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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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As Monty Williams continues assembling what appears to be a talented group of assistants, one name remains missing. Former Hornets assistant Robert Pack, credited by both Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton as crucial in their development last season, has yet to sign with a basketball team for the coming season.

If Monty's brief track record of cleaning house is any indication, there won't be an announcement that Pack is returning. The Hornets have yet to retain a single coach from last year, in what is likely an attempt to cleanse the locker of of any lingering resentment from last year, and an effort to eliminate the mentality from the Bower era.

While Monty Williams isn't the first coach to completely clean house, and won't be the last, it seems unwise not to retain a coach as obviously talented and familiar with the team as Pack. The New Orleans native is a 13 year NBA veteran and has coached for only a single season. Despite being new to the coaching game, Pack played a huge role in the development of the rookies, both of whom gave the Hornets considerably more than was expected.

Earlier this summer I asked Marcus Thornton about Robert Pack and all of a sudden Thornton, who had been rather emotionless up to that point, seemed genuinely interested in the conversation.

Joe: I wanted to ask a little about Robert Pack and the role he played in your development.

Marcus: Ah man, he was huge. Me and DC will both vouch for him. I hope he's back because he was a big part of our success last year.

Joe: Anything specific?

Marcus: He was just there when we needed him. He brought us in hours and hours before practice and just made us do what we had to do to get better. He was a player once, so he knows what he's doing out there.

The Hornets had no comment when asked about Pack. What do you think? Is it worth it to bring back Robert Pack, or should the team continue it's complete house cleaning?

All summer long Hornets fans waited, speculated, and then waited some more for the franchise to open up it's pocketbook. Finally, on July first the opening bell rang and the money started flowing out, for most teams anyway. A month later, the Hornets faithful were left with only the taste of Luther Head lingering on their breath, afraid to even open their mouths for fear of letting a realistic Chris Paul trade rumor in by accident.

Now that the Paul rumors have come and gone yet again, Hornets fans can continue to look to add pieces to a nearly complete puzzle. Monty Williams and company seem content to head into the season with the current roster, but there are still a few holes that need to be filled before the team can truly be called complete.

Starting Lineup

PG- Chris Paul- Feels nice to type that and know that it's going to be true (knocks on wood).

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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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