DO NOT TRADE CHRIS PAUL.

Easiest thesis sentence I’ve ever constructed.

We don’t know who to believe these days when it comes to trade rumors, especially thanks to the days of erroneous reports during the now-infamous “LeBacle” early this month. Chris Paul wants a trade. Chris Paul doesn’t want a trade. Chris Paul wants to be traded to these three teams … no, wait, these four … but the Hornets can deal him wherever they want to … but the Hornets don’t want to …

Whatever the current situation is, the Hornets need to show Paul the red light. Enough is enough.

It isn’t that I don’t empathize with his situation. The Bugs are a mess. There is no settled owner. Jeff Bower’s regime handed out numerous bad contracts, hampering the franchise’s current flexibility. Two of the team’s best four players play the same position. The front line is undersized, and there still isn’t a clear answer as to who can or will start at the three.

So yes, as competitive as he is, Paul doesn’t want his prime to wilt away on a team that he fears doesn’t have a clear direction.

But at the end of the day, it isn’t the Hornets’ job to ensure that Chris Paul escapes the prime of his career with an NBA title. Well, except in one way: it’s the Hornets’ job to try and deliver an NBA title to its fans, and the best way to do that is with Paul on the roster.

We’ve heard it hundreds of times during this offseason. The NBA is a star-driven league. There’s a big reason for that … while a third baseman like Alex Rodriguez or a defensive end like Julius Peppers can change a game in their respective sports, they’re still by and large just a cog in the machine. Very efficient cogs, but they can’t carry a team on their back.

An NBA superstar — a true superstar — can do just that. Only an NFL quarterback in comparable to the effect a LeBron James, Kobe Bryant or, yes, a Chris Paul have on the floor.

The Hornets don’t need Paul to get to the playoffs. Any number of deals could probably net the team a bigger center and a good wing to pair with its pair of standout sophomore guards and David West (for instance, a Paul/Okafor for Gerald Wallace, Erick Dampier and picks deal). That team could perhaps get into the lower half of the Western conference.

But to win an NBA championship, you need a Paul.

Keeping Paul is risky. He could walk in two years and leave you high and dry.

But trading him is risky, too. Look at Minnesota, who dealt Kevin Garnett three years ago and are still very much in the NBA cellar. By dealing your star, you’re may be entering a rebuilding phase, and in the NBA, rebuilding could be a sentence into a decade of irrelevancy. See the post-Jordan Bulls, who only now may be climbing back into contention.

In contrast, look at how the Lakers and Celtics handled the trade demands of their stars. L.A. held Kobe Bryant in 2007 as he cried to anyone who would listen that his team wasn’t building a winner. Trade Andrew Bynum for Jason Kidd, he said. L.A. held firm, the team started winning, then it committed the great Pau Gasol robbery of 2008. It rattled off two straight championships after a Finals loss that year to …

Boston, a team that was putrid enough for Celtics-lifer Pierce to scream “Get me out of here!” That team retooled, offering up all of its assets for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and have been among the elite since.

I don’t subscribe to “Those teams are traditional powers. The Hornets aren’t there.” Those teams are traditional powers because they make bold moves. Gasol, Garnett and Allen had no choices as to where they’d be traded. But the teams pulling the trigger felt the pressure to win.

You don’t rebuild in the NBA unless you absolutely have to. The Hornets currently boast what’s likely the best backcourt in the league. David West is an All-Star. N.O. won 37 games with Paul playing half a season a year ago. The cupboard is not bare.

See what this season brings. Try to move at the trade deadline for an impact player — the team has the ammo with Peja Stojakovic’s expiring deal. If not, next offseason you will finally have a great deal of cap room to retool around your guards and perhaps West, and the free agent crop looks to be rather deep.

And Paul will not pull a Baron Davis or Vince Carter and tank it. He’s not wired like those guys. Paul is far too competitive to not give his all, and I suspect Monty Williams knows that.

You can blow your team up anytime. You rarely get a chance to build around a true superstar.

Take your shot at greatness, Hornets. It may be awhile before you get another.

If it fails, at least you tried.