The key is to get into the playoffs. Right now the Western Conference is a game of musical chairs, with 9 teams fighting for 8 spots. The Hornets can beat any of these teams, so the key is simply to get in, and to do that we especially need Chris Paul healthy. Talk about a marathon, with the Olympics, that’s Chris Paul this year. If we can’t beat the Bulls and T-Wolves without him, we’ll steal some wins after the All-Star break.

The biggest problem I’m having lately is that we look old and tired right now. Posey has played some heavy minutes. I have been shocked all year that we play so slowly, frequently we don’t get deep into our offense until less than 10 seconds are left on the shot clock. Our pacing is among the slowest in the NBA, and that doesn’t go with my idea of the strengths of a CP3 team. I think buried in this is how much we need an active, sprinting Tyson Chandler in transition because when Tyson runs after misses, even trailing, we always punish teams. Chandler and West play good D together, and opponents worry so much about Chandler dunking on their heads in pick’n'roll that it opens every other option on offense that much more. We need the big fella!

Take a deep breath, y’all and get ready for Krewe du Vieux. Let’s get our guys healthy and wreak some havoc when they are back. We’ll address our lack of a #2 scorer who can get his shot whenever he needs to, like Pargo or Bobby Jackson, either via trade or in the offseason. Until then admire the raging hustle of Ryan Bowen and hype his invisible stats contribution to the passion & pride of a still dangerous team. We lose this bad when CP is hurt, it only makes him look more like the MVP when we get healthy and start ripping wins in a row.

And, you are definitely onto something with the Peja (to tan or not to tan) theory. I’m all for Pasty Peja. Ghostly Peja would be even better. Sometimes, he does seem to magically become wide open behind the 3pt line.

These are excellent questions. I myself have maintained that Peja’s shooting slump can be directly connected to the fact that he appears to be tanning this year, whereas he was superpale by this time last season. I think maybe he needs to be pasty to shoot the three ball well. So it’s entirely possible in Pose’s case that it could be the fade. It’s a good theory. And I am totally feeling your pain, as I also am a huge Posey fan.

But I have to agree that there’s a certain point you reach. I think he should have come out for Julian after the fourth foul. Whatever “it” is, he just doesn’t have it right now. He doesn’t even look confident shooting. I was at the game tonight, and he was still sitting on the bench at the end of the game after everyone else had gone in the locker room. He knows.

Where’s my sad Posey face?

<— sad Posey face

But it boils to expectations, which everybody set extremely high at the beginning of the season. Even when we struggled against Golden State for the first game, people starting finding faults. That’s only attributed to overly high expectations. Folks don’t realize what the Hornets are really doing, what we’re running, our style; and these same folks don’t remember that 18-win season.

Of course, this coming from the fan who doesn’t really like the coach, heh. Aside from that, it’s all just frustration, at least from me. The league gave us a workable opposition in March, so that’s when we’ll have to see if the Bees can capitalize and rest up for the stretch.

My question now is, when healthy and not coming off of an injury, what is considered a bad stretch? How many games of mediocre performance can a player have before it is “acceptable” for a fan of the team to want to see that player sit on the bench? And, most importantly, can getting a fresh fade mess up a player’s mojo? If so, does it generally come back when the hair grows back?

BTW- I’m not quitting the hornets or Posey (even after tonight’s performance 1 of 6, he did hit his free throws.)

Never sat in anything but the 300′s.