It looks like the New Orleans Hornets might be the next to suffer the Chris Bosh-style problem that the Toronto Raptors were trying to deal with for the last two seasons before his eventual departure earlier this month.

The Hornets are a team with one true star, Chris Paul, and it appears that one true star is ready to leave if they can find a suitor, after reports that he had requested a trade.

While Bosh never asked to leave Toronto, it had been patently obvious for the last couple of seasons that he wasn’t keen on staying at the end of his original contract unless the team was in a position to win a championship.

Now Paul, one of the top five players around according to NBA Betting pundits and one of the leading couple of point guards, says the time has come for the Hornets to make some moves, or let him move on to a team with more in the way of ambition.

The 25-year-old cannot opt out of his contract for the next two years, but such is his talent that a couple of poor seasons would not really affect his value on the open market, especially since everyone now knows that he is a disgruntled Hornet.

And his position is fairly understandable – this team once looked like a contender even in the ultra-tough Western Conference, but they ended last season in bottom place in the Southwest Division and have added nothing to their roster since.

Paul and David West give them a lovely one-two punch, but the rest of their playing staff really does nothing to excite fans – Emeka Okafor and Peja Stojakovic would have been nice pieces at times, but they have struggled badly with form and injuries over the last few seasons.

Adding Aaron Gray last season and re-signing him over the summer is the only move the team has made and all has not been sitting well with Paul since the franchise fired coach Byron Scott and traded Tyson Chandler, two of his closest colleagues.

All of this leaves rookie head coach Monty Williams, who stated that working with Paul was one of his biggest reasons for taking on the job, in a real pickle with the new season just over a couple of months away. Who knows what the best basketball bets will be?

By Andy Charles

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