While this morning, Hornets fans may have been able to convince themselves that Wednesday night's report was another in a series of exaggerated rumors surrounding their superstar point guard, 12 hours later, it's clear that there's some substance to the rumors. We still haven't heard from Paul directly, but clearly, something's up.
From the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Paul's camp elaborates:
“No one from our camp has said that Chris demanded a trade,’’ a source close to Paul said Thursday. "But they (Hornets) have not put themselves in position to win this season. We have the same team as last year, basically. The only thing that matters to Chris is winning.’’
The source said Paul continues to be concerned about the Hornets’ slow movement in free agency in spite of the hiring of General Manager Dell Demps on Wednesday and Coach Monty Williams. The Hornets' only free agent move this offseason was re-signing backup center Aaron Gray.
Mind you, the source says:
"Nobody from our camp has said that Chris demanded a trade."
The source does NOT say:
"Chris hasn't demanded a trade."
That, and we all knew New Orleans had a quiet offseason, but God. When you say "re-signed Aaron Gray" out loud, it just sounds so much more damning. Hopefully both sides will get this worked out when they meet on Monday. Because make no mistake, there's definitely something that needs to get worked out.