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ESPN.com's John Hollinger and ESPN the Magazine's Chris Broussard are doing projections and previews for all 30 NBA teams and have ranked the Hornets as the 14th best.

Here is the Hornets relevant portion of the predictions:

14. New Orleans Hornets

The More Things Change: First and foremost, Chris Paul, who missed 37 games because of injury last season, is back, though he's not necessarily happy about returning to New Orleans. The Hornets' point guard wants to play for a contender, and new GM Dell Demps, along with new head coach Monty Williams, have tried to make moves to appease their superstar. They traded away his backup, Darren Collison, to bring in Trevor Ariza and sent Julian Wright to Toronto for Marco Belinelli. Both Ariza and Belinelli are young and full of potential. The hope is that with Paul getting them open looks, they'll finally tap their upside with the Hornets.

The More They Stay the Same: If Marcus Thornton can improve on his pleasantly surprising rookie year, in which he averaged nearly 20 points over the last three months of the season, the Hornets could have their best backcourt in recent memory. That would make the already-solid big-man tandem of Emeka Okafor and David West that much better, and with Ariza aboard, Peja Stojakovic can perhaps fill the role of sniper off the bench. Basketball-wise, it doesn't look as bad as many might think. But off the court, it's a mess, as the ownership transfer from George Shinn to Gary Chouest continues to hit stumbling blocks. Closure for this club won't come until Chouest is running the team."

A few other notes-

• Although it's better than league average, there are still 8 teams expected to be ahead than the Bees out west, which would leave them on the outside looking in come playoff time.
• Marcus Thornton is projected to lead the team in points per minute.
• Ariza is projected to average 15.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per 40 minutes
• Louis Amundson is expected to make a decision this week between the Pacers, Warriors and Hornets. "We're getting close to doing something," his agent, Mark Bartelstein, said. "I think we'll get something done with Louis this week."
• Rondo is off the Olympic team. Take that for what it is.
  

About a week ago I sat down, thinking about writing something about 'Melo, but opted against it. The lingering hatred of the Chris Paul rumors stopped me for a while, but with each passing day more and more experts are mentioning New Orleans as a possible landing place for Carmelo and I can't help but feel excited that the Hornets are being mentioned as a destination.

Let's start with going over the differences in the situations so nobody bites my head off. 'Melo is about to be a free agent. His contract expires after this season if he decides to not pick up his player's option. That's about 9 months away at this point, assuming the Nuggets don't surprise anyone by making a deep run. If they want to get good value on him they need to move now. There just isn't time to re-tool and convince him to stay, and there's no guarantee that he wants to stick around even if the team was better.

To be fair, ESPN is now reporting that Chauncey Billups talked to 'Melo, and is claiming that he's happy in Denver. Well, actually it just says that he loves the team, loves the fans, and loves the City. Some, including myself, can see Anthony following those statements with "but I'm just not in love with you."

I'm making that up entirely, but wouldn't it just make sense to hear it? The guy has a 3 year, $65 million dollar deal on the table with a looming expiration date on it  - and he hasn't touched it.

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In February 2009, I posted a mock interview with Chris Paul, addressing all the times he's tumbled to the floor, arms flailing, at the lightest of bumps.  Here are the pertinent parts:

Ryan: It sure looked like you were in pain on the court - what's up with that?
Paul: Well, you know how it is.  Just tryin' to keep pace.  You got me?
Ryan: Uh . . . no?
Paul: Well, I'm just tryin to keep up with Bron and Kobe, ya know?  Kobe's got that glamorous LA scene and everything, and his jersey is all popular and stuff.  Bron's got all those commercials and that whole Global Icon thing going on.  I'm just tryin to carve out my niche.
Ryan: By pretending your injury is worse than it is?
Paul: No man.  Acting!  I'm tryin' to be an actor.  I mean, Ray Allen's got nothing on me . . . have you seen my smile?  Everyone loves my smile, man.
Ryan: It's a nice smile, Chris.
Paul: Really?  You're not just saying that, right?
Ryan: Really, Chris. It's nice.
Paul: That's good, my mom always complimented me on my smile and all, but it's good to get outside confirmation.
Ryan: No problem . . . so, uh, are you aiming for movies then or something? TV?
Paul: Naw.  That's been done.  I'm gonna hit Broadway.
Ryan: Broadway?  Really?
Paul: Yeah - I was up there a week ago, hanging with Bron as he was looking for a cool place to move into, and I saw this play, Billy Elliot, ya know?  It touched me man.  This poor, struggling kid, everyone around him all dirt poor and stuff - and he just wants to dance.  And no one, I mean no one understood him.  He just wanted to dance, man.  Just wanted to dance . . .
Ryan: Are you crying?
Paul: *sniffle* No!  Shut up!
Ryan: Sorry.
Paul: Anyways, I wanna be the lead of that show.  I got moves on the court, off the court, everywhere, you better believe I got them on the stage.  You've never seen a guy who can dance like me.  I'd be perfect.

Well, you know, ya’ll thought I was kidding.  But I wasn’t. 

Here’s Paul dancing and then getting love from the ladies on the show So You Think you Can Dance. 

Amazing, eh?  Apparently, the show is calling him “Adechike Torbert”, but really, who among us is going to buy that?  Just look at that Grin!  It's Chris Paul through and through.  Oh, and have you ever heard a more made-up name than "Adechike"?

Wait, so you’re still not convinced?  Well here’s “Adechike” doing the “assist point” to one of the Choreographers in the crowd, just like he does when he catches an outlet pass and finishes in transition.  Straight off the basketball court, I tell you.

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This will be the last column I write on a possible CP3 trade- I PROMISE. Like many of you I am sick of hearing about it, reading about it, being asked about it, and speculating on it. But I am a sucker for playing Devil’s Advocate and after reading Ryan’s amazing column on possible CP3 trades and the subsequent comments left by Hornet fans, I just cannot resist.

When the crowd all seems to be going one way, I immediately start exploring the opposite direction and whether people are pro-CP3 trade or anti-CP3 trade, there seems to be a built in belief that the worst case scenario would be to lose Chris Paul in 2012 without getting anything in return. This nightmare scenario is why we are discussing trading CP3 in the first place, right? Nobody would seriously consider Gallinari and Randolph or Nelson and Vinsanity for the best PG on the planet if this fear weren’t lurking in the background. Losing Chris Paul in two years while getting nothing back in return is a risk Hornets fans are afraid to take, but is it really the worst case scenario?

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The inescapable truth for this off-season is that Chris Paul trade rumors will fly until he is moved or the Hornets take the floor in October for their opening game.  That, of course, will be frustrating for many Hornets fans, and depressing for others.  For a while, I've been sitting in the 'depressing' camp, but now I'm past that, and instead of dwelling on Paul leaving, I decided to take advantage of the ESPN TrueHoop Network and solicit the network's Team Bloggers for their best offers for Paul. 

A good half of them responded, and here are the offers, ranked and grouped in logical fashion, and accompanied by my own mockery analysis.  One blogger, who opens up our bidding, didn't even go after Paul, but instead tried to give Paul to someone else and steal West in the process.

Group 1: Hahahaha . *gasp* . . hee hee . . . wait, you're serious?

Offer #13 Brendan Jackson of Celtics Hub

Team	Offers	Receives
Boston Celtics	Rasheed Wallace and no one I've ever heard of	David West. Oh - and Paul goes to Indiana for Danny Granger.

Thanks, Brendan for the laughs.  Somehow I don't think trading Paul and David West for Granger and Rasheed Wallace's retirement party would do much for New Orleans.  For more info about Jackson's offer, take a gander over at his site.

Offer #12 John Krolik of Cavs: the Blog

Team	Offer	Receive
Cleveland Cavaliers	$11.5 Million Trade Exception, JJ Hickson, Mo Williams, Leon Powe, Danny Green	Chris Paul, Emeka Okafor

Sigh.  I weep for Cleveland.

Group 2: And that helps the Hornets rebuild . . . how?

Offer #11 Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game

Team	Offer	Receive
Dallas Mavericks	Tyson Chandler, $3 million cash, 2 2nd round picks	Emeka Okafor
Dallas Mavericks	Caron Butler, JJ Barea, Deshawn Stevenson, Rodrigue Beaubois, 3 million cash, 2 1st rounders	Paul and Pose

The fact this has to be two trades tells you everything you need to know about it:  They have to break it into two trades so they can give the Hornets enough cash to hide the fact that other than one undersized, unproven PG, none of the players being given to the Hornets are likely to be there a year later, and that the draft picks will be nearly worthless.  For more on Rob's offer and hopes for landing CP3, see his post about Castles on a Cloud.

Offer #10 Michael Schwartz of ValleyoftheSuns

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