Bayoubuzz

There were a lot of surprised faces around the NBA when word of general manager Jeff Bower's firing spread through. Chris Paul must be watching management and counting the days until he can leave.

Bower is well respected in the league. He was watching over the summer league in Las Vegas when the word came through from the Hornets that he and the Hornets had mutually agreed to depart.

The Hornets are being stripped down to cut costs and their decisions to fire quality persons like Bower and coach Byron Scott. Owner George Shinn reportedly is considering team president Hugh Weber or his son, Chad, for the vacant GM job.

There are also qualified GM candidates on the list,  including Danny Ferry, former Cavaliers GM; Chris Mullin, former Warriors GM; Joe Dumars, Pistons president of operations;  Kiki Vanerweghe,  former Nets GM ;  Mark Warkentien;  Nuggets vice-president of basketball operations; and frontrunner Kevin Pritchard, former Blazers GM.

Paul said he wants a winner right away with the Hornets and if enough money isn't spent to make them a winner, he wants to play elsewhere.  Keeping Paul happy is by far the most important thing to the franchise, and they're not doing a good job at that.

Hornets management said that they mutually agreed to part ways with Bower because he didn't do enough to defuse the Chris Paul trade rumors, (Does anyone actually believe that it was mutually agreed?). That is what the team president told the media.

"This is something that we felt working with Jeff that we needed to find different way of approaching our work, and again we felt it was a good time to get a clear start forward" said Weber. "You can't do the same things and expect a fresh result.  It was a matter of our organization growing in a way our ownership would feel comfortable.

"We felt we needed to be progressive and different and look at things from a different prospective. Again, we talked about this before -- you can't keep doing the same things and expect a different result."

Other GMs around the league say that is all spin. They said Bower told them Paul was not available at any price and it was others putting it out that he was. CBSSports' Ken Berger laid out this thought on the subject:

"Now someone is trying to save face by blaming Bower's 'mutual parting of the ways,' on his supposed desire to trade Paul, which is laughable. The only way Bower would have traded Paul this summer, rival executives say, was if there was a directive from ownership to do so for financial reasons."

Paul is watching and shaking his head. His deal is up in two years, and right now he is on a seemingly rudderless ship. With a new owner coming in.   Maybe. Here's more from Berger: "The truth of what was said was what the Hornets ' front office probably wanted. And it's also irrelevant.

"What matters is building a winner and nobody has confidence that this is the direction the Hornets are headed right now. Nobody is even confident George Shinn is going to sell the team.  It was supposed to happen in April.

If Paul leaves it would be like the Saints losing Drew Brees. Things are going to get much worse here.

The first guy to get a shot at becoming the Hornets is Pritchard.  David Aldridge of NBA. com reported that  Weber met with Pritchard's  agent in Las Vegas on Thursday..

There are plenty of basketball persons in Vegas questioning why Bower was shown the door. There was tension between with Bower after he checked the trade market value for Paul, which didn't sit well with Paul.

But as Aldridge explains, it all comes back to the confused ownership of the Hornets.

Writes Aldridge: "Of course, Bower would not have begun preliminary calls to gauge Paul's trade value without the approval of the ownership and league  sources maintain that the desire to determine CP3's trade value came with a new proposed majority owner Gary Schouest, who continues negotiations with Shinn on a transfer. Sources say that if Shinn does not complete the sale of the team to Chouest that Shinn will not trade Paul under the circumstances."

Bottom line: If the Hornets don't get it all together in two years, CP3 will be gone as a free agent. The Hornets have to get back to the rising team status as they were just a few years ago.
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More Hornets News
The Hornets announced on Thursday that they have re-signed center Aaron Gray. Per team policy, terms of the contract were not released.

Gray, 7’0”/270, is a three-year NBA veteran with career averages of 3.8 points and 3.3 rebounds in 11.0 minutes over 149 career games (19 starts) with the Chicago Bulls and Hornets.  The Pittsburgh product was selected by the Bulls in the second round (49th overall) of the 2007 NBA draft.  Gray was acquired last season by the Hornets on January 25 from the Bulls in exchange for guard Devin Brown. In 24 games with the Hornets last season, Gray averaged 3.6 points and 3.8 rebounds in 10.9 minutes

by Ed  Staton