LAS VEGAS — Sources close to New Orleans Hornets situation with former general manager Jeff Bower said Bower’s relationship with star point guard Chris Paul was becoming increasingly tenuous and played a role in the decision for the two sides to part ways.
Michael DeMocker/The Times-Picayune
New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul wasn't happy the team didn't make moves to be better in the offseason.
Paul grew frustrated with the team standing pat during the offseason and said he would welcome a trade if the Hornets weren’t committed to building a championship roster.
Bower had been the Hornets’ general manager since the 2005-06 season. He served as a dual role as head coach last season when Byron Scott was fired after a 3-6 start. Under Bower, the Hornets fared 34-39 but missed the playoffs for the first time in three seasons.
Bower did not help matters last month when he didn’t diffuse trade rumors concerning Paul, saying he had a duty to listen and have dialogue with teams about all of the players on New Orleans’ roster.
League sources said the Hornets’ brass wasn’t in agreement with Bower’s stance, and the team hastily sent out a release the next day clarifying with a statement from owner George Shinn that they plan to continue building their team around Paul.
“This is something that we felt working with Jeff that we needed to find a different way of approaching our work, and again we felt it was a good time to get a clean start,’’ team president Hugh Weber said. “You cannot 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 prospective. Again, we talked about this before — you can’t keep doing the same things and expect a different result.’’.....
