Chris Paul’s(notes) agent informed New Orleans officials on Wednesday that his client will not sign a contract extension and wants to be traded to the New York Knicks, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

As soon as the NBA lifts its lockout restrictions, Hornets general manager Dell Demps wants to meet with Paul and hear that directive from him.

Nevertheless, the prospects of the Hornets executing a trade with the Knicks appear to be relatively dim. The Knicks simply don’t have the trade assets that come close to meeting New Orleans’ criteria for a deal. Demps has been listening to overtures from teams around the league, and has been actively working under the assumption that Paul would reject a contract extension.

The Hornets have no intention of letting Paul walk away at season’s end without trying to get maximum value for him. There are several teams, including the Boston Celtics, that could be willing to make a deal for Paul with the hope of convincing him to eventually sign an extension.

The Hornets will be motivated to make a deal as soon as possible for Paul, and aren’t completely determined to get a point guard in return for him, sources said. They’re willing to play Jarrett Jack(notes) as the starter for the rest of the season, and mostly want to gather the best possible package of overall talent and draft picks.

Paul has reached out to Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard(notes) recently, encouraging Howard to find a way for the two to play together, sources told Yahoo! Sports. That would be a difficult scenario for the Knicks to make happen. Paul’s desire to join the Knicks was cemented after he spent so much time in New York over the summer with close friend, Carmelo Anthony(notes).

Paul’s representatives are selling teams in addition to the Knicks on finding a way to acquire Howard and Paul, league sources said. However, one team executive said: “It’s pretty one-sided from Chris Paul’s camp. I don’t think that Dwight is buying into any of that right now. He’s not pushing it.”

If Paul were to opt out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent after this season, he could sign a maximum four-year, $74 million deal with another team. The Knicks currently would have enough salary-cap room to offer him a four-year, $55.5 million contract with a starting salary of $13 million.

Several teams, including Boston, Golden State, New Jersey and Houston have been aggressive in trying to find a way to make a trade for Paul.

If we some end up w/ CP3, Amare, Melo a GM who isnt a total donkey and Dolan's $$$ and we will have some good years of damn good hoops!

Plus I will never again mention how lame the Melo trade was (of course we have no more assets to trade because of it)

Boston is not going to be the answer cuz once they get him they'll have a VERY short window to win a title and then it's rebuilding.

Golden State already has great guards and can't win a title, why would he go there. They don't have enough talent overall.

New Jersey I don't quite understand why they're involved. They already have Deron and should concentrate on finding a way to keep him.

Houston is a team full of overachievers, but there's no real high level talent there.

Sure NO can get better packages from those other cities, but it won't be better for Paul, so why would he agree to go to any of them? They need to face facts. They like Denver aren't going to get the best possible deal. They can only get the best NY has to offer. I doubt any city will do what NJ did in taking Deron without an extension to lock him in. That was just stupid IMO. It's WAY too risky.

Star Players are still in control of where they go when they get to Free Agency. Paul has the final say and if he's willing to take less in order to go where he wants to go, then NO has to make a deal and get something rather than lose him for nothing.

Moonangie wrote:

fishmike wrote:whats not to love?

If we some end up w/ CP3, Amare, Melo a GM who isnt a total donkey and Dolan's $$$ and we will have some good years of damn good hoops!

Plus I will never again mention how lame the Melo trade was (of course we have no more assets to trade because of it)

Yes, it was lame, and I will never support it. However, since the plan was clearly a three amigos one, then we would have had to renounce all of the players we lost anyway. So in that light, it wasn't such a bad move. Plus Melo still has game and should for the next few years.

AnubisADL wrote:Pretty sure Melo stated he would have taken the extension from the Nets.

CHAOS wrote:If CP3 tells it like it is, then Demps will work it out with NY

Not sure I see how the Knicks can be involved in any trades. Billups' $14mil deal could provide a team some cap space. Outside of that, there's nothing in our cupboard worth mentioning.

fishmike wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:Pretty sure Melo stated he would have taken the extension from the Nets.

then you sign Tyson Chandler or Nene, put a bigman next to Amare with your cap space and have Gallo, Mos, Felton, picks etc etc to work on a trade for CP3. Thats a better team anyway. As I said when the trade went down refusing to overpay and losing him would have been just fine. Melo isnt Lebron.

It does suck that we can't put together a better offer, but you can't make assumptions that CP3 would be there or Tyson or Nene. You couldn't know that any of those players would be available nor if you could convince them to come to NY. You go get the elite players when they're available. Melo wanted to come here and was available. We all know Dolan made a worse deal than Walsh wanted. Can't cry over it tho.

Melo doesn't have to be Lebron, however, he does give you a player that can match up with Lebron and that's a FACT! Who else does that to the degree that Melo does? You have to get past this idea that we could do substantially better just cuz you don't like a guy. The idea is to form a core that you can win with and once you have an the Elite core, it's MUCH easier to put players around them to play roles.

The reality for NO is that they don't have a position of strength either. They have no real team and their star wants to move on. Paul doesn't want to go just anywhere they send him. Paul is in the drivers seat. NO can refuse to deal and lose him for nothing cuz I doubt any team would be as dumb as NJ and make a deal for CP3 without a contract extension. It almost doesn't matter what we have to offer in the end. The most we can offer them is Cap relief in the form of CB's expiring for next off season and a couple of young players in Fields and TD etc. Remember how down on the Knicks offer the Nuggets were early on? In the end they did do a deal with the Knicks who they said had nothing they wanted.
Denver only has Gallo, Moz and our likely useless 2014, 16 picks now.