Hornets Hype

It’s Round 2 of HoopsAddict.com’s Floor Burn Tournament, celebrating all things hustle. Had we known that Ryan Bowen was going to re-sign, we surely would’ve nominated him.  But as we said last week, it’s Ju-Ju. And he kicked a$$ in the first round!

So let’s make sure he shines in Round 2 against the Blazers’ Joel Przybilla. The vote is close, so go vote now!  Tell all your friends!

Let’s go live this time, and break it down quarter by quarter.

Q1: off to a sluggish start, and the two teams are only separated by a few points. Every time I think any of the starters are playing well, they do something dumb. Hard to feel too confident about our play. Yet Coach K is not too worried and waits until about the 5:00 mark to bring in CP, Wade, and Bosh, leaving Kobe and Lebron out with them. I mean, I guess Lebron can play the 4, but let’s see if he has the commitment to play down low and rebound. Well, we won’t find out now. Not content, Coach K puts in D-Will and T. Prince. Prince comes out hot, getting a 3 and a steal and a jam. Bosh and Wade both look great. I still don’t like CP and D-Will at the same time, though. In fact, the Jazz just botched a would-be assist from CP.

Q2:Coach comes back with Kidd, D-Will, Redd, ‘Melo, and Howard. Howard finally starting to dominate. And why not, they say the guy guarding him is several inches shorter. I mean, why not pump it into him every time? I’ve started to notice that though they keep saying the Angola team is smaller, whoever is at the 3 is torching our out of place 3s, shooting over them and dunking on them. Coach K must still be experimenting; he goes to CP, Redd, Bryant, Lebron, and Boozer. Boozer struggling defensively at the 5; and just got schooled at the other end. Feel free to put in a real 5, Coach. Yes, they are a small team, but why not use what size you have to your advantage? Howard was killing them. Why not sub in Bosh at 5 and Boozer at 4? Lebron, other than a volleyball-style kill block just now hasn’t done anything at the 4. In fact, Angola is on an 8-0 run. Honestly, Wade is keeping the team going. In contrast, the ‘92 Dream Team was tied at 7-7 against Angola. Then went on a 40-1 run. Yeah. No typo there. Forty-to-One. Great steal and fast break instigated by CP, Kobe makes the extra pass to Lebron, who subsequently elbows the Angolan player in the back at full speed and somehow picks up a foul. Soon thereafter, Lebron goes coast-to-coast for the dunk, and somehow they figure to call him unselfish. This about the guy CP had to yell at to let him do what he does and bring the ball up court? CP with back-to-back steals now; he’s starting to look comfortable. Lebron is going to show like 12 points this quarter, but at least four of those baskets have been lay-ups or dunks on the break pushed by CP. I’m not going to pretend I’m not biased, but it’s CP who deserves the credit for those; and I’m not talking about getting assists, I’m saying the lead got pushed to 55-37, and you shouldn’t look to Lebron as the reason why.

Q3: Kidd continues to be completely unimpressive. I’m not only starting to wonder why he starts, but why he’s on this team. Did Doug Collins just say Kidd is a good 3 point shooter? NBA.com says he’s a 33.7% career 3-point shooter, Doug. Kobe is really struggling this game. Man, Angola has actually shortened our lead so far. Okay, a few steals, blocks, and dunks, and it’s back out to 22. Obviously we’re a better team, but can we beat Spain, Argentina, or even Greece with this level of play? No defense from this team, a few missed shots on this end, followed by some 3s on the other, and Angola is on another 8-0 run. So Coach goes back to CP, D-Will, Wade, Lebron, and Bosh. Lead is at 17, so let’s see what happens. Whoa, D-Will to D-Wade, massive dunk. Good O. Interesting, we’re essentially playing 2-on-5. We keep seeing one guy making moves, and other other breaking to the basket, or falling back to shoot a jumper. Noticeably, these plays do not involve CP. It’s D-Will, Wade, and Lebron, mostly. I have to admit, it’s working now, but I’d like to see more ball movement across the floor, and more players involved in each set. I’m not sure this works against a better team. In a time-out break, they explain how some of the guys went to the Great Wall. “No way I was coming to China without seeing the Great Wall,” said Bosh. Nice to see some cultural appreciation. The announcers spend most of the rest of the quarter talking about how CP sparked the team tonight, and then to prove their point, The One picks up a loose ball and throws in his trademark tear-drop over four outstretched Angolans, to lead the team to a 81-53 lead after three. Memo to Coach K and Cavs fans: Team USA looked 100% better after Lebron sat down and CP was able to get guys to play together.

Q4: The team starts with the same line-up of CP, D-Will, Wade, Prince, and Bosh. Let’s see if Chris can continue to get the guys to play together. Nice ball movement finally between CP and D-Will, and Bosh gets an easy basket inside. Good start. Bosh then pulls an oops on the other end, backing away from the guy leaning into him, and the Angolan travels. How scary might him and O’Neal be together next year? The Angolan coach might be wondering that, or maybe anything else, as he sits quietly, his eyes vacant; I can only assuming he’s gone to his happy place, trying to avoid the pain of this game. Hmmm…feeling successful, Coach goes to Boozer at the 5. I know Carlos wants to play, but he’s got to be sick of playing out of position. Prince is lanky enough to stretch to 4 at 6′9″, but he’s so thin, to have him and Boozer as your big guys? Apparently Redd came in for Wade at some point, too. Redd at 6′6″ I suppose is physically more suited to be a 3 than Wade at 6′3″, but Wade’s game actually translates better to the 3. ‘Melo now in for Prince. I’m not sure how Coach expects his PGs to run the offense when you have different players with different capabilities at different positions coming in and out of the line-up constantly. Can a college coach really coach these level of players? It’s not always about having the best 12 or having plenty of energy. It’s about finding the best eight guys and letting them destroy the competition. Lead hasn’t changed this quarter. Still at 28 with three and a half left. Little of note down the stretch, the Angolans get a little closer, and the game wraps at 97-76.

Man, I’m excited to get another big win, but I think Coach K is really struggling to find the line-ups he likes, and the players who depend on consistent team roles seem to be struggling. I think he really needs to better define each guy’s role and keep it consistent. If you haven’t played with the other guys on the floor prior to the last month, you’ve only played a few games together, and you keep coming in at different spots, for different lengths, and at different times, I’m not sure you are able to be comfortable in what role you are playing for this team. Well, enough complaining.

CP Rules!

Game one was an expected victory, as the U.S.A. beat China 101-70.  China’s starters were impressive, and held the game close through one, but ultimately lacked the depth to compete with our guys.  When you have CP, Wade, and Bosh coming off the bench as your second line, you know the other team is totally screwed.  Some observations from Game 1:

• Yao: the man is a national treasure, and opened the game with a 3 pointer to put China in the lead.  Amazing start for China, and a dream come true for Yao.  He played a decent game, at times looking dominant, with 3 blocks and 10 boards, and some nice shots, but surprisingly was only 3-10 from the field.
• The Three Point Line: was eerily similar to a bad Hornets game early on, as they started out like 7-11 and us 1-9, although we ended up at 10-27 for them and 7-24 for us.  This has been a past Achilles Heel for the team, and may yet prove troublesome; we’re not guarding the line, and we can’t shoot from there consistently, despite our all-star line-up.  I know we are adapting to international rules, and that is smart, but I’m starting to wonder if the guys should be standing a few feet behind the line?  Think about it, but crowding everything in, the lanes are getting clogged, which stops our penetration (and certainly affects CP’s game).
• The Rotation: everyone and their mother is criticizing Kidd, and even Doug Collins called out the fact that the Chinese weren’t guarding him.  So why start him?  Especially when Coach obstinately refuses to play Boozer or Prince.  Yes, there are 12 guys and only 40 minutes, but with Coach K subbing guys faster than I can figure out who’s on the floor (their numbers are mostly different than from the regular season, and they inexplicably have white letters over white jerseys for their names), he somehow manages to keep these two guys out of everything but garbage time.  Also, why does Coach insist on putting in line-ups like CP, D-Will, and Redd AT THE SAME TIME?  It doesn’t make sense.  Use your 1-5 players; they’re used to playing those positions and will be better at offensive spacing and defensive rotations.  For example, CP seems lost when D-Will is bringing the ball up, and while DW is getting raves for his “zone-busting” drives, he seems unsure of how to move without the ball.
• Lebron: yes, the man is a freakish talent. Yes, he can explode past three men unawares and rise to the rim.  But when in the half-court, he is predictable.  Either he jacks up an unexpected 3 and no one is ready to rebound, or he does an iso stubbornly refuses to pass, at which point the other team collapses.  Boring.  And stupid.
• Dee-wayne-Wade: the.  Man.  Is.  On.  Fire.  7-7 from the field and 5-5 from the line.  I’m starting to believe he didn’t just heal up over the end of the last season.  It might be something more even than HGH.  Maybe.  Maybe.  They can rebuild him.  They have the technology…(whoosh whoosh whoosh)…he’s bionic!
• The Fives: Dwight Howard looked flustered going up against Yao; he smashed home a bunch of dunks, but got only TWO rebounds in 21 minutes, and zero steals or assists.  Meanwhile, Bosh subbed in for him and outmaneuvered everyone.  He nabbed 8 rebounds, got 9 points on 4-4 shooting, and had 3 steals.  In 13 minutes.  Wow.
• Sun Yue: the “Chinese Magic Johnson,” just signed by the Lakers, looked impressive.  Altough he is the only professional basketball player other than Reggie Miller and Shawn Bradley to actually be skinnier Tayshaun Prince, he was all over the place, bringing home 8 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound, 1 steal, and 1 awesome block on Dwight Howard.  Yeah, you heard that last part right.
• Carmelo:  well, he was 3-4 from the line.  Otherwise he didn’t hit anything and only pulled down 4 boards, got 1 steal, and no assists.  Hardly the “most dominating PF in the international game.”  On the other hand, Boozer?  5 pts, 50% FG%, 3 boards, 1 steal and 1 assist in 6 less minutes than ‘Melo.  Good call coach.  Oh, and by the way, the two PFs combined posted 22 minutes.  Lebron played a lot of 4.  So did 113 pound T. Prince.  Again, good move coach.  (Add to that the fact that Boozer also played the 5 some and, again, we have to wonder, hindsight notwithstanding, what Team USA was thinking bringing 3 PGs [plus the ball-hog Lebron], while leaving home Tyson.)
• Kobe: surprisingly, though he had a modestly good game, the Dobermamba was 1-7 from deep.  Ordinarily a good 3 point shooter, it’s surprising he had trouble with this shorter line, from where he should be money.  I know some people will pile on here, but as Americans, we should all be concerned about that.

Obviously, as the score will attest, it was a good game.  We won.  We won big.  Just as you’ve no doubt read elsewhere over and over, our ball-hawking, aggressive defense keyed quite a lot of fast break easy buckets.  But there were a lot of problems we need to work out.  So let’s hope the game tomorrow against Angola will enable Coach K to figure them out.

these electronically stored zeroes and ones with the world, which results in words and images slow-loading or snap-loading, depending upon your WWW connection, onto your screen. And all to know that too tall too strong overpaid gladiators will kill lions for another team this year–or in Europe. Enjoy, you animals.

• Someone decided not to let lie the sleeping bear; only instead of roaring, it sniffled, poo-pooed its waker, and whispered that a measly $11.6 million per year, for five of them, would be enough to buy the summer’s most coveted restricted free agent, when the Grizzly has about forty-seven billion under its cap, hasn’t spent anything all summer, and the I-don’t-want-to-be-a-Hawk-and-am-not-cool-with-my-head-coach-player in question’s team had vowed to retain him. Seriously? Were they upset that they didn’t have another Pao Gasol to give away? Perhaps Chris Wallace has Alzheimer’s? News flash: the Hawks giddily matched, dancing their way to the bank, counting all the way the money they don’t have to pay their biggest name.
• Dear God, man, who knew it? Who knew it? Mike James is the next big name in the game of orange balls! Well, he does have the initials MJ. So did Michael Jordan, you know. And Magic Johnson. And, maybe, kind of, the “Chinese Magic Johnson.” Yup. He exists (CMJ, not MJ (James)). A.K.A. Sun Yue. At 1.8288 meters and 96.1615 kilograms (6′9″, 212 lbs. you anachronisms!), he is the archetypal point forward, just like MJ (Earvin). He was drafted by last year’s last losers in 2007 and can be glimpsed this year getting pummeled by other, better teams in the Olympics. And then on the end of L.A.’s bench next to Coby Karl.
• Some people like white chocolate, nothing wrong with that. But it’s dark chocolate that has the health benefits such as, among other things, lower blood pressure. So if the Clippers have done anything right this summer, it’s not throwing wads of cash at White Chocolate and pretending it’s a big move. Jason Williams got his new team, his new deal, but the 32-year-old is a back-up now, and the Clippers’ fans’ blood pressure can rest easier knowing that B-Diddy is their mainstay. And when Dark Chocolate’s knee/ankle/back/[insert injured body part here] goes out, the Clips know they have a starter-quality point guard they can rely on. Albeit, one that causes higher blood pressure.
• By the way, the reason we’re even talking about antioxidant-rich food is because the Clips first choice for their second point guard turned them down. Their former first point guard, Shaun Livingston, was offered a one-year guaranteed contract and said no. Interesting. No one knows if the man can take practice, let alone a full speed game, and he said no. Hmmm. Ask the 76ers second center, Jason Smith, how fragile these things are. He just blew out his ACL without any contact being made in practice. Wonder if his contract’s guaranteed? Then again, even making a pro-rata minimum (like G, Shannon Brown, who just signed with the Bobcats for 1-year and $800,000 following his 2nd season), the amount of which depends upon how long you’ve been in the league, is more than any one person could ever deserve to earn. These capitalist pigs will be the death of us all, I say!
• While we’re on the subject of the Clippers (are we? Damn, how did that happen!?), the other-L.A.-team also made the masterful move of swooping down and gathering in freakishly tall sharpshooter Steve Novak from the Rockets. He’s so valuable, the Rockets received the option of switching second round picks with the Clips in 2011. What?
• The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling! some say. It’s all Much Ado about Nothing! others say. Ballers to the Euroleagues is no big deal. Or maybe it is. Unless–they ALL say–you know, we lose someone like “King James”, LBJ, “Video-Game James,” or “The Chosen One.” Then it’s real. Then we’re in trouble. Then Boston and L.A. and the Knickerbockers can finally dispense with the cap to compete globally and buy their championships just like baseball teams. But that won’t happen. It won’t. Unless, those guys in question say, each doing something different around the pool, they pay him $50 mil a year. Or help him become a billionaire. Even MJ (Michael) lost a good $11 mil or so out of his $30 mil a year to taxes. But not if you play for the right team in Europe. Then THEY pay your taxes; what you read in the papers is what you keep (minus what you pay your agent, your publicist, your chef, your housekeeper, and the dozens of other blood-thirsty man-servant leeches). Think it’s crazy? Dime Magazine unearthed some interesting comments from ‘07, where the Lebrons talked about going global. Does it all fit into some masterplan? Think about it. Let’s say you’re a bank teller in Metairie. They pay you $10 an hour for 40 hours a week, 2 breaks a day, and an unpaid lunch. Only you talk to some cat from Greece while on vacation in the mediterranean and learn that their bank tellers make $50 an hour, work 30 hours a week, get several weeks more vacation, and their employers pay their taxes. Could you say you wouldn’t do it? It’s a global world, man. (Postscript: Kobe says he won’t sign an extension until he tests the global market. Read: I’ve won a scoring title, an MVP, and a championship, what do I have left to prove other than that I can get more money than Lebron from Euro teams with no cap?) P.S.S. What’s three inches shorter than me, weighs about twenty pounds less, and will make about 3.5 million more a year than I ever will in the coming year? Earl Boykins. Italian League. Virtus Bologna. [Author shakes his head dejectedly...]
• The floor, the floor, the floor is on fire. So for fuck’s sake go vote in the Floor Burn Tournament and give Ju-Ju his props. Vote! Vote again. Vote from a different computer. Trick the statistical gods with celebratory defiance! Hahaha! The man is only winning by 1449 votes, so get out there and Hype him!
• Meanwhile, in their effort to regain legitimacy, and to fill the gap at PG, the Heat signed former-Nugget, swingman forward, Yakhouba Diawara. He’s over 3 in reverse dog-years and started his career in the French leagues. Whoo.
• And what the hell is wrong with Oklahoma City? Wait. Scratch that. What the hell is wrong with Oklahoma City’s NBA franchise? When internet evidence pointed to their franchise being named the Thunder, they pulled the website. Just pick a fucking name already. No one’s going to care anyway.
• Darko hurt his Achilles playing with the Serbian National Team. Bummer. You gotta feel for a kid that’ so young and has struggled so much on the floor to be what people want him to be. No, not really, the man’s made obscene amounts of money just to disappoint people. We should all be so lucky.
• Toronto Globe and Mail reporter questioning Chris Bosh–Q: “Chris, would you take this opportunity [at the Olympics] to make a political statement?” A: “No.” Q: “Have you been instructed not to?” A: “Yes. It’s a no-win situation these days.” But ITS THOSE CHINESE COMMUNIST PIGS THAT CENSOR US!!! With their damn socialism, equal pay for disparate jobs, healthcare-for-all, government controlled propaganda….oh.
• Scraps to end, Warriors sign G, Anthony Morrow, and Cavs sign G, Tarence Kinsey. ‘Cause, you know, neither had enough players that you’d never heard of.

Just because, I’ll sign off with Kobe’s quote when asked about playing overseas: “I’d probably go,” Bryant said. “Like Milan or something like that, where I grew up … Peace out. Do you know any reasonable person that would turn down 50?” Nuff said.

Just kidding. This is a Hornets site. I leave you with this quote from SI.com:

Though Team USA boasts an eye-popping 49-0 record all-time when Kidd is listed on the roster, blind adherance to the history book is the worst mistake Mike Krzyzewski could make. The sooner Chris Paul takes over primary duties at the point, the better America’s chances to reclaim the gold.

That’s the end. For now.

Iowa’s Hawk Eye is reporting that on Friday Ryan Bowen has signed a one year deal to come back to the team.  No word yet on the amount.  I like the move.

He lost the hat, though. Awww… The hats were cute. (But wait. According to TV, these outfits haven’t happened yet. Carry on. Nothing to see here.)

It looks like Rasual Butler may escape criminal charges related to his Florida arrest on gun-related charges. The Times Picayune is reporting that the charges will be dropped if he complies with the negotiated terms: that “Butler must donate $500, which is equal to the charge’s appropriate fine, to the “Do the Right Thing” program for kids in the Miami community, perform 50 hours of community service in Dade County, take and complete an appropriate weapons education program in which he will be taught the safe and appropriate handling of a firearm, and renews his personal firearm license, which had lapsed.”

Lucky move, Rasual.  Learn from this and move on.   

The next step on the road to total Hornets world domination has been achieved. And we are very, very pleased.

Last year the Hornets had only 2 nationally televised games on the schedule. Granted, they got an ABC game thrown in there late, when it became obvious in March that something exciting was going down in New Orleans. The end result of this was that the parts of the world that don’t have Bob and Gil on CST all “discovered” Chris Paul at the same time when Game One against Dallas went live on April 18th. So while a couple of games were added to the national schedule in the 2007-08 season, for the purposes of this post, we’ll state that there were two Hornets games on ESPN’s schedule at this point last year.

This year there are 13.

Thirteen! Whoo!  Nine on ESPN, three on TNT, and one on ABC. We’ve also bagged two major holidays in Thanksgiving and Christmas. For greater breakdown of the pros and cons of the 2008-09 schedule, cruise on over to Big Easy Buzz. It’s important to note that this isn’t counting NBATV, which hasn’t come out with its schedule yet. So all the sports package folks not in the immediate area can probably look forward to greater Hornets goodness.

The Hornets are coming for you. Worldwide.

But the most important date? Saturday, November 1. 7:00 PM. Cleveland Cavaliers. New Orleans Arena. You want to be there.

Full 2008-09 schedule here.

Hoops Addict is doing a pretty cool Floor Burn Tournament. The first round is up right now and voting runs through August 11th. It’s basically about recognizing hustle players vs. stars who get hype all the time. Here’s the description:

Each night ESPN, NBA.com and YouTube are flooded with clips of players soaring through the air for rim rocking dunks, buzzer beating three-pointers and blocked shots that make your jaw drop in amazement. While those are all entertaining plays, teams who win championships need players who are willing to get a little dirty and do the little things needed to help their team win. As valuable and crucial as these players are to their respective teams success, these players rarely get the credit or respect that they deserve.

(Note: We wrote up a description for both Ryan Bowen, the Captain of Hustle, and Julian Wright, the Giraffe Calf, but the Hornets haven’t resigned Bowen (yet?) for next year, so therefore the Hornets are being represented by JuJu.) Said mW:

“The man is a physical freak; with a wingspan longer than you’d expect, explosive speed, and the intelligence to read opposing players and anticipate their moves, Ju-Ju has quickly become one of the Hornets’ best defenders, while simultaneously snagging steals left and right when he’s not hopping around for boards. He may not have dominated the stat sheet like other rookies last year, but he did a little of everything and was a total hustle player.”

Anyway, he’s up against Damien Wilkins from Seattle/OKC, so go vote for JuJu!

Edited to Add:

1) The Hornets’ schedule is supposedly going to be out tomorrow around noon.

2) If Jannero Pargo signs with the Spurs I will get violent.

That is all.

(Photo credit: Storm Surge Photography)

It has been brought to my attention (thanks, Matt!) that the Hornets folks are sending out an e-mail asking fans to provide their input on 300-Level Concessions improvements that they want to see for 2008-09.

As some of you may know, one of the foundations upon which this blog/movement was built is the gradual removal of local favorite Abita Beer from all New Orleans Arena concessions. (No, seriously.) We have lamented the lack of Abita on several occasions.

So now I am totally co-opting their survey in order to further our own Abita agenda. Please please click the link and tell them it’s not the N.O.L.A. without the A.B.I.T.A. It will take like 30 seconds, I promise. Do not let this opportunity to help knock an item permanently off the $#*t List pass us by! (And you know, like, if you actually sit in the 300-level, to tell them other things like you want healthier food and chairs to sit in, which are also totally things I can get behind. Because we were up there for the All Star Game and I was thinking, “Man, this is the sad little stepchild of concourses.” And then I thought, “Oh, there’s Jamario Moon walking by!” and got completely distracted.)

N.O. Arena Concessions Survey– Click here and remember to write in Abita on the last page!

It is for the good of all of us in this great city. The people demand Abita.