacers stepped in strongly and signed West for 2 years and 20 million US dollars.
West performed well for the Hornets last season, averaging 18.9 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game, making him the second-leading player of the Hornets.
Despite being sidelined with a torn cruciate ligament before the end of the season and missing the playoffs, David West is still a hot figure on this year's free agent market.
The departures of Paul and West also kicked off the Hornets' reconstruction.
This is the tragedy of a team in a small market. They mess up and rebuild, develop a star, and then send them out to continue to mess up and rebuild...