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New Orleans Hornets- Today we will cover the New Orleans Hornets who pushed the Lakers to 6 games in the playoffs this past season. The Hornets started off the season red hot, led by their floor general, Chris Paul. However they cooled down due to injuries, and finished 7th in the standings. In the playoffs they pushed the Lakers to 6 games, but were unable to dethrone the Champs. But this team is in No Mans Land in my opinion. They aren’t bad enough to land a top 5 lottery pick, but are not good enough to make a run at championship contenition. To make matters worse, their star player Chris Paul is going to be a free agent next season, and the feeling around the league is that unless the Hornets get a deal done to move into contention for a tittle, CP3 will be headed for greener pastures. But there is somthing about Paul that really scares me, which I’ll get into later. The Hornets have a decent roster at the point they have their undisputed best player in Paul, who put up 16 and 9 this past season. Expect a similar performance, however if David West is not retained, and Okafor’s performance continues to dip, expect Paul to take more of the scoring load. Last off-season, they accquired Trevor Ariza in the Darren Collison deal. Ariza took a step back from the previous season, as he saw his scoring dip 4 points, and once again shot a dismal 39.8% from the field, making it the second straight season he failed to shoot 40% from the field. I have noticed that over the past two seasons he has stopped driving to the basket and sttles for threes and long jumpshots. in his first four seasons(229 games), he took a total of 43 three pointers. Over the past three seasons(also 229 games), he has shot 869 three pointers. As you can see, he has fell in love with the three pointer, which is not neccesrily a good thing. And over the span of those three seasons, he has shot it at only 32%. That is not good for someone that took 6 threes a game in Houston, and 4 a game in Houston. He also doesn’t get to the line much, and the reason he was considered a good player with potential in LA, is because he used to drive and use his athleticism. He needs to stop shooting threes and go back to attacking the rim, and using his athleticism. If he continues to chuck up long shots, I see him at 10 points and 4 rebounds, continuing to shot a bad percentage. If he cuts down on his threes and drives to the hoop and use his athleticism, I can see him playing more mintutes, and scoring more points, somthing along the lines of 16 and 6. If he can be more aggresive instead of settling, I see that as a huge improvemnt area for New Orleans, which gives them a couple more wins right off the bat. At the two guard, they have a one dimensional player, in marco Bellineli. As a Warriors fan, I will be the first to tell you that this kid can shoot the lights out. He scored 10 points a game playing 24 mintes a game this past season. He shot 41.5% percent from three, one of the best in the league. He is a defensive liability though, but is instant offense on the offensive end, and can get you a three when you need it. Barring a shooting slump, I expect him to put up similar numbers and have the same impact he had this past season. At the four, they have a great offensive weapon in David West. West is a consistant scorer and rebounder. you know exactly what you are going to get from him, and this season he put up 19 and 7. However after a gruesome injury, we may see a steep drop off in his production. I expect his minutes to be limited, however I still see him putting up solid numbers, maybe 13 and 6 in 27 minutes of action. I also do not think they should resign him to a hefty long term contract, but to a short deal worth reasnoble money. But I do believe that they should make a good effort to retain him if they want any chance at trying to retain CP3. In the middle, they have Emeka Okafor. Okafor is consistant producer, putting up 10 and 9 these past two seasons. Okafor’s stats look more like a downward curve for a player from age 29-36, not age 21-28. But even counting the expected drop off in production, he is still an above average center, that plays good D and does a decent job at controlling the paint. Some thing along the lines of 9.5 and 9 sounds appropriate to me. I do think that they should try to feed it to him more, because the if they establish the post Okafor and West, that opens up the perimeter for Bellinelli and Jack and Paul. Off the bench they have Carl Landry, whom they aquired from Sacramento earlier this year.After being traded to New Orleans at the deadline, Landry put up 11 and 4 in 26 minutes, identical to the numbers he put up in the first half of hte season in Sacramento. We all know he is capable of more if given a bigger role, because last season while appearing in 52 games for the Houston Rockets, he averaged 16 and 5.5 playing just 27 minutes a game, and seemed headed for the sixth man of the year award. But at the deadline he was traded to Sacramento where he played the reamaining 28 games and scored 18 points and got 6.5 boards a game. While that may have been only one season, the Hornets will look for him to repeat his 09-10 performances as he may take on a bigger role due to David West’s injury.  I look for him to play around 30 minutes a game and get 13 and 5 for the Hornets. Jarret Jack is a decent backup for Paul putting up 9 and 3 in 20 minutes of work. Aaron Gray is solid backup center, and can provide a lift occasionally, as he did for the Hornets in Game 1 against LA. They have some young talent in Quincy Pendexter and Jason Smith, but don’t have much else young talent that could blossom.

Now earlier, I said that there was somthing about Paul that alarmed me, and the thing is the knee injury he suffered in Janruary of 10. I fear that it took away his explosiveness, and robbed us of somthing special. We were about to see Isaiah Thomas 2.0 without the attitude, instead we have John Stockton without Karl Malone(No diss to Stockton, but he would have less assists without Malone). But occasionally, we do see spurts of that lightning quick first step, that athleticism and explosiveness. I am not sure whether he lost that speed and quickness, or if he is just afraid to let it loose. Either way he has had to reinvent himself, and the new Chris Paul has the potential to get 14 assists, but he needs help. I hope his knee injury doesn’t hinder him, but it may be inevitable. He has obviously been less agressive this past year and a half, but the question is whether he still has the ability to light you up for 35 and still gt 15 assists at the same time. The good thing about a guy like Paul is that he gets it. If his explosevness really is gone, he knows he needs to do other things, and that is exactly what he has done.

And about trading Paul, I say hold on to him for now, if the Hornets do well during the season, which they have the potential to do, who knows, maybe he resigns with them. I say only trade him if a great offer comes up, but I still believe Paul wants to stay in New Orleans, but he may have no choice but to seek help elsewhere.

Overall, the Hornets are a middle of the pack playoff team, that has little chance of becoming a contender with their current core, and whose main priority has to be retaining their superstar. But I still believe that they are a 6-8 seed, that could surprise many and sneak up on some people. 

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