With all the talk in the NBA season coming up, no one has mentioned the New Orleans Hornets. All the talk so far has been whether Kobe Bryant will be a no show. What will happen to the Suns with an unhappy Shawn Merrion. Will Utah make a move to unload AK-47. Can Kevin Garnett,Ray Allen and Paul Pierce Bring a championship back to Boston and will the Spurs repeat yet again. The Hornets are flying under the radar so far this season. The team has added veteran G/F Morris Peterson to help them in the backcourt. Something the Hornets sorely missed with Peja out with back problems last year. The team should be a playoff contender this year. They have a top 5 PG in Chris Paul. A reliable foward who can shoot pretty well from mid-range in David West. A deadly shooter from outside Peja Stoyakovic. At Center they have Tyson Chandler who seems to be fitting in his role with the Hornets better than he did in Chicago. Not to mention they also have on the bench Vet. Bobby Jackson, Jannero Pargo, Rasual Buttler and in his second season Hilton Armstrong who was a pretty surprising player last year with the limited minutes he had played. The team might also be helped out by R Jullian Wright the teams first round pick from Kansas. He's a rookie though so he'll probably see limited time on the court. The thing it could come down to for New Orleans is Defense, especialy in transition. Can Byron Scott get them ready to play teams like Pheonix who run the floor so well. All in all this NBA season should be an exciting one for Hornets fans. I look for them to be a 5 seed in the playoffs but that's a long ways away and playing in the west isn't easy.
New Orleans is good but their problem is that they have no consistent go-to threat late in the game to advance deep in the playoffs.
If we look at the Western/Eastern Finalists the last several years we will see that Nash, Dirk, Parker, Ginobili, Duncan, Lebron, Chauncey, and D-Wade were all playing in late May because of their big-shot capabilities. This Hornets team still hasn't found their identity.
Chris Paul is a playmaker but he is not Kobe, Melo, AI, Bibby, Nash as far as late game heroics is concerned. Paul is still second-tier.
Peja is injury-prone, he's slow, and he depends on screens to get open. He is not a playmaker who will lead your team to victory from a 17 point 4th quarter deficit.
Tyson is an up-and-comer but all you have to do is put him in the popcorn machine to get him in foul trouble once the playoffs start.
MoPete is a bit of an upgrade from Desmond Mason but is no All-Star.
The best thing the Hornets have going for them is Lakers great BYRON SCOTT, and he's not even suiting up.
Good Luck this year to the city of New Orleans.
Last edited by J-DIZZLE on October 3rd at 7:29 PM.
Thx for stopping in J-DIZZLE and while I agree with your assesment of these players I think this will be a breakout year for Chris Paul.. He'll have more options and I think also he'll find that killer instinct he needs to help this team go further than it ever has.
I hope CP does have a breakout year, because it will make life a lot more pleasant for BYRON SCOTT.
There's nothing more I want than to see continued success for Scott, who turned out to be the best coach to come out of that group of players in the 80's that put on a SHOW every TIME.
Texascudaguy- first of all thx for stopping in and secondly thx for the comp. that was the point i was trying to make. the Hornets have the pieces but can they stay healthy and work together? that is the question.
J-DIZZLE- I agree and I am also a laker fan so I like to see scott succeed. Just one knock on his teams and that's it's defense or maybe he just needs to hire a defensive specialist to work with them. In the west you have to have Defense. Just look at all the years the Dallas Mav's had good teams no defense.
I'm a 33 yr old guy who has been a big fan of sports most my life. I love sports from in and around my city of New orleans. I am also a huge L.A. Laker fan,been so since i was a kid and saw magic play. Love my LSU fighting tigers and hopeing for another National Championship this year. Geaux tigers!!!
