New Orleans Hornets Week 7 Review

Alright, alright, alright people here it comes...

I was wrong... But I was right in my wrongness.

Before the season started I stated that Mike James would have to be a productive player and have to be the backup shooting guard for the Hornets as a result of his contract and the team's lack of depth behind Chris Paul at the position. I stated that the loss of Jannero Pargo was going to cripple the Hornets coming into the season (and said it before everyone else has now noticed it) but stated that James could put up Pargo numbers with Pargo's minutes. That's probably true for James over in Washington but he's not going to put those numbers up in New Orleans. Wednesday's trade for Antonio Daniels and a conditional 2nd round draft pick left Mike James in Washington and give the Hornets the backup point guard they need to be taken with a bit of legitimacy. Devin Brown has been serviceable at the backup point guard position but it's clear he's playing out of position at that spot. Now that he's going to move back to his more natural 2 position, it looks as if he's played his way into the rotation: sending Morris Peterson and Julian Wright further down the bench.

Rasual Butler, an afterthought entering the season for most Hornets fans, has taken the starting job through Peterson's injury and has done the most with it this season, playing his way out of Byron Scott's doghouse and giving the Hornets an additional three point threat in the starting lineup. Wednesday's game against the Bobcats was a breeze for the Hornets. The only criticism that should be given to the team for that game would be on those awful New Orleans Buccaneers throwback jerseys. Please no more of those. But seeing as how the Hornets have lost to the Bobcats this season, it was nice to see them stare the opposition in the eye, know they were better than them and soundly show that they were better.

Friday night's game at Boston was encouraging despite the 94-82 loss. Moral losses aren't much for a team hoping to win a championship this season, but playing that way without Tyson Chandler proved that the team has a lot of heart and a lot of grit. But when you play a team as sound defensively as the Celtics are and you watch players consistently kill you on the offensive boards, you know that Chandler is missed. But let's be honest: Chandler's been missed all season. This new injury (a stiff neck) can join his ankle injury and back stiffness this season and continues to trouble the Hornets starting center. Something has not seemed right and you can only hope it's not serious and that he can still come back and be the player he was last season for the Hornets. Hilton Armstrong has stepped in strongly in his absence but his knack for picking up fouls has left Sean Marks playing double digit minutes the past few games. Nothing against Marks, I'd just rather him be a guy like Ryan Bowen, who comes in in garbage time and is a fun locker room presence. I don't like him taking Melvin Ely's minutes because Ely is more of an inside scorer, which is what you'd ideally want on the Hornets since players like David West tend to stay around the perimeter too much. But Ely has to earn his minutes and apparently Marks has earned them.

Speaking of David West, he saved himself from a lashing from yours truly with a strong performance today at Toronto. His shooting percentage this year is solid right around 50 percent but what was a great tool for him last season has turned into something he depends on this year. He's a great mid range jump shooter but you'd like to see him take it down to the low block a little bit more and use his agility and size to his advantage. The way he played against Chris Bosh today was very admirable and furthers the notion that the Hornets can win with him as the number two scorer.

James Posey has been great this week as well and especially today at Toronto, knocking down six three pointers in the win over the Raptors. He still has yet to get into a groove (in my eyes) but I think with time he'll be able to easily gain confidence in the rotation and be able to effortlessly contribute on a nightly, routine basis.

The Hornets continue their little road swing at Memphis on Tuesday before coming home to face the red hot Spurs on national television Wednesday night before hoping to exact revenge on the Kings Saturday night in New Orleans. Wednesday night's game will be huge for the Hornets as they don't want to develop habits of coming up short against the better teams (such as Friday's game at Boston). But they can't overlook a solid and streaking Grizzlies team on Tuesday. But the way they've been playing lately, Byron Scott seems to have this team's attention. And as we've seen in a league where five coaches have been fired already this season, having the attention of your team is a fantastic thing. Until next week.

Written By GoHornets21
CBS Spoortsline community member

New Orleans Hornets Week 6 Review

Another solid week here in Hornets land as the Big Easy Bugs took a short week and made the most out of both of their favorable games. It's always nice to be able to relax and look back at a couple of games and see nothing but positive come from them. In many cases, people would look at an easy week and blow it off as fool's gold but in the Hornets' case, it's a blessing in disguise as the team was in dire need of regaining their identity and getting a continuity with one another that's seemed lost this season. So in many cases, two home games against a Phoenix team without Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal followed by a home game against the Grizzlies could be overlooked, but coach Byron Scott did the right thing and kept this team motivated and is starting to get them into a nice little groove once again.

One performance this week that was remniscent of last season was that of Peja Stojakovic. After speaking of his importance last week, he put in two very good games this week. Stojakovic averaged 22 points and shot 63 percent from three point land (10 for 16) this week and looked every bit as good as he did last season. Chris Paul tallied his 14th double double of the season already (in only 17 games) and gets closer to Alvin Robertson's consecutive games with a steal streak.

Tyson Chandler looked good against the Suns and honestly he always does. He put up 14 points and 9 rebounds against Phoenix on Wednesday night in what's looked like his best outing all season. He looked fresh and played with intensity on both sides of the ball. But then again, maybe that's just against Phoenix (in 3 games against the Suns last season Chandler averaged 15 points and 14.7 rebounds) because he put up a lackluster performance against an extremely small Memphis team.

Not much to speak of from the bench this week and all in all, it was a quiet, yet encouraging, week from the Hornets. Next week brings a home game against the Bobcats, a game that the Hornets should look at as a revenge game for their earlier loss at Charlotte this season and then they travel to Boston for a nationally televised game with the defending champions Friday night. They then finish the week at Toronto on Sunday and all in all, it looks like a tough week ahead for the Hornets but for another week, I'm able to rest easy as far as the Hornets are concerned

Written By GoHornets21
CBS Spoortsline community member

New Orleans Hornets Week 2 Review

It's been a tale of two weeks so far in the young season for the New Orleans Hornets. After a surprising start with victories over the Suns, Warriors and Cavaliers last week, the Hornets opened up this week with a surprising loss to an equally surprising Atlanta Hawks team, and then an extremely dissapointing loss at their old stomping grounds in Charlotte. Losing to the Bobcats is inexcusable but the loss was eased by a game the very next night, a home victory over the Miami Heat.

After the initial high of the season wore off, the Hornets fell back down to earth on Wednesday night when an Atlanta Hawks team walked into New Orleans and beat the Hornets down. The Hawks were more physical, hungrier and more determined than the Hornets on that night, even with the returns of Tyson Chandler and Peja Stojakovic to the lineup. The best part out of the game was the said returns of the two injured starters.

The main negative of this week is not the two losses, but how the Hornets lost those games. Chris Paul has been absolutely amazing this season, picking up exactly where he left off last year and has put up 20 points and 10 assists in all six games this season. His contributions and performance just cannot be categorized into words and I believe there's not a player in the NBA playing at his current level. But the problem with the Hornets is, they've looked soft through six games. They've become a jump shooting team and were able to get out muscled by teams without big strong presences in Charlotte and Atlanta (and no offense to Emeka Okafor and Al Horford, they're good players just not strong inside presences). Byron Scott has a lot to address in the physicality of this team. The Hornets don't want to fall back into finesse mode where all you have to do is bump them around and take them out of their games, and David West will shoot jumper after jumper with Peja Stojakovic firing up three point bricks. The Hornets need to address a lack of frontcourt scoring and that includes utilizing David West's frame more down in the low block and continuing to feed Tyson Chandler and Hilton Armstrong shot after shot.

The Hornets have no injuries to report this week minus the dental work of Melvin Ely that kept him from the games against the Bobcats and Heat and the bench continues to be servicable this season with surprising contributions from Mike James and Hilton Armstrong this week. Mike James has fought off Devin Brown from taking his point guard spot six games into the season and the Hornets look comfortable with Mike James being this year's lesser version of Jannero Pargo.

Rasual Butler Watch: Rasual Butler continues to be a contributing member of the Hornets bench. He's used Julian Wright's early ankle injury to his advantage and has shot 47 percent from the three point line through the first six games. In the Saturday night victory against the Heat, though, Julian Wright logged 10 minutes and Butler has to feel the pressure to continue to perform at a servicable level. All it takes is a stretch of cold games for Butler to lose his job to Wright. I hope he continues to surprise me.

The Hornets will take the next few days off before Wednesday's huge game against the Lakers. They then finish the week Friday against the Trail Blazers at home before playing their only road game next week a few hours away Saturday night in Houston against the Rockets. The Hornets have a strenuous week ahead and their toughness has to be adressed. All things considered, though, it's still been a solid start for the Big Easy Bugs.


Top Ten Teams Through November 9th, 2008
1. Los Angeles Lakers
2. Utah Jazz
3. Boston Celtics
4. Atlanta Hawks
5. Phoenix Suns
6. Houston Rockets
7. Detroit Pistons
8. New Orleans Hornets
9. Cleveland Cavaliers
10. Orlando Magic

Written By GoHornets21
CBS Spoortsline community member