Hornets247.com

NBA.com's David Aldridge answered a bunch of questions from NBA bloggers this week, and we were able to sneak in two about the Hornets...

Several articles have appeared online this season arguing that the Hornets would be better off trading Chris Paul and starting from scratch, since they can't seem to surround him with a good enough supporting cast to win a championship. What would be your thoughts on such a move?

DA: I completely disagree with it. The hardest position I feel to fill correctly on a basketball team is point guard. It's just really hard to find these quality level point guards that can help you toward a championship. And Chris Paul is one of the two or three best point guards in the league. You are never going to get equal value for him, no matter who you trade for him, unless you trade him for Deron Williams. So you're going to be a lesser team without him no matter what you get. To me, that wouldn't make any sense at all. A team like New Orleans, which is going to have limits on what you can spend, when you have a great player it's one less great player you have to go and try to get. That is something that is their job and Jeff Bower's job as GM is to surround him with with good enough players just like R.C. Buford did with Tim Duncan in San Antonio. They have Tim Duncan and they surround him over the years with very good to excellent players who are good enough to help them win championships. That's what Jeff Bower's job is in New Orleans.

What's your take on the Hornets' rookies (Darren Collison, Marcus Thornton and Jeff Bower) this season? Do you see them having successful NBA careers in their respective roles?

DA: Well, Collison's been great, he's been terrific. A lot of people wondered about him coming in and he's been great. We'll see how he does after a month, but right now he's been excellent for them and has done a really good job of getting guys into their offense and distributing the ball, and scoring when he has to. So he's doing a good job. Thornton's played I think pretty well in spots and so what they've done this offseason I think is good for that team. They finally addressed their bench situation and they added some depth and did a good job there, but I think for them to have a chance to get to the playoffs and be good in the playoffs you need guys like James Posey to play like he played in Boston. And he's played better of late and they need him to do that if they have any chance.

Read David's responses to questions from other NBA bloggers after the jump, including some words on Chicago's Tyrus Thomas, who the Hornets are reported to be interested in...

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With the Hornets locked in combat with the Grizzlies for the tail end of the playoff picture, I thought it would be nice to get more insight into the Grizzlies by hammering Chip Crain of 3 Shades of Blue with questions about Gay, Randolph, Gasol, Conley, and it strays to what happened with Allen Iverson to start the season.  Good stuff, enjoy:

Hornets247: Rudy Gay has always been a remarkable athelete, but he's always seemed too willing to take long jumpers rather than drive, and too disinterested in defense to be a franchise player.  Is that an inaccurate observation this year?  Has his game changed this season?

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I got to record several video interviews at Media Day today. I missed out on some of the big names when my memory card filled up, and the camera work is like something out of Cloverfield. Regardless, enjoy...

Jeff Bower

My favorite interview of the day. Among the questions I asked:

• Do you think the Hornets are now a tougher team and better equipped to handle a physical team like Denver?
• Do the Hornets use advanced statistics?
  
• Do you find any value in measurements such as PER and Win-Shares?
• Do the Hornets really have a smaller front office staff than most other teams in the NBA?
  
• What other GM or front office most impresses you?

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Good times. Today I had the opportunity to chat with Hornets rookie Darren Collison over the phone for about fifteen minutes. Click the button below to listen, or you can go ahead and download the mp3 file (15.3MB).

I didn't spend time transcribing the full interview, but here are some highlights:

Hornets247: Were you aware that the other rookies rated you so high defensively and what are your thoughts on that?

Collison: No, not really. They usually tell me throughout my workouts to try take care of my defense better. It's definitely a good compliment, I know that's what the Hornets are looking for and that's why they got me, and I definitely take pride in it.

Hornets247: Have you talked much with Byron Scott during the offseason?

Collison: Yeah, I have, I have. The thing he tells me to do every time is just to continue to attack, attack, attack the basket. And, you know, whenever a coach is telling you to attack the basket you're gonna get a lot of good things out of it.

Hornets247: What do you think your biggest weakness is at the moment?

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Matchup: Raptors(19-32) @ Hornets(28-18)

Off Efficiency: Raptors 104.5(15th), Hornets 106.8(9th)
Def Efficiency: Raptors 107.0(24th), Hornets 103.8(13th)

The Raptors and Hornets both have 4-game losing streaks going, and both are sporting injured star point guards.  The Raptors have gotten back their injured Center, Jermaine O'Neal, but no one is really certain if that's a good thing or not, and have lost their starting Power Forward.  This game is eminently winnable, if the guys just play some defense.

Byron was furious with Hilton's defense after last game, and has made it pretty clear he's likely to go another direction this game.  Yay Marks or Ely.

I'm going to do an abbreviated positional analysis, and then post a question and answer exchange I did with Dino Nation.  Enjoy.

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