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ESPN.com's John Hollinger and ESPN the Magazine's Chris Broussard are doing projections and previews for all 30 NBA teams and have ranked the Hornets as the 14th best.

Here is the Hornets relevant portion of the predictions:

14. New Orleans Hornets

The More Things Change: First and foremost, Chris Paul, who missed 37 games because of injury last season, is back, though he's not necessarily happy about returning to New Orleans. The Hornets' point guard wants to play for a contender, and new GM Dell Demps, along with new head coach Monty Williams, have tried to make moves to appease their superstar. They traded away his backup, Darren Collison, to bring in Trevor Ariza and sent Julian Wright to Toronto for Marco Belinelli. Both Ariza and Belinelli are young and full of potential. The hope is that with Paul getting them open looks, they'll finally tap their upside with the Hornets.

The More They Stay the Same: If Marcus Thornton can improve on his pleasantly surprising rookie year, in which he averaged nearly 20 points over the last three months of the season, the Hornets could have their best backcourt in recent memory. That would make the already-solid big-man tandem of Emeka Okafor and David West that much better, and with Ariza aboard, Peja Stojakovic can perhaps fill the role of sniper off the bench. Basketball-wise, it doesn't look as bad as many might think. But off the court, it's a mess, as the ownership transfer from George Shinn to Gary Chouest continues to hit stumbling blocks. Closure for this club won't come until Chouest is running the team."

A few other notes-

• Although it's better than league average, there are still 8 teams expected to be ahead than the Bees out west, which would leave them on the outside looking in come playoff time.
• Marcus Thornton is projected to lead the team in points per minute.
• Ariza is projected to average 15.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per 40 minutes
• Louis Amundson is expected to make a decision this week between the Pacers, Warriors and Hornets. "We're getting close to doing something," his agent, Mark Bartelstein, said. "I think we'll get something done with Louis this week."
• Rondo is off the Olympic team. Take that for what it is.
  

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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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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Okafor gets a lot of flack from Hornets fans.  Billed as a replacement for Tyson Chandler, I believe most were hoping that he would step in and give us the same highlight-reel alley-oops that Chandler did.  When that didn't occur, and Okafor was frequently nowhere to be seen in the fourth quarter because of defensive issues, people really began to sour on him.

During the off-season Okafor's reputation has taken even more of a beating, as Bill Simmons listed him as one of the worst contracts in the league, all the rumors reported about Chris Paul being moved have involved Okafor with the implication that the only way to trade such a horrendous contract would be to send out some amazing talent with it.

All in all, it's not been a great six months for the Hornets' Center.

I do think, however, that there needs to be a sanity check about Okafor.  Okafor is a solid player.  He does a lot of things well, and the idea that he just needs to be dumped after only one very chaotic season is a bit inane.(Particularly when moving him now would be the epitome of selling low)

So, here are three popular Okafor myths and a stat-pack to knock em down.

1. Tyson Chandler was so much better than Okafor

First, let me state that yes, I know Chandler's a better defender.  I recognize that.  I still want to compare statistical apple to apples here: Tyson Chandler's first season as a Hornet to Emeka Okafor's first season as a Hornet.  To make the comparison even stronger, I've included Okafor's stats in one row, and then give you his stats had he played as many minutes as Tyson Chandler did:

Player	M/G	FG%	FT%	Stl/G	Blk/G	TO/G	PF/G	Reb/G	Ast/G	Pts/G
Chandler	34.6	0.62	0.53	0.51	1.8	1.73	3.3	12.4	0.9	9.5
Okafor	28.9	0.53	0.56	0.66	1.5	1.35	2.7	9	0.7	10.4
Okafor Normalized	34.6	0.53	0.56	0.79	1.8	1.62	3.2	10.8	0.80	12.5

As you can see, they really aren't that far apart.  Okafor scored a little more, albiet somewhat less efficiently, and Chandler rebounded a little more.  So the idea that Okafor was terrible is a bit disingenuous.

2. Chris Paul didn't make Okafor better

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It is officially draft day for the New Orleans Hornets and the open thread has arrived. After an unusually stressful day of Chris Paul trade speculation fueled by a long distance interview and a statement from current owner George Shinn, Hornets fans everywhere are probably ready for some potential good news.

Television coverage for the event begins on ESPN at 6PM Central time. If the Hornets stand pat and pick 11th, the decision should be announced around 7:20 in the evening.

Ryan told you what to expect, but there's more to talk about. What is your dream scenario? Who do you really not want to see taken? Which player is a steal in the second round?

If this awesome thread wasn't enough to get you excited, Hornets247 is proud to bring you live coverage from the Alario Center on draft night, where Monty Williams, Jeff Bower, and other Hornets personnel will be gathered to make their decision. Coach and GM both are expected to address the media, answer questions and talk about the pick. I'll be right there to keep you posted with live, breaking information starting at 5:00 and continuing all the way through

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