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The following update came from the Hornets last night:

Hornets guard Chris Paul, who has been out the past five weeks due to left knee surgery, was medically cleared to begin running at half speed yesterday.

Hornets forward James Posey missed last night's game against Denver with flu-like symptoms. He did not travel with the team to Phoenix and is out for tomorrow's game. He is questionable for Monday's game against the Clippers.

Hornets center Sean Marks will undergo right shoulder surgery on Tuesday morning and will be out the remainder of the season.

Hornets forward Peja Stojakovic, who has missed the past two games with a lower abdominal strain, will remain out for a minimum of the next 10 days.

Those of you who have read this blog for a while know that I'm rather fond of metrics like Wins Produced.  Recently, Dave Berri of the Wages of Wins produced two articles I think you all will enjoy, and so I decided I'd draw your attention to them with a full on blog post, rather than dropping them in the news section.

Professor Berri's first post addresses the sexy new NBA metric: Adjusted +/-.  As a prime exhibit as to the inherent oddities of that metric, Dave Berri details the production of the Hornets very own Darius Songaila.  To summarize, Songaila has posted pretty consistent numbers across his career according to most traditional metrics.  However, according to +/-, his impact has varied wildly, producing a significant positive impact in Washington, and a significant negative impact in New Orleans.

As a result of that post, I had a brief email exchange with Professor Berri about two other Hornets we've been focusing on the past month or so:  Our rookies.  That discussion spurred his latest post about the Hornets, addressing the rookies, a brief comparison of Collison to Paul, one of his general breakdowns of the Hornets production on the whole, and even includes a response on our own Joe Gerrity's post about Emeka Okafor.  Good Stuff.

I am a little surprised by the rookie results.  While it doesn't surprise me that over the course of the entire season Collison and Thornton have been a little below average - they did start off the season shooting poorly -  I would not have guessed that Collison would have ranked lower than Thornton.  Collison's assist and scoring numbers have been impressive, and Thornton is almost exclusively a scorer.  Traditionally, one trick ponies don't rank that high in Wins Produced.  Not the case in this situation.

Of course, that just illustrates the impact of minutes.  Buckets and his recent standard of 20 efficient points in 24 minutes is crazy, and Collison has been wracking up huge minutes to go with his huge numbers, which mitigate them somewhat.

Enjoy.

Yet again, the Hornets lost to the surging San Antonio Spurs, who completed a season sweep of the Hornets for the second time in the last four years. Even worse, the Hornets dropped below .500 for the fist time since January 2nd.

It's becoming increasingly clear that missing their leader is wearing on the Hornets, as even big nights from the rookies go unrewarded in the win column. As great as Collison has been, and again was tonight, the drop off between solid point guard and superstar player has been simply too much for the Hornets. On the year they dropped to 10-16 without their superstar, and 21-16 with him. I personally count the game they blew against Portland as being without him, since his injury led to Portland's comeback. You don't like my math? Tough.

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No game tonight, but Survivor is on, at least.  Seems like the perfect day for me to post Part 2 of my Survivor: Heroes vs Villains comparison to NBA players.  Part 1, in case you missed it, can be found here.

Today, we hit the Heroes of the show and their NBA analog.  Enjoy:

Heroes

Amanda Kimmel is . . .  Dirk Nowitzki

This one was easy. Amanda Kimmel has twice leveraged a skillful social game to make it to the big dance, working her into the final as a favorite to win it all.  Then, both times, she completely blew her chances by picking the wrong opponent to face in the final tribal council,  and then compounded the error by trying to be the "nice girl" and play up the idea she felt bad about all her strategic moves.  That, of course, fell flat both times with a jury she had helped vote out.  Dirk Nowitzki, of course, has twice been the leader of strong favorites to win the title, and both times crashed and burned disastrously, gaining and then losing a two game lead over Dwyane Wade and the Heat, and then following that up with an even worse flameout against Golden State in the first round.

Candice Woodcock is . . .  Chris Hunter

Yeah, I'm a huge Survivor fan and I didn't know who Candice Woodcock was either.  Oh, and somebody named Chris Hunter apparently played for the Golden State Warriors this season too, so he gets to be her analog.

Cirie Fields is . . . Chris Paul

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I was trying to keep from addressing this until the off-season, but the kid from UCLA just won't let it rest.  With every amazing comeback he leads, with every poised fourth quarter, with every explosive foray to the hoop, he's forced the issue.  So here's the question:

What do you do when your team's best two players play the same position?

One answer, and the easiest, is to trade one of them this summer.  There's only 48 minutes available to a point guard, the Hornets have immediate needs in the front court and at the wing.  Both Chris Paul and Darren Collison would demand a major return on the trade market.  The Hornets could move Collison with a bigger contract to pad his outgoing salary, and probably get back a good rebounder or multi-faceted wing.  They could move Paul and would be certain to get a platter of solid talent and draft picks that could shore up a couple positions.

It does sound enticing.  And the grass is always greener, right?

I think it would be a terrible mistake.

The Hornets are currently in the midst of a two-year rebuilding plan.  Sure, they haven't said as much, because in the NBA, "rebuilding" is a euphemism for nuking the team and starting over.  Regardless, they are trying to rebuild while still staying good enough to keep fan support while they do so.  That subtlety may not have served them well, as it has triggered, once more, a set of myths that make it seem imperative for the team to trade Paul, West, or now, Darren Collison.  It's a bit like last summer, in fact, when everyone was certain the Hornets would have to trade David West or Chris Paul to get under the tax line.  Surprise!  Not necessary!

So let's take the time to knock down some of those myths:

Myth 1: The Hornets have no room to breathe under the weight of all their bad contracts

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