Hornets team president Hugh Weber said on Thursday that the team will not trade All-Stars David West and Chris Paul just to avoid having to pay luxury tax.

New Orleans is expected to have a payroll of $76 million this season, and the tax threshold is expected to be around $68 million for the 2008-09 campaign.

Chad Shinn, the son of team owner George Shinn, said it is "very unlikely" that West would be moved.

"The luxury tax is something that all teams are concerned about, not small-market teams, not teams in New Orleans, not teams owned by George Shinn, but all teams are concerned about the luxury tax because it is punitive," Weber said. "I think the real question is if we have to go over the luxury tax to be competitive, will we? And the answer is yes. At the same time, you have to ask yourself the question if you don't have to, we won't. ... A lot of the speculation is that (getting under the luxury tax) is the priority, and it's not.

"We are looking to improve in a traditional way. We normally have five or six or seven roster changes a year. That's just the natural chain of events. Chris and David have been key to this team. And I don't see that ever changing. And you talk about guys like Tyson and Peja, and these guys are critical to the core of this team. But I don't want to tie anybody's hands and say Jeff can't talk about or we are not going to talk about (trading certain players). You can't speculate. But I tell you, we are planning to move about with the traditional roster changes that we have and not some blowup breakdown type of process."

Via Times-Picayune

New Orleans Hornets

Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets