........and if so, do we have the assets to acquire Chris Paul?

Billups and Paul's contracts match up...but what do we have left to offer a team for their star player...

we have a late first round pick...which I believe we can use to draft for them if there is someone on the board they want...yawn

....and salary cap relief with Billups expiring and any of our young players they want...Fields, Douglas...Walker...

If we take back Paul and Jarrett Jack...that gives them salary relief and a 1st rd pick and more young talent...ok, it's a stretch but, they are going to lose him anyway...most likely to us. Why not avoid the attention and get it done on draft day?

They arent dumping salary until they decide what they want to do with Chris Paul. Pleanty of teams would make better offers. Just think what a team like the Clippers would offer?

I'd take Okafor and Ariza off their hands.

I think New Orleans could go a few different ways...

1. They can trade Chris Paul to the highest bidder next season to a team like Dallas, the LA Clippers, or the Knicks. It would be a fiasco again if Paul decided he wasn't signing anywhere but New York and forced his way out, but I don't see that happening. If it did, you'd be looking at a Billups/Fields/1st round pick for Paul swap or something of that nature.

2. They can dare him to walk away from the team and go somewhere else, trying to make a championship run with what's there. If the Hornets do well in these playoffs, Paul will probably just stay.

3. They can dump bad contracts like OK4 and Trevor Ariza in order to get enough flexibility to enter the Dwight Howard sweepstakes. In this scenario, New York could trade Billups with some combination of Balkman, Walker, Turiaf, Fields and Douglas and bring back Ariza and OK4 in exchange. This is a good option for the Knicks, especially if they can draft a point guard and/or a big man.

I'm just stunned that even journalists are printing that Billups can be used as a salary dump for Chris Paul. We just traded half our roster of young talented players for a player that isn't as good as Paul.