Earlier, Jason Quick (please don't stop reading) was talking about the deal that could have brought Chris Paul to Portland.  He wouldn't go into detail, but he did say that the deal included ONE Trailblazer expiring contract.  I gotta believe that contract belonged to Andre Miller for two reasons.  One I don't see why the Blazers would want Andre and Chris Paul.  Two, as high as the Hornets are on Collison, they wouldn't just turn it over to him without having somebody else capable of playing PG.  I also don't think it's a stretch to say that two positions of need for the Hornets would be legit Center and Small Forward.  In fact, I don't think the Hornets would even consider trading CP3 unless they got some kind of legitimate Center in return.  At first, like everyone else, I assumed it would be Pryz, but Quick said it only included one expiring contract, and, plus, I don't think Miller and Pryz gets you close to CP3 even if you throw in Batum.  I guess it could be Marcus Camby, but we all heard Camby talk about loyalty last year and how important it is to him.  I don't think even the Blazer Brass is that cold.  Sign Camby and then trade him a month later when he could have gone anywhere he wanted.  Not only is it cold blooded, but it's also bad business.  If you thought it was hard getting a free agent here before just wait til the league caught wind of that.  

From what I heard the Hornets were looking for a potential AllStar for CP3.  They wouldn't take LMA just to dump CP3's contract cuz that wouldn't make sense, and any talks involving Brandon would be an instant deal killer.  This, obviously, is just speculation, but I think the Blazers were very close to trading Greg Oden.  It makes sense from both sides.  You can't give up a guy like Chris Paul without being able to justify it somehow, and as much as I like Batum, he doesn't equate to Chris Paul.  Greg Oden on the other hand...maybe.  One of the reasons you can't trade GO is because it'd be hard to get something of value.  Well, I think the best PG in the league is a pretty valuable piece.  I know you don't trade big for small, but if you've still got Camby and Pryz and a young core group of CP3, Roy, and Aldridge, you can get away with.  I don't know.  I might be way off on this one, but that's what the comments section is for.