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Before we get to the game preview, I wanted to comment on something Toney Blare said in his Hawks-Hornets game recap over at Slam Online.  I thought it was pretty profound and it set me to thinking:

In his press conference, Bower says they need everybody to win, that he doesn’t expect the rookies to make mistakes. It’s a telling change from the BScott era, when the coach treated young players as if he himself were a veteran, hazing them, making them worry over his approval.

Blare is absolutely right.  When JR Smith was a Hornet, Byron insisted on referring to him as "rook" all the time.  He participated gleefully in the hazing of JR and the next year to Armstrong, Simmons and Bass, particularly when it was being applied by his friend Bobby Jackson.  I can remember on several occasions where he was the one telling the rookies they needed to sing to entertain the team.

Now, that may not seem like a big thing.  Being hazed as a rookie is standard in the NBA, and handling it well is part of gaining the respect of your teammates.  There is, however, a problem with a coach being a major participant and instigator in it.  When veteran players haze a rookie, the rookie should have an avenue to even the scales:  by playing harder, running them ragged, and taking the old guy to the hole and dunking on him.  They earn respect by beating the veterans at their own game, and thereby impressing the head coach, who should be capable of being the impartial judge.

That dynamic changes, however, when a coach is actively participating in the denigration of the rookies.  A rookie can't beat the head coach - they have all the cards.  There is no way to beat them at their own game, and typically no higher power to impress who can  change the dynamic.  The pattern is eventually established where the Head Coach can be a martinet if he feels like it, and the rookie is simply out of luck.  Thus, you get Brandon Bass, JR Smith, Arvydas Macijauskas, and for nine games, Collison and Thornton.

Of course, this would have been much more interesting if I thought about it before Scott was fired.  On to the game Preview.

Matchup: Milwaukee Bucks(8-4) @ New Orleans Hornets(6-9)

Off Efficiency: Bucks 102.3(20th), Hornets 104.7(13th)
Def Efficiency: Bucks 99.6(8th), Hornets 108.9(29th)

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The biggest news this morning is that Chris Paul was caught off guard by the decision to fire Byron Scott. Apparently the first he heard of it was at practice yesterday morning. Paul's words in the Times-Picayune:

"I felt like, maybe somebody would have at least consulted with me and asked how I felt before it happened," Paul said by telephone Thursday night. "It’s not to get my approval, but we feel we should know about the decision before it takes place." 

The Hornets have struggled this season, getting off to a 3-6 start. Weber said the organization didn’t see enough improvement, which necessitated the move.

"You can’t put all this on Coach," Paul said...

"I think we all need to have an open mind, the system could change, but we still have to play the game," Paul said. "Regardless of what is going on, the game is still basketball. I’m going to play as hard as I can every night.

"I know D-West is going to do the same. I know the team is going to do the same."

John Reid, Times-Picayune:

“Anybody who knows me knows that Coach is my guy,” Paul said. “It’s not just because of basketball stuff. I understand that it’s a business and all that stuff, but I’m honestly not the player I am today without Coach. I don’t have the Olympic gold medal and All-Star Games without Coach.

“When I woke up this morning, I had no idea that this was even possible.”

Scott could not be reached for comment Thursday, but Weber said when told that the team was heading in another direction, Scott indicated that he understood and took it well. Scott’s business manager, Brian McInerney, said his client participated in a charity golf tournament in New Orleans on Thursday afternoon.

Telling quotes from David West in the Times-Picayune:

West on Thursday said the players are in for a "dramatic change, a dramatic difference" now that General Manager Jeff Bower, along with new lead assistant coach Tim Floyd, have taken over for fired Byron Scott.

"We're not going to be as predictable as we have been in the past. I know that, having played for Tim before," said West, a sixth-year veteran. "That's something I'm looking forward to, in terms of style of play."...

West said that the team's philosophy wasn't working, and Scott's pride might have been a factor.

"We've had some conversations over the past couple of weeks, just trying to figure out what we could do to get the ship righted, but ... pride is a crazy thing," he said. "I think pride is a dangerous, dangerous thing. I think there was a sense a few guys weren't trusting what we had in terms of our system and our ability to know what we were going to get every single night from our system."

West said the players should be receptive to Bower and Floyd because "what we had wasn't working."

More from West via John DeShazier in the T-P:

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If you missed all the news earlier today, check here.

And now for a few bullet points to gather my scattered thoughts:

• Last basketball season was very disappointing for New Orleans sports fans. At the beginning, the Hornets were talked about as championship contenders, then they struggled to a 49-33 record and got humiliated by the Nuggets in the Playoffs. But you couldn't blame Byron for the team's failings last season, not with all the injuries the Hornets had. This season, the Hornets have been close to full health, and Byron was working with a roster that Chris Paul called the best he's ever been a part of. A 3-6 start just wasn't god enough, especially with most of the losses being blowouts.
  
  
• I'm reminded of Byron's words when he won the Coach of the Year award after the Hornets' magical 2007-08 season. Scott was asked if the reward meant redemption after his fall from grace in New Jersey:
  
  "It's all so fickle, just such a fickle league. People can change on you in a second."
  
  Such is life.

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As confirmed by ESPN and NOLA.com. The Hornets will make a formal announcement at a press conference scheduled for 1 p.m. Central.

Updates will be posted here.

1:16 p.m. Update:

From ESPN's Marc Stein on Twitter:

Our own @ricbucher reports that the Hornets are adding head coach to GM Jeff Bower's duties and bringing in Tim Floyd to be top assistant

1:20 p.m. Update:

Bits and pieces from the Hornets press release:

NEW ORLEANS - The New Orleans Hornets announced today that they have relieved Byron Scott of head coaching duties. Scott will be replaced by General Manager Jeff Bower.

“I want to thank Byron for the hard work he has put in during his time with the Hornets,” said Hornets Owner George Shinn. “I’ve hired Jeff Bower to take over the coaching reign. He knows this team better than anyone, has the respect of the players and in basketball circles, is regarded as one of the best basketball minds in the business. This is our best opportunity to reach our goals this season.”

“Accountability was our theme this past summer,” said Hornets Vice President of Basketball Chad Shinn. “We talked about the fact that everyone on our staff is held to a certain standard of performance and we didn’t feel this was happening at the head coach level. We feel like we still have an opportunity with our nucleus to get to where we want and Jeff is the right guy, right now to move us in that direction from the bench.”

“As we look at our long-term coaching plans, it’s not about who the head coach is, it’s about the role of the head coach to get the team to perform to their capabilities and reaching our potential this season,” said Bower.

In a related move, Tim Floyd has been hired as the top assistant coach.

The Hornets played the Raptors evenly for the first, second and fourth quarters tonight. It was the third quarter that killed them. Up 56-51 ninety seconds into the second half, the Hornets then could only watch as Toronto took off on a 32-7 run. The Raps dropped 8-of-10 triples during that stretch and never looked back. 107-90 was the final score ( box | recap ).

Chris Paul came through with another big game for the Hornets, finishing with 21 points (8-13 FGs), 18 assists, 7 boards, 2 steals and just one turnover. Big numbers like that from CP used to be a nice consolation in a loss, but these days it's just depressing. He's playing out of this world, and the Hornets are still getting spanked. Word is he didn't stick around to talk to the media after the game either. This woeful start to the season must be killing him.

Jumping into some bullets:

• When the Raptors weren't lighting it up from deep in the third quarter, they were playing some zone defense that the Hornets had trouble cracking. And when they weren't in that zone, they did a nice job crowding the middle and recovering to challenge the Hornets shooters. There were holes there for our wings to drive off the catch, but alas, most of our wings can't drive.
  
  
• The Raps also did a solid job defending the pick and roll, hedging hard with a big and having an extra man help enough to cover West fading or Okafor rolling.

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