Hollinger: Rumors of the Hornets’ demise have been greatly exaggerated

From John Hollinger’s latest PER Diem at ESPN.com:

The Hornets knocked off the team with the best record in the East (Atlanta) and the best record in the West (Phoenix), and a win in Miami would have made it four in a row under new coach Jeff Bower. The Hornets may be only 6-9, but they’ve also played the league’s toughest schedule to date and stand a respectable 17th in the Power Rankings as of this morning.

A big key has been Bower’s using players that Byron Scott wouldn’t — rookies Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton. Thornton, in particular, has been a revelation as a scoring sixth man. New Orleans’ bench production had been abysmal, but the second-round pick from LSU is averaging a whopping 27.8 points per 40 minutes. He won’t maintain that level of production, but he can be a volume scorer in the Flip Murray mold. That’s something the Hornets have needed for a long time, and it’s yet another indication that this year’s draft class is much, much stronger than had been initially projected.