HoopsHype.com Rumors

Adrian Wojnarowski: On prowl for scoring punch, Hornets inquired w/ Bucks on Corey Maggette, sources tell Y! Conversation didn't advance. Demps is very active. Twitter

Milwaukee Bucks, New Orleans Hornets, Trade, Corey Maggette, Dell Demps 

Hornets GM Dell Demps is said to be seeking a big man who can give New Orleans a little more post presence on the offensive end, and executives are openly wondering if Demps will be so bold as to chase Cleveland's Antawn Jamison. CBSSports.com

Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Hornets, Trade, Antawn Jamison, Dell Demps 

Execs expect them to make another such move, but getting Jamison from Cleveland -- either via a trade or an unlikely buyout -- likely would yield a flood of complaints from many of the 29 teams that essentially own the Hornets. Jamison is owed $15.1 million next season, an obligation that would seem to be pushing whatever boundaries are inherent in the league's cooperative stewardship of the franchise. CBSSports.com

Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Hornets, Trade, Antawn Jamison, Dell Demps 

The Hornets and David West have ended talks on a contract extension, but Demps will live with the possibility of losing West for nothing when West opts out of the $7.5 million owed him in the final year of his contract this summer. Yahoo! Sports

New Orleans Hornets, Trade, Dell Demps, David West 

Demps will not try to trade his power forward before the Nov. 24 deadline, sources said. Yahoo! Sports

New Orleans Hornets, Trade, Dell Demps, David West 

New Orleans general manager Dell Demps has discussed the framework of a multiyear deal with West’s agents at Octagon, but the Hornets’ hopes of getting him signed prior to the Feb. 24 trade deadline is “not likely at all,” one source close to the talks told Yahoo! Sports. Yahoo! Sports

New Orleans Hornets, Trade, Dell Demps, David West 

The Hornets have not shied away from long-term contracts as part of their roster shakeup (Trevor Ariza and Jarrett Jack) while also managing, in the short term, to drop nearly $4 million under this season's luxury-tax threshold. And sources close to the situation insisted to ESPN.com this week that Demps will continue to have the latitude to make deals between now and the Feb. 24 trade deadline -- even to go over the luxury tax if the right opportunity presents itself -- because the Hornets belong to the league now. ESPN.com

New Orleans Hornets, Trade, Jarrett Jack, Trevor Ariza, Dell Demps 

"After talking to Chris, I never got the impression that he wanted to be traded,'' Demps said as he sat in an interview room in New Orleans Arena after the Hornets' win over Cleveland last Friday. "After talking to him, I thought that he wanted to win. The things we talked to him about were -- (we said,) 'We could tell you this and tell you that, but we want to put together a group that's ready to win for a long time.''' FanHouse.com

New Orleans Hornets, Trade, Chris Paul, Dell Demps 

Williams, meanwhile, knew that he didn't have a famous name or a bunch of rings to convince Paul or forward David West, the other only remaining player from the Scott days, to stay on board. "I didn't create whatever the situation was here,'' he said last week after the team had practiced in their facility in the New Orleans suburbs. "So to go through all that as a rookie coach, I questioned whether I was ready for all this. I spent the summer before the season asking myself, 'Is this something I'm prepared for?' And the answer was no, I wasn't prepared for all of that. It made me objective, because I knew I had to do my job. "The conversations I had with Chris were good enough for me, and that's all I could go off of. I just felt that once I got to training camp, I could show who I was, and that's all I could rely on.'' FanHouse.com

New Orleans Hornets, Trade, Chris Paul, Monty Williams, Dell Demps 

"We wanted to put a plan together, a plan that would include input from the guys,'' Demps said, "because the players have to be in it, and the players have to be in position to win games. I didn't have to sell it. We really wanted to do more showing than selling, not saying, 'We're gonna do this and we're gonna do that.' It was more about showing them.'' FanHouse.com

New Orleans Hornets, Trade, Chris Paul, Monty Williams, Dell Demps 

Adrian Wojnarowski: Rival execs will tell you few have worked phones in last months like Dell Demps. He isn't accepting fate that Hornets must lose Chris Paul. Twitter

New Orleans Hornets, Chris Paul, Dell Demps 

Marcus Thornton has struggled to get into Monty Williams’ rotation because he continues to make some defensive mistakes. Williams does not sugar coat anything, he is going to play the players that will give his team the best chance of winning. I don’t think they are shopping Thornton at this point, but Williams and General Manager Dell Demps said they will not hesitate to improve the roster at any point. Thornton has to get more consistent with his defensive play. New Orleans Times-Picayune

New Orleans Hornets, Monty Williams, Marcus Thornton, Dell Demps 

What was already a great challenge immediately became an utterly impossible task for even the most seasoned NBA executive, let alone a rookie GM in his first day on the job. "I wasn't really following it until I began the interview process," Demps said to HOOPSWORLD of the hoopla that surrounded Chris Paul this summer. "Then I started paying a little attention to it." Though Demps had never met Paul, the neophyte GM heard about Paul's competitive nature and desire to win. Immediately, Demps set up a meeting with his star player to discuss the future of Hornets basketball and convey to Paul that New Orleans had a plan in place to win and win now. HoopsWorld

New Orleans Hornets, Chris Paul, Dell Demps 

"It was the first time I met Chris," Demps said of the meeting. "We have mutual friends and everyone that I talked to said that he is about winning. Losses bother him. Losses bother me. Losses bother (Head Coach) Monty (Williams). We made sure that we let him know that we came here to win. People say, 'You did a great job. You did this and you did this,' really, we just told him what we want to do, this is our vision and he has the same vision. "Chris is a competitor and he wants to win. And we want to win. And Monty wants to win. And our ownership group wants to win. We all want to win. People need to see a vision of how you are going to do that. The talk was quick; you know, Chris wants to win, we want to win hey, let's figure out how we are going to do this." HoopsWorld

New Orleans Hornets, Chris Paul, Dell Demps 

Demps said that he was never scared that the Hornets would lose Paul. Considering his ties to the city of New Orleans and the charitable work he has done in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Regardless of Paul's relationship with the city of New Orleans, however, there is no guarantee that he'll stick around, unless he has a chance to win and win big. "A few years ago," Demps began, "when I worked in San Antonio, we played them (the Hornets) in the playoffs and I spent the whole series here (in New Orleans). That is when I realized how big he was in the city of New Orleans. I didn't know prior to that. Coming in, I did understand that this guy is huge to the city. He represents the city. He is the city. "I never want to speak for other people," Demps said of Paul's commitment to New Orleans and the Hornets, "but from what I have watched, his commitment… Our first pre-season game, he is picking guys up full court. I mean, it is hard to find that in a superstar. It is just him. That is just who he is. There is nothing fake about it. It is just who he is." HoopsWorld

New Orleans Hornets, Chris Paul, Dell Demps 

What was already a great challenge immediately became an utterly impossible task for even the most seasoned NBA executive, let alone a rookie GM in his first day on the job. "I wasn't really following it until I began the interview process," Demps said to HOOPSWORLD of the hoopla that surrounded Chris Paul this summer. "Then I started paying a little attention to it." Though Demps had never met Paul, the neophyte GM heard about Paul's competitive nature and desire to win. Immediately, Demps set up a meeting with his star player to discuss the future of Hornets basketball and convey to Paul that New Orleans had a plan in place to win and win now. "It was the first time I met Chris," Demps said of the meeting. "We have mutual friends and everyone that I talked to said that he is about winning. Losses bother him. Losses bother me. Losses bother (Head Coach) Monty (Williams). We made sure that we let him know that we came here to win. People say, 'You did a great job. You did this and you did this,' really, we just told him what we want to do, this is our vision and he has the same vision. HoopsWorld

New Orleans Hornets, Chris Paul, Dell Demps 

Paul knows that might only be a three-game losing streak at the start of the season away from the subject cropping up again. But for now, he's content and enthusiastically leading the way for the Hornets to embrace Williams' new focus on defense and new philosophy about the game. The Hornets' camp could have been the bayou version of the tumultuous Denver Melo-drama if he hadn't thrown in with Demps and Williams. "I don't want to talk about any other team," Demps said. "But one of the reasons that we wanted to get together and have a discussion with Chris early in the summer was to avoid a situation where we had a distraction in camp. We're trying to put in a whole new program, a new way of doing things and we couldn't afford to spend parts of every day dealing with rumors and talk." NBA.com

New Orleans Hornets, Chris Paul, Dell Demps 

Demps said Green’s arrival Thursday does not close the door on the potential return of combo guard Jannero Pargo, a free agent, to the Hornets. Pargo was once again at the Alario Center on Thursday working out with about a dozen New Orleans players, including Chris Paul, preparing for the start of training camp two-a-days Tuesday. “I talked to (Pargo) yesterday and (Thursday) morning and his agent (Mark Bartelstein), ” Demps said. “We’re still in discussion and have to see what would be the right situations. I’d still say there’s a possibility he could be on our roster. But I think the ducks have to line up.” New Orleans Times-Picayune

New Orleans Hornets, Free Agency, Dell Demps, Jannero Pargo 

“We’re always listening, plugging away on the phones, ” Demps said. “We’re active. I don’t anticipate anything in the next week or so. There’s still an opportunity to sign another point guard, or add another big. We still have only 11 guaranteed (salary) spots. So we have the door open for competition.” New Orleans Times-Picayune

New Orleans Hornets, Dell Demps 

Adrian Wojnarowski: Dell Demps has been aggressive as Hornets GM, determined to transform roster. He's discussed Peja with several teams, but nothing so far. Twitter

New Orleans Hornets, Peja Stojakovic, Dell Demps