Posted by Royce Young This shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Sean Deveney of Sporting News spoke with Hornets head coach Monty Williams recently and when asked about Chris Paul's summer trade demands, Williams said Paul never asked for any such thing.
"You can say it has settled down now, but it was settled before that," Williams told Sporting News. "For me, it was never an issue. Chris never said anything about a trade. He never asked for a trade. He wants us to be a better team, but we all want that and Dell [Demps] and I are going to do all that we can to make it a better team. We're going to make this a better team with Chris here."
Yeeeeeah, surrrrrrre. So what we're all those meetings about this summer? Why did Dell Demps scramble to make a move for Trevor Ariza?
But I mean, what's Williams supposed to say when someone asks him if Chris Paul asked to be traded? "Yeah he did. He totally wanted out but somehow we talked him in to staying here for a while. Or at least we told him that he still has two years on his contract and there's nothing he can do until then."
Or CP3 might have just said, "Get better or I'm out." That's not technically an official trade demand, but more of an ultimatum. So Williams might not even be fibbing in a technical sense.
There's of course the possibility that all of Paul's trade talk was just something to push new Hornets management in an aggressive direction. Maybe he didn't have any real intentions of leaving New Orleans, but just wanted to give ownership and the front office a little kick in the pants.
And in the end, it doesn't necessarily matter. Paul is in New Orleans for the time being and Demps is trying to put together a competitive roster that will keep his star happy. All signs say that CP3 at some point wanted out of New Orleans, but Demps made some moves, said some good things and at least for the immediate future, Chris Paul is a Hornet.
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