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The Wizards beat the Hornets

View Ryan Schwan's profilePosted by Ryan Schwan July 17, 2010

With 2.3 seconds left, Craig Brackins hit a three pointer which could have given the New Orleans Hornets their first summer league victory of 2010. In the end it wound up being just another nice shot by the Hornets rookie. Washington guard Lester Hudson hit a crowd pleasing jump shot as time expired.

There was however a bright side to the game. Through three quarters Wall dominated a porous New Orleans defense, scoring 29 points and making me wonder how much longer Chris Paul will be able to hold the title of undisputed best point guard. I'm not going to talk about Wall too much, but he's a fantastic talent. His crossover gives me goose bumps. Once he finds his jump shot he's going to be nearly impossible to stop.

But I digress. Quincy Pondexter shut down Wall in the fourth quarter, holding him to only two points. His superior size and length frustrated him and disappointed those in attendance who wanted to continue watching the John Wall show.

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No Reason to be Surprised by New Orleans

View Joe Gerrity's profilePosted by Joe Gerrity July 16, 2010

Two months into the season the media and basketball junkies worldwide are going to be talking about the New Orleans Hornets and Chris Paul as if they just crawled out of the swamp to become one of the better teams in the Western Conference. When that happens remember this post.

You see, the memory of NBA fans can be compared to a stoned elephant, or perhaps a goldfish swimming in Everclear. As soon as something new and flashy comes along or an completely fluke injury occurs to a star player they do a 180 on their stance, sometimes completely contradicting their previous sentiment.

Think about it for a second- Two years ago the Hornets were considered dark horse title contenders. ESPN experts had them as the second most likely team to win the NBA title. They weren't unrealistic though, and had the foresight to essentially predict what would wind up happening.

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Danny Granger To New Orleans an Intriguing Possibility

View Joe Gerrity's profilePosted by Joe Gerrity July 15, 2010

Looking forward to next season we will be taking a look at Danny Granger and why it might not be so far fetched to think that he could be dealt at some point this season. Yesterday I talked about how the Hornets should just lay low this summer and wait until the season is under way to add players.

Granger, a New Orleans native, is exactly the type of player that the Hornets should be looking to acquire due to his on court skills, the Pacers recent draft picks, their team needs, and most importantly their ownership situation.

Let's start with taking a look at what kind of player he is. Here are some basic stats comparing Granger to the average NBA small forward, adjusted for playing time of course. The league average reflects guys who played 40 or more games at small forward and averaged in excess of 25 minutes per game. All stats are per 40 minutes.

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Patience is a Virtue for the New Orleans Hornets

View Joe Gerrity's profilePosted by Joe Gerrity July 14, 2010

With all the free agent signings going on around the league, Hornets fans feel a little left out. Considering the team went 37-45 last year and Chris Paul wants to win right away, the team needs to make big moves right away, right? Wrong.

People seem to be forgetting that the Hornets are going to be a pretty damn good team this year without doing much of anything this summer. Don't forget, after Byron Scott was fired the Hornets went 18-10 in the 28 games in which Chris Paul was healthy.

Let's briefly look what the problems were last year and what can be done to remedy them. Some of the problems just went away by themselves.

  • Marcus Thornton and Darren Collison were stuck on the bench for much of the season. Given that the two of the team's top five players weren't seeing much time in favor of Devin Brown, one can assume that they actually would have been even better had the rookies been given more time to shine early in the seaseon. It wasn't until March that Thornton surpassed 30 minutes per game despite his excellent season. That won't be the case this year and for good reason.

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Luther Head Fails Physical, Won't Join New Orleans

View Joe Gerrity's profilePosted by Joe Gerrity July 14, 2010

The New Orleans Hornets have rescinded their offer to guard Luther Head after he reportedly failed his physical, the TP is reporting. Head was expected to immediately compete for backup minutes in the back court, and potentially would have been Chris Paul's primary backup had Darren Collison been traded.

Head was the only new player the Hornets had made a contract offer to this summer and the withdrawal of his offer leaves the Hornets with only three guards on the roster, Chris Paul, Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton.

Aubrey Coleman, who led the NCAA in scoring last year and is on the Hornets summer league roster, could potentially be a cheaper alternative to Head. He's averaging 15 points in the last two games of Summer League on only nine shots per game. His defense is a concern, but for a minimum deal of around 500k a year, the Hornets can afford to take a chance.

[Update] Marc Bartelstein, Luther Head's agent, unloaded on the Hornets, soon afterwards:

"I've been doing this 25 years. I've never had a situation like this ever happen," Bartelstein said. "All you can do is pay attention to people's actions and draw your own conclusions.

"This is a business that is supposed to be based upon trust and handshakes and being able to make deals where you trust people's intentions," Bartelstein continued. "I made a deal with Jeff Bower. If a team had an issue with a physical, you would never ever get a phone call saying, 'The deal's been rescinded. We're moving on.' The team would call you and say, 'Hey, we've got something we're concerned about in the physical. Let's figure out a way to work around it. Let's deal with it.' Maybe you put an exception to a particular injury [in the contract]. You would discuss it. You wouldn't just flat-out rescind the contract and say, 'That's it, we're moving on,' with no communication unless your intentions are something else."

The Hornets have since responded with the following statement:

"We can appreciate Mark's passion for his clients and understand his disappointment," said Team President Hugh Weber. "It is our procedure for a player to undergo a thorough physical examination before a contract can be finalized. After consulting with our medical team, the Hornets organization feels that it is not in our best interest to move forward with the signing."