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-- John Reid, Times-Picayune

The New Orleans Hornets announced Tuesday they have hired Carlos Daniel as strength coach and Adam Tatalovich as video coordinator.

Daniel was on the San Antonio Spurs' strength and conditioning staff last season. Prior to San Antonio, Daniel was the performance trainer and basketball director for the Forza Fitness and Performance Club in Denver.

Daniel is a ISSA and NASE certified trainer and is a NASM performance enhancement specialist. During the 2006-07 season, Daniel was an assistant coach at the University of Northern Colorado.

. . .

Tatalovich spent the past four seasons with the Chicago Bulls, the last three as head video coordinator. In Chicago, Adam served under coaches Scott Skiles and Vinny Del Negro.

Prior to Chicago, Adam worked at Attack Athletics under Tim Grover, working with college and professional players in the offseason.

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-- John Reid, The Times Picayune

With Kofler's departure, equipment manager David Jovanovic, executive vice president of operations Sam Russo and Harold Kaufman, vice president of communcations, are the only holdovers that have been with the Hornets since their inaugural season in 1988-89.

Kofler's responsibilities included the day-to-day care, prevention and treatment of the Hornets' players. He also served as team's director of travel. Entering last season, Kofler had missed only one of the Hornets' 1,690 regular-season games. He served as the team trainer of the Western Conference All Stars at the 2007 game in Las Vegas and 2008 in New Orleans.

Sources said Kofler, who could not be reached for comment, was informed of the team's decision last week.

Mark Cranston, who spent the past four seasons as the Hornets' Director of Athlete Performance and Rehabilitation, is expected to replace Kofler as head trainer.

((Ryan's Take: The bloodbath continues. But . . . with Kofler gone, who am I going to pretend is using voodoo magic on the Hornets players anymore?))

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-- Nakia Hogan, The Times-Picayune

The Hornets signed journeyman point guard Mustafa Shakur, 26, on Monday. Shakur, 6 feet 3, 190 pounds, was in the NBA Development League last season with the Tulsa 66ers, an affiliate of the Oklahoma City Thunder. He played collegiately at Arizona.

The one-year contract is for the league minimum and is not fully guaranteed, according to a team source.

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-- Robert Kleeman, BleacherReport.com

Lots of stuff here about Paul, Melo, and LeBron-
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"The Hornets and Nuggets owe it to their fans and themselves to keep their franchise stars as long as the rules will allow. Teams spend years, even decades, trying to unearth ballers on the level of Anthony and Paul. Why trade them now, when neither player has significant leverage?

Highlight the following sentence and remember it for the next year. If the Hornets deal Paul, Shinn should disband or relocate the franchise. Stern should force the Nuggets to incorporate "minor league" in the team name. If that bold statement aggrieves you, reconsider your position.

If no trade partner will offer Denver and New Orleans a package of equal value, say LeBron for 'Melo or Deron Williams for CP3, it makes little sense to pull the transaction trigger in August. If the Nuggets or Hornets net draft picks, future cap space, and a trade exception, they will use all of the above to seek replacements. History says they will fail.

Why should Dell Demps wait for a future Paul when he employs the real thing now? Why should Denver's brain trust embrace fatuity and donate Anthony to the Big Apple or Hollywood? Because Lakers and Knicks fans say so? Because Orlando Magic GM Otis Smith would welcome Paul alongside Dwight Howard?"

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-- Detroit Free Press

Former Piston Allen Iverson could find work soon.

The four-time NBA scoring champ has drawn interest from the Magic and the Hornets, according to a tweet by Ohio-based NBA.com writer Sam Amico, who cited "those who claim to be in the know."

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Joe's take- sure hope not.

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-- Art Garcia, NBA.com

Crisis management and the willingness to stick your neck out are two of the many traits needed in a GM. Demps, on the job less than a month, has already Video dealt head on with Chris Paul rumors and pulled off a major trade. Welcome to the hot seat, Dell.

On his first full day on the job, Demps -- along with new coach and old friend Monty Williams -- met with Paul to discuss the star point guard's future with the Hornets. The parties involved insisted that Paul is committed to New Orleans. To that end, Demps traded for Houston swingman Trevor Ariza last week in an ongoing effort to upgrade the roster around CP3.

Demps, 40, comes to New Orleans after serving five years in San Antonio's director of player personnel. He also served as general manager of the Spurs-owned NBA D-League affiliate, the Austin Toros. A teammate of Williams in the mid-1990s, Demps enjoyed a 10-year playing career that included stops overseas. After retiring, he worked as a D-League assistant before joining New York as a scout in 2003.

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-- Times-Picayune

The New Orleans Hornets released five partial plans for the 2010-2011 season today, giving fans the first opportunity to purchase ticket packages other than full season tickets. Partial plans include two-half season and three 12-game plans, including the very popular Weekend Plan.

By placing a $100 per seat initial payment per seat, fans will also have access to attend the exclusive partial plan select-a-seat event on Saturday, Sept. 18 at the New Orleans Arena where they can select their actual seats for games.

. . .

The Hornets are also introducing variable pricing for the 2010-2011 season which will better reflect each individual game’s actual value. Prices will be assigned to individual games based on the value and expected demand for that game according to factors such as the opponent and day of the week. Each game will fall into one of five categories: Marquee, Premium, Classic, Value and Preseason.

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-- Marc Stein, ESPN.com

Why, on Aug. 18, is Louis Amundson still available?

With his high-energy contributions throughout Phoenix’s thoroughly unexpected run to the Western Conference finals, Amundson didn’t merely cement his standing as a fan favorite in the desert. He legitimately emerged as one of the faces synonymous with the Suns’ vaunted bench bunch last season, which had Phoenix privately fearful throughout the playoffs that Amundson could attract some decent free-agent dollars in spite of his well-chronicled limitations as an offensively-challenged power forward who’s also undersized.

. . .

It appears, though, that Amundson’s wait might finally be ending. Sources close to the situation say that the 6-foot-9, 225-pounder is inching closer to a decision, with at least three teams known to be actively in pursuit – Golden State, New Orleans and Indiana. One source says an unidentified fourth team remains in the mix.

Another source told ESPN.com that the Hornets and Warriors are making the hardest push, but the Pacers have not been shy about their need for another big man after using Troy Murphy’s expiring contract last week to help facilitate the four-team traded that netted the point guard Indy has long coveted in Darren Collison

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-- Ira Winderman, NBCSports.com

I've seen this four-way deal summed up by numerous outlets as a win-win-win-win proposition. I'm not buying.

From the Hornets' perspective, my question would be this: Would New Orleans have made this trade if it would have been a straight-up-deal sending out Darren Collison and acquiring Ariza?

My suspicion is the Hornets would not have made such a move.

. . .

The deal appears to have been made because it also allowed the Hornets to unload the final two years on James Posey's contract, when he was due $6.5 million and $6.9 million.

To me, that makes New Orleans' end of the deal a salary dump. If you are Paul and your team is involved in salary dumps, how could that create optimism for your team's near-term outlook?

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-- John DeShazier, The Times-Picayune

“He’s just like this town, ” Williams said. “He’s been beat up a little bit, but he’s not down and out.”

Actually, Ariza, acquired in a four-team trade that, of significance to Hornets fans, brought him from Houston and sent promising guard Darren Collison and fading forward James Posey to Indiana, is far from down and out. And nothing Ariza said in his formal introduction to the city changed that opinion.

For years the Hornets have needed to draft, acquire, steal or luck into a proven, athletic wing player. They’ve desperately needed to find a player who was a scoring threat on one end, and actually was capable of guarding a 20-point scorer on the other.

Ariza has done that, can do that and will do that in New Orleans.

“He’s not a piece, ” General Manager Dell Demps said. “He’s a big part of what we’re trying to do here.”

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