"New Orleans Hornets backup center-forward Chris Kaman is not with the team right now because of an organizational decision, team officials said Friday night. The Hornets are expected to pursue trade offers for Kaman, who has an expiring contract that pays him about $14 million this season.

Although he is not injured, Kaman was put on the inactive list for Wednesday night's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder for the first time this season. In place of Kaman, Gustavo Ayon played 17 minutes and scored 16 points on eight-of-10 shooting against the Thunder.

``It's just something that we want to play our young guys and we certainly don't want to disrespect Chris at all,'' Hornets Coach Monty Williams said before Friday night's game against the Orlando Magic. ``This is something we want to keep internally. It's certainly not disciplinary and he understands and I talked to him. We're going to play Jason Smith, Gustavo Ayon and Al-Farouq Aminu. It's just difficult to play that many bigs and I understand how difficult it is for him to not get the minutes he wants.''"