Finally, it’s over.  The week-long American Horror Story spinoff came to an end tonight, with the Hornets and Clippers agreeing to a deal to send Chris Paul and two 2nd round picks to the Clippers for Eric Gordon, Minnesota’s 1st round pick in 2012, Chris Kaman and Al-Farouq Aminu.

We have to begin by giving a quick recap of what went down.  As I wrote about last week, the proposed trade to send Paul to the Lakers was shot down by the league for “basketball reasons”.  The fallout from the failed deal led to the Hornets shifting their attention to the Clippers.  The league, acting of course as the owners of the Hornets, proposed a deal similar to the one above but also including Eric Bledsoe and not including the two 2nd round picks.  The Clippers made the next moves, rejecting the trade offer and signing Chauncey Billups to show that they were prepared to compete in 2011 with or without Paul.  After a couple days of negotiating, the league finally decided to back down from its inflated demands and agreed to the accepted deal.

The Clippers came out of the trade with a star PG and can immediately make the team a contender.  The thought of Paul tossing alley-oops to Griffin and Jordan must be making Clippers fans salivate.  The team did lose a budding star in Gordon, but even if the Hornets would have agreed on the trade without Gordon involved the Clippers would be unable to re-sign both Gordon and Paul.  Kaman’s contract was a nice piece but if they were going to use it anyway then why not use it on the best point guard in the league?

The Hornets, on the other hand, find themselves in a very complicated situation, but made out the best they possibly could considering the circumstances.

This whole process has been a complete nightmare for Hornets’ upper management.  Stern and his deputies effectively took all control of the team away from GM Dell Demps after hearing complaints from the other league owners regarding the failed Lakers trade.  Demps did his best to prepare for this situation last season and had a plan in mind for what to do with Paul and the future of the team.  It will be interesting if we ever hear his reaction to the trade and whether or not he ever had any say-so in the deal.  Luckily for Demps, popular belief is that a new owner and lease are lined up and ready to be ushered in sometime in the near future.  The quicker the league hands over control of the team back to Demps, the better off everyone will be.

Regarding the trade itself, although the Hornets certainly made out great, there are some question marks regarding the team.  Eric Gordon is a great young player and could put up 25 points per night for this team.  However, he does come with some baggage.  Gordon played in 62 and 56 games the last two seasons and is starting to be placed with that nasty ‘injury-prone’ label.  Luckily, the injuries have all been of the random variety and not one specific thing.  Gordon is also an unrestricted free agent after the 2012 season, so the Hornets will have to make sure to convince him to extend sometime during the next two years.  Kaman is a quality big man who can really help the team, but pairing him with Okafor down low creates a big of a problem because neither are considered power forwards.  My thinking is that Kaman’s expiring contract is shipped off sometime before the deadline for another batch of young talent/draft picks.  I haven’t spoken much about Aminu because he’s such a raw talent.  He’s one of those uber-athletic wings who hasn’t learned to hit the side of a barn with his shot.  Monty Williams did a great job of coaching up a mediocre group of players last year, and if he can do it again without a full season of Chris Paul I’ll be very impresssed.

Alright, enough of the negative.  Eric Gordon is a stud and there is a good possibility that both the Minnesota pick and our own could be lottery picks in what is arguably the best draft in a long time.  These three players along with whatever we get out of Kaman or Okafor will be the foundation of the Hornets for years to come.  Now that this whole fiasco has finally come to an end, Demps can finally go out and grab some remaining free agents to fill out the roster.  Carl Landry at a reasonable price would be a very nice person to have this season.  A backup point guard would also help out a lot.  I wouldn’t expect a whole lot out of the Hornets this season, but with two talented young players on the way next season things could start to get a lot more exciting.

Hornets fans have their fingers crossed for Minnesota to pack the lottery with ping pong balls

I personally think that with new ownership on the way, the end of the Chris Paul era and the beginning of the youth movement for the team, now would be the perfect time for New Orleans to brand the team.  Everyone knows that the Hornets is a horrible name for this basketball team.  When I hear the name all I can think about as Charlotte.  A new identity to go along with a new team would go a long way to increase the interest in New Orleans basketball.  I’m picturing a black and gold theme and a rebirth of the old hockey team name:  the New Orleans Brass.  Of course, however, I’m open to suggestions.