So the Lakers aint getting Paul.

Rosebudd B'Dose

The Los Angeles Lakers have pulled out of the three-team deal with New Orleans and Houston that would have landed Chris Paul in L.A., according to sources close to the talks.

The reason for the Lakers' withdrawal was not immediately known.

The Hornets, Rockets and Lakers had been working for the past 48 hours to complete a reconfigured version of the trade that the teams struck Thursday that had been vetoed by NBA commissioner David Stern.

The Hornets, according to sources, will now redouble their efforts to trade Paul elsewhere. Paul can become a free agent at season's end.

One source close to the process told ESPN.com after the Lakers' withdrawal that the Clippers have emerged as an "early front-runner" to trade for the All-Star point guard.

The Lakers are now expected to turn their full focus to obtaining Dwight Howard, who has asked the Orlando Magic to trade him.

One source close to the process said that the Lakers will instead trade Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks.

The Lakers will receive unspecified draft considerations from the Mavericks in exchange for Odom, whose contract slots into the Mavericks' trade exception created in their three-team trade earlier Saturday that sent Tyson Chandler to New York.

Marc Stein is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

Follow Marc Stein on Twitter: @ESPNSteinLine

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/7340640/los-angeles-lakers-pull-trade-talks-chris-paul-according-sources

Rosebudd B'Dose

In a stunning development late Saturday night, the three-team talks between the Lakers, Rockets and Hornets that would have sent Chris Paul to Los Angeles collapsed, with the Lakers moving toward trading Lamar Odom instead to the Dallas Mavericks. Odom would be placed into the new traded player exception the Mavericks received earlier Saturday when they completed a three-team trade with New York and Washington that sent Tyson Chandler to the Knicks and Ronny Turiaf to the Wizards.
The Lakers apparently decided to move on while the league was contemplating various versions of the deal, and in doing so potentially cleared the decks to make a bid for Orlando center Dwight Howard. The initial version would have sent Lakers forward Pau Gasol to the Rockets, and sent Odom to New Orleans, with Rockets forward Luis Scola, guards Kevin Martin and Luis Scola, and a 2012 first-round pick going to the Hornets as well. But the NBA, which owns the Hornets, nixed the deal Thursday, citing “basketball reasons” for not letting it go through. The decision was derided when it was disclosed that several owners opposed the deal, thinking it gave the already talent-rich Lakers yet another superstar player, while saddling the Hornets with older and more expensive players.
Owners also were concerned, according to a management source, with the potential sale value of the team with all of the extra salaries the Hornets would be taking on over the next three years. The team had sold 10,000 season tickets this year in New Orleans Arena, and the league is looking to sell the team to an owner who will commit to keeping the team in New Orleans. The league instructed the Hornets to restart talks Friday, according to sources involved in the discussions, with an eye toward getting more young players and draft picks.
But after hours of exploring various scenarios, with the Lakers providing additional picks and the Rockets giving up some more players, the Lakers got tired of waiting.
“The league took too long to decide and may have overplayed its hand,” a source involved in the discussions said late Saturday night.
The collapse of the talks leaves the Hornets frustrated and in an incredibly difficult bind, with just six players in camp and with Paul still seeking to be dealt elsewhere. Several teams, including the Clippers and Celtics, have held off of other potential deals in the hopes that they might somehow be able to get into the Paul Sweepstakes. The Clippers believed late Saturday that there was still a way for them to get involved, but it wasn’t clear what pieces they would be willing to use to try and make an offer to New Orleans. They had adamantly refused to include guard Eric Gordon in any potential trade discussions earlier this week.
Boston had offered a package centered around guard Rajon Rondo, young players and draft picks, but the Hornets weren’t interested.
The Mavericks have already let free agents Chandler and Caron Butler go, and appear to be ready to lose reserve guard J.J. Barea leave as well, citing the need to keep as much cap room as free as possible for the summer of 2012. Odom has two seasons left on his four-year, $32 million deal he signed in 2009, but only $2.4 million of his $8.2 million salary for 2012-13 is guaranteed, which would fall in line with Dallas’ approach for next offseason.
The Lakers would have cleared more than $20 million in cap room by dealing Odom and Gasol for Paul, which many around the league believe they would have tried to use next summer on All-Pro center Dwight Howard. Now it will be much more difficult, though there is still the possibility they could send Gasol elsewhere in a separate deal.
The Lakers, however, were one of three teams that have been given permission to enter into trade talks with the representatives for Howard on Friday, so it is reasonable to assume they’d be willing to package both Gasol and center Andrew Bynum in a deal for Howard. If the Lakers agreed to take back the salary of forward Hedo Turkoglu ($10.6 million this season), the deal could be made easily.

http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2011/12/11/lakers-pull-out-of-paul-hunt/?ls=iref:nbahpt1

Mvpbrodie93

We'll gladly take him

ROFL.GUY

ROFL @ odom still gettin traded

Louis Cipher

ROFL.GUY wrote: »

ROFL @ odom still gettin traded

they have to now. odom wasnt the most mentally strong cat to begin with...and with everything thats happened the last couple days...no way the lakers can keep him now. gasol is gone too.

Monizzle14

ROFL.GUY wrote: »

ROFL @ odom still gettin traded

this nigga heartbroken and shit hahahaha

Hotnikelz

lakers should just trade pau to the rockets for all them niggas that were gonna get sent to the hornets

marc123

ROFL.GUY wrote: »

ROFL @ odom still gettin traded

......................damn

KeepOnPushing

Monizzle14 wrote: »

this nigga heartbroken and shit hahahaha

Nigga sound just like Jim Jones

coop9889

Hotnikelz wrote: »

lakers should just trade pau to the rockets for all them niggas that were gonna get sent to the hornets

And then Bynum and Odom for Dwight.

Then sign Chauncey.

Billups, Kobe, Martin/Artest, Scola, Dwight.

Get 3-4 more years from Kobe/Chauncey, 1-2 more rings. Build around Dwight when they retire.

Win.

KeepOnPushing

coop9889 wrote: »

And then Bynum and Odom for Dwight.

Then sign Chauncey.

Billups, Kobe, Martin/Artest, Scola, Dwight.

Get 3-4 more years from Kobe/Chauncey, 1-2 more rings. Build around Dwight when they retire.

Win.

Hell yea Trade Back for Odom from the Mavs , then Re-trade him for a 2nd time in a hour , that could def. work..

coop9889

KeepOnPushing wrote: »

Hell yea Trade Back for Odom from the Mavs , then Re-trade him for a 2nd time in a hour , that could def. work..

Yup. They the Lakers.. they can do what they want pretty much.

Stack Money

deadeye wrote: »

This will be an ultimate fail for them if they end up not getting Chris Paul or Dwight Howard.

It'll be the ultimate win for them if they end up gettin both.

killap

Mitch....Fix this shit please...thanks

c1up

I guess it's on the Magic and what they want, Pau and Bynum or Lopez and picks

northside7

Monizzle14 wrote: »

this nigga heartbroken and shit hahahaha

Lol @ the music playin in the background. Damn, odom lol & smh..

killap

c1up wrote: »

I guess it's on the Magic and what they want, Pau and Bynum or Lopez and picks

fuck that Pau and Bynum shit they take Bynum some picks and the trade exemption and be happy with it

J-Breezy

they said the league was taking too long to finalize the trade and they probably weren't going to anyway. they said the Lakers may have overplayed their hand so idk what they are going to do.
I think they know no matter what they do they won't be getting Paul right now so might as well try to get some other trades instead of sitting around til game day with a sure to be dysfunctional team.

Young_Chitlin

coop9889 wrote: »

And then Bynum and Odom for Dwight.

Then sign Chauncey.

Billups, Kobe, Martin/Artest, Scola, Dwight.

Get 3-4 more years from Kobe/Chauncey, 1-2 more rings. Build around Dwight when they retire.

Win.

Great lineup there, but that lame Dan Gilbert will cry foul AGAIN

Stack Money

J-Breezy wrote: »

they said the league was taking too long to finalize the trade and they probably weren't going to anyway. they said the Lakers may have overplayed their hand so idk what they are going to do.
I think they know no matter what they do they won't be getting Paul right now so might as well try to get some other trades instead of sitting around til game day with a sure to be dysfunctional team.

Well one of the things Stern wanted for the Hornets was more draft picks to make it "fair", so the Lakers coulda pulled Odom out of the trade and sent him to the Mavs for those draft picks to give to the Hornets in a new deal.

rage

LA and Paul need to sue the league....

CopperKing

stern fukcin the lakers and the hornets over out chea....now they both gotta deal with unhappy players....stern should be fired

Mvpbrodie93

At least Odom is going to Dallas instead of new orleans.

[Deleted User]

did I read they're trading odom for a first round pick from dallas ?

wtf wrong with the lakers rolling the dice like that for a first round draft pick from world champions ?

CopperKing

BoYBe$T wrote: »

did I read they're trading odom for a first round pick from dallas ?

wtf wrong with the lakers rolling the dice like that for a first round draft pick from world champions ?

I honestly think LA was just trying to get rid of odom since the deal fell through...they considered him to not be mentally tough enough to handle being traded and then coming back to the team...due to his reaction on twitter and crying on the radio that same night

Mvpbrodie93

If the clippers don't give up Gordon. Theyll have a squad.