The New Orleans Hornets have granted the Lakers permission to interview Mike Malone for an assistant job on newly hired Mike Brown's staff, according to league sources.

Prior to the joining the Hornets, Malone spent five seasons as an assistant on Brown's staff with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Brown is seeking to hire assistants that he's work with before.

Malone, who could not be reached for comment Saturday, is considered a defensive mastermind and was instrumental in helping the Hornets emerge as one of the top defensive teams in the league.

Malone has a year remaining on his contract with the Hornets that he signed last summer.

David West underwent surgery to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee April 12, 19 days after injuring the knee in a game March 24 at Utah.

“It’s going really well,” Young said. “I think it’s way ahead of schedule right now. He’s been in Raleigh full-time, and he’s on his way with good rehab and feeling really good about things.”

Young, of Washington, D.C.-based Octagon Sports, said West, who can opt out of the final year of his contract with the Hornets, will wait until nearer the June 30 deadline to inform the team of his plans.

“We’ve talked about it, and I think he’s going to wait until about a week before that to see where his knee is and how it feels and make an educated decision about where to go from there,” Young said. “We really haven’t discussed it because we have some time.”

Chris Paul doesn't want to discuss the looming potential NBA lockout or tip his hand whether he will sign an extension with the Hornets when negotiations begin with General Manager Dell Demps, probably in July.

“It’s not something I think about right now,’’ Paul said. “The lockout is probably the biggest issue right now. Those things, I have to worry about once we get to it.”

Paul can opt out of his contract with the Hornets and pursue free agency after next season.

Despite uncertainty about the Hornets’ ownership, how long they’ll be in New Orleans, or even if there’ll be an NBA season in 2011-12, support for the club appears to be building among fans and businesses in Louisiana.

The club has sold about 8,000 full-season tickets for 2011-12, up from about 6,300 when the 2010-11 season began.

“Being ahead of where we were last year is really a good sign considering that we’re at the beginning of May,” said Matt Biggers, the Hornets’ senior vice president of marketing. “We still have a lot of work to do because we want to get to 10,000 (season tickets), so we’re going to keep working hard all offseason to get to that number.”

The increase in support comes at a time when the Hornets, which were bought by the NBA last December, are being prepared for sale.

Earl Monroe, who is friendly with Chris Paul and played at tiny Winston-Salem State, told The Post yesterday he believes Paul has eyes on the Knicks if he becomes a free agent in 2012, and thinks he would love playing for the orange and blue.

"I'm quite sure he would relish being in the Big Apple," said Monroe, who coached the New York City team vs. L.A. in yesterday's inaugural People's Games at Union Square. "He can handle this pressure. Obviously he's one of the premier point guards in the league. To add that with what you already have, you got the real nucleus to having something special happen closer than in four years."

Monroe used Paul's lone showing at the Garden in February as an example of CP3 responding to the scrutiny not found in the Big Easy. Paul played a dog game vs. the Knicks, which continued a mini-slump he was in. Suddenly, reports suggested Paul might have lost his elite status, with rumors about a bad knee circulating.

"Case in point, he had a terrible game here, I was there that night," Monroe said. "People started talking about it. The next few games, he put it up again. He knows what the deal is out here. When people started writing he might have lost it, he was like: Let me try to pick this up and let them know I'm still here."

Hornets general manager Dell Demps and coach Montie Williams remained firmly committed to making Chris Paul the centerpiece of the franchise.

“He’s made some comments to us that he’s happy and he likes the direction that we’re going,” Demps said, “and we’re happy with him and we want to just keep building and growing.”

Demps and Williams agreed that finding the right additions would be more complicated than that because they want players who fit their style both offensively and defensively.

“Chris is the kind of guy you need to put athletes and shooters around him,” Williams said. “It’s easy to say you’ve got to get (a player at a certain spot), but in getting that, does it fit with what we do? ... There’s no need in having a guy who can flat out knock down shots but he couldn’t guard a bike if he was riding it.

“The fit makes more sense to me.”

Hornets president Hugh Weber confirmed Wednesday the team will receive about $7 million in state aid.

The clause is part of the Hornets’ lease agreement with the state and gives the team assurances of reaching certain revenue benchmarks.

“The revenue calculations were intended for the regular season,” said Weber. “There’s a whole series of pulleys and levers that say if you don’t make the number, or have maxed out the number, then there’s an application for after expenses. (Playoff earnings) has a very minimal effect on the revenue.”

In the current lease with the state, the revenue benchmark stipulates the state will have to pay the Hornets inducements not exceeding $7.5 million at the end of the season if the team doesn’t gross at least $43.6 million, which is 80 percent of its gross revenue for all potential ticket sales.

Chris Paul was in attendance during Miami's Game 2 win over the Celtics on Tuesday.

Paul sat near the Heat bench with longtime James confidant Maverick Carter.

Paul joined LRMR during the summer of 2010. Carter is the CEO of LRMR, a marketing company he founded with James.