Chris Paul at LeBron’s camp in Akron… at Essence… in Vegas with Team USA… and, um, at Disney with some blogger’s cousin.

So… he’s pretty much been all over the U.S. in the last two weeks. Where will he go tomorrow? No one knows.

This, according to the official site, is when the Hornets will be playing at Las Vegas Summer League, which (hey now!) is coming up this weekend. Important to note that these times are Not Our Time Zone, aka Mountain Time, so you have to make it one hour earlier and you’re all set. The last game will be on NBATV, and the rest may be available a la internet.

Check out this great post from Jim Eichenhofer, over at the New Orleans Hornets’ official website for information about everyone who will be at the Las Vegas Summer League:

Summer League Roster.

I’ll try to keep updating as news comes in. Chris Duhon is expected to choose today between the Knicks and Bulls. The Jazz, who tried signing Maggette a few years ago are now said to be pushing hard. We can’t like him going to either Utah or San Antonio. Or anywhere in the West, really. Speaking of the West, the Lakers seem to be talking to James Posey and Brent Barry…

After making a qualifying offer to Nenad Krstic of $2.7 mil, the Nets are said to be eyeing a sign and trade. With a lack of small guys, could they be eyeing a trade for Mike James or Rasual Butler? Both make more than Krstic, but a 7-footer who likes to escape to the outside might be a nice add, if slightly dupliciative of D-West’s game. But taller. And with less skill. Hmmm.

The suspense is killing me. I want confirmed Hornets rumors. Damn it.

EDITED UPDATES: the good news? CP3 seems to have agreed to a 4-year $68 million deal. Still no other word on Hornets moves. As for the rest? Like everyone else, the Warriors are now talking to Corey Maggette. Seriously? I guess with B-Diddy gone they can give him some loot, but if he goes elsewhere, how bad will they have blown it? Especially with Brand indicating he’s probably going back to Hollywood and Arenas now saying he’s agreed to a 6-year $111 mil deal with the Wiz, taking considerable less than the max. Hmmm….why didn’t CP do that? As a rarely lucid Arenas opined, “What can I do for my family with $127 million that I can’t do with $111 million?” Interesting.

Elsewhere, Rockets (like many other teams) say James Posey may be their missing piece. The Bulls are talking to Luol Deng and Ben Gordon. Interestingly, Josh Smith visited the 76ers and left without an offer, but with the Hawks promising to match any offer, maybe that’s not a surprise. Especially as they’re talking to Josh Childress now and the Salary Cap won’t be set until Tuesday. Among the 9 or so teams talking to Monta Ellis? Knicks. Among everyone that’s talking to Maggette, Celtics; apparently he’s good friends with Doc. Here’s the funny thing. The Celtics could re-sign Posey to the full MLE, pick up a bunch of scrub free agents for a combined $4+ mil to fill out the roster, and then give Maggette about $10 mil a year before reaching the Knicks payroll. Not saying it’s going to happen. Just pointing out how fucked the Knicks are and/or how hard it is to end up 23-59. I mean you have to really want to suck.

That’s all I got for now.

I would like to take a moment to express my condolences to the fans of the Seattle SuperSonics.

It could have been us.

(And now we have a new enemy…)

… I find it amusing that I’ve managed to be on both Hornets.com and True Hoop (somewhat trickier to spot) today without having spent more than five actual minutes on the computer since I got up.

Now that’s efficiency.

Now, if you wanted actual news about the Hornets’ free agency moves, I got nothing. In fact, I’m starting to get a little frustrated and thinking maybe they don’t really have something major in the works after all…

HornetsHype’s official stance is that we are not in panic mode yet.

P.S. Olympics special “Road to Redemption” on ESPN2 at 6 P.M. Central. I’m sure it’ll be replayed, but Chris Paul is on it at any rate.

ABC news reporting that Chris Paul’s agent will be in town tomorrow to finalize his new deal, which is “at least” four years, possibly five.

Link here.

And now on Nola.com.

Going from $4.5 million to $15 million? Now that’s some dolla bills, y’all.

Brand, Maggette, Posey, and B-Diddy are opting out of their contracts. Artest and AI did not. Meanwhile the Wiz are reportedly signing Jamison to a 4 year $50 mil deal. Incidentally, FA Arenas said he wanted to re-sign with the Wiz, but only if they signed Jamison; now SI reports that the two are close to signing a 6-year $100 mil deal, although the Warriors have made a similar deal to him too. Across the country, the Lakers have made qualifying offers to both Vujacic and Turiaf, and have made re-signing the pair a priority; while Shaun Livingston, out two years with one of the worst knee injuries ever, was not tendered a qualifying offer, and is a free agent.  In another country altogher, Calderon is indicating he has agreed in principle to remain a Raptor.

An interesting combination of events could help the Hornets.  Their #1 target is Corey Maggette.  If Brand is more interested in sticking around L.A., does he become a priority?  Is BD their answer at PG?  If the Clippers go that way it would be almost impossible, financially speaking, to bring back Maggette.  Lots of rumors put Maggette on the bus back to Orlando, but the Orlando Sentinel is reporting that after the team’s big spending last summer, it may be shopping for bargains this year.  Meanwhile, reports out of the Crescent City are that CP3 is a big attraction to free agents.  No real suprise.  The question is, then, who else has that kind of drawing power that we might be competing against?  Lakers/Kobe.  But they’re focused on keeping Turiaf and Vujacic, and probably look to get healthy more than make summer acquisitions, as they are already at a ridiculous $75 mil combined team salary.  Cavaliers/Lebron.  But like the Lakers, they’re already $25 some million over the salary cap of $55 mil, and according to the Plain Dealer, are unlikely to make much of a splash in free agency.  Perhaps only Miami/Wade have the will and allure to draw free agents; although, with Marion’s $17 mil, Wade’s $14 mil, and Beasley’s rookie contract, they’re sitting at around $59 million, which is slightly worse than the Hornets, but might be looking more to actually build a completment of decent players around Wade and Beasley, rather take a gamble on one more big piece.  This year is a buyer’s market, with most teams not having much cap space.  About the only teams with money to spend aren’t well situated, i.e., Memphis, Charlotte, Seattle, and a lot of the best free agents out there are looking to be a final piece in someone’s puzzle.  As Elton Brand said, everyone’s got the Celtics success in their hearts.  Maybe, just maybe, that lets us land a big name in hopes of making some talented free agent a champion.  I could live with that.

EDIT: while not strictly free agency related, it’s reported that Tyson will be traveling to China with the Olympic team as a back-up. Obviously this is linked to Dwight Howard’s stress fracture in his sternum, but should any other player get injured, TC will be on the spot to step in.

So far, it looks like both Julian Wright and Hilton Armstrong will play in the Summer League this year in Las Vegas. Also to get an invite, is ex-Hornet Adam Haluska, who was traded this year to the Rockets, only to be cut after the trade, and subsequently end up with the NBADL Iowa Energy (you can check his stats with Iowa here). I was one of the few to see Adam put up 20+ points in one game last preseason, and am excited to see him back and getting a shot. Byron and Bower (dare I say it, the Killer Bs?) saw something in him last draft, and obviously believe it’s still there.

The fourth invite so far goes to undrafted Illinois senior, Shaun Pruitt. Shaun’s 6′10″, 240 lbs., and can play either power forward or center, as he did in college. He’s known best for throwing his body around in the paint and coming up with rebounds. He’s working on both finishing around the basket and improving his jump-shot. He’ll need to work on his defense and lateral quickness, but has good conditioning and a freakish wingspan (you can read the full pre-draft report here).

Can’t wait to see who else ends up in camp. We’ll keep you updated.

EDITED LINK: summer league roster.

So what the hell is happening with Rasual Butler? And how will the Hornets react? How does a guy go from being a key bench player, a sometimes starter, to the guy wearing a suit, the position on the end of the bench that as early as the beginning of this season was reserved for rookies who’d barely seen any time, if at all, on an NBA floor.

A season over and gone and now he’s the one sitting in the back of an SUV, a gun on the floor, the cops coming for him, and him seeing how low he’s fallen. While I give Rasual a lot of credit for self-cognizance, it’s nonetheless a haunting image of personal tragedy. Thereafter, part of Coach Scott’s response to the situation was: “he had some personal problems [this year] that were going on that kind of caused him not to be with us, so to speak, and all that affected him.” Hmmm. It was the first I heard of it. While I feel for Rasual, I have to wonder how the team will react. They’re gearing up to win a championship. And no matter Byron’s relationship with him, it’s Bower, Shinn, and the team’s lawyers who will decide the response.

We don’t know what Butler’s specific contract says, but section 16(a) of the Uniform Player Contract provides:

The Team may terminate this Contract upon written notice to the Player if the Player shall: (i) at any time, fail, refuse, or neglect to conform his personal conduct to standards of good citizenship, good moral character (defined here to mean not engaging in acts of moral turpitude, whether or not such acts would constitute a crime).

Section 16(g) provides:

Upon any termination of this Contract by the Player, all pay Compensation shall cease on the date of termination, Team to pay the Player’s Compensation to said date.

Rumor mills said the team had been looking to shop Rasual and his remaining two years and $7.5 mil for quite a while. Could this be the easy out? The trickiest part, of course is proof. You can’t just drop a guy if you don’t know for sure he did something wrong. He’s accused of waving a gun after an altercation at a group of men and cocking the hammer back. Butler said he didn’t do anything wrong, and specifically denied cocking it at anyone. But was he waving it around? Did he pull it out? We need also to understand the context. Was he fooling around, defending himself, or just straight thugging? These are key questions that the team will need answers to if they’re going to take that much money away from him. The last thing they want to do is get in a lawsuit with him over whether his termination was wrongful under his contract. But if they can justify it, it would help their salary cap situation right? Fill his spot with someone like Adam Haluska, Shaun Pruitt, or some other undrafted free agent who they can pay something more like $400,000 a year. Pretty good bargain for someone who wasn’t getting any burn anyway.

On the other hand, do the Hornets have a responsibility to help him if he is having personal problems? The one answer, as suggested above, is no. It’s a business. And that’s how it is. Cutthroat. But this year we’ve seen a Hornets team that became more than just a team; they became a family. They were devastated when they lost Bobby midseason, but were able to turn around and welcome Mike James and Bonzi with open arms. So how would they react if Butler was cut? Would they blame Rasual? Would they blame the management? Would it change how the team views each other and the bonds they share? What do they know about Rasual’s off-the court issues to which Byron alluded? There are also the facts that Rasual is a team player, taking his benching with class, and being generally supportive of the team’s direction. He also reportedly has done plenty of good works, like flying supplies to Africa at his own cost.

Only the team knows what they’re going to do in free agency. But if cutting Butler under the conduct clause gets us room to bring in Corey Maggette, do it. Monta Ellis, sure. If it will completely push us into contention for a title, do it. Because to bring in someone equally troubled, and not necessarily a good fit, like Ron Artest, would be hypocritical; as would it be cut Rasual to bring in someone who’s unproven and/or unreliable, like Ben Gordon. What I’m saying is that if we cut Rasual, we better get our money’s worth, not straddle ourselves with debt on a stupid risk. Sure take anyone on a $5 mil mid-level exception, but that’s a different story. I guess what I’m really saying is that cutting a guy who is having personal problems for making a stupid mistake is not the best moral choice, and if you’re going to cross that line, you better be sure it’s worth it.

I expect the Hornets to go slow. But I feel for Rasual. I really do. Without more information, though, I feel like I should give him the benefit of the doubt. I believe he did a dumb thing and regrets it. I know some people have already labeled him a thug or this or that. But before anyone calls him out, ask what you may have done between the hours of 1 and 7 a.m. outside of any drinking establishment at some time in your life. My record’s not spotless. I’ve made mistakes. I’d hate to see any of them ruin my career. So that’s my response as a human. Give him another chance. Bring him back into the fold. But I get that the Hornets are in it to win. Period. I wouldn’t want any less. But if they let him go, I hope it’s with done with decency. I hope they give him some kind of exit support. And I hope they recommend him to other teams as someone who with a fresh start could flourish. It’d be the right thing to do.

But until we know more, we just have to wait and see.