Five seasons with the New Orleans Hornets has apparently been enough for Chris Paul, the former Wake Forest standout said he wants to be traded prior to the start of next season. Paul is not convinced that the Hornets are serious about putting a championship caliber team together and ideally he would like to be traded to a team where he could win a championship. That is why Chris has teams such as the Orlando Magic, Portland Trailblazers, and Dallas Mavericks on his trade wish list. While Paul has those teams on the list none of the three are his top trade choice, that honor belongs to the New York Knicks.

Chris Paul is eyeing the Knicks with the intention of playing with a possible “Big 3” that would rival the superstar trio the Miami Heat have assembled. In Paul’s ideal scenario he would be traded to New York and play alongside Amar’e Stoudemire, and Carmelo Anthony. According to a report from CBSSports.com, the three players are set on forming a nucleus with the Knicks that would compare to what Wade, James, and Bosh have done in Miami.

"Those guys want to beat the three guys in Miami," a source close to the situation said.

As if the thought that these three players want to form their own “Big 3” to compete with James and company isn’t interesting enough, what is more interesting is that the Knicks could actually make this happen. Amar’e Stoudemire is already under contract for five years, so they already have the first piece. Carmelo Anthony has said that he would want to play in New York according to sources and Carmelo is good friends with Amar’e Stoudemire. Finally, even with Amar’e Stoudemire’s giant salary the Knicks have been frugal enough with their salaries that they could definitely afford Anthony in 2011. The third piece Chris Paul will be the toughest for the Knicks to acquire. Sure, Paul has New York on the top of his trade wish list but there is no way that New Orleans is going to part with the three time All-Star easily. The Hornets have already scheduled a face-to-face sit-down with Paul in New Orleans on Monday according to ESPN.com Mark Stein. According to sources, the Hornets will try to remind Paul that they have spent money the last couple of years in the hope of building a better team. Even if Chris remains unwavering in his belief that he wants to leave New Orleans after the Hornets front office meets with him then the Knicks would have to come up with a trade proposal that would satisfy New Orleans. Obviously, New York would offer the Hornets large amounts of cash considerations but beyond that New York doesn’t have many players except Amar’e that carry a large amount of trade weight.

Many things would have to fall into place for this potential New York “Big 3” to form but the possibility is exciting. I know that Donnie Walsh and Allen Houston in the Knicks front office would be committed to making it happen and it sounds as though Amar’e and Chris Paul would welcome the idea. Right now this is all just speculation though. Denver has said that they won’t release or trade Carmelo this offseason, instead he will have to wait until 2011 when the free agency option in his contract kicks in. Also, New Orleans is still going to try to convince Chris to stay and then Paul would have to remain confident that the Knicks are his number one option. New York does have the cap space to put this “Big 3” together though and it will be interesting to see if in the future these players unite in NYC to compete with the trio from South Beach.

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