Hornets Hype

Don’t be surprised if you see a lot of Marcus Thornton this year.  TT6 calls him Lil’ Buckets, after a night of torrid shooting earlier this preseason, when he seemed to be making it rain buckets.  A second round pick, yes, but not afraid to shoot, and boy can he.  The man has a quick release, a sweet motion, and finds the bottom of the net more than most other cats in Creole.  He gives me that warm kind of feeling inside.

Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images

Tonight, against the Pacers, he got his second start of the preseason.  And it went well.  He had 19 points in 34 minutes of playing time, along with 7 boards, 2 assists, and only 1 turnover, and 2 fouls.  He also had a plus/minus of +5.  Not bad for a rookie.

He started off a bit tentative, and seemed not always confident about where he should be, spacing-wise.  But then a Pacer goaltend gave him a basket, and after that, he seemed to move with a bit more purpose.  He started to find his spots better on the floor, and when his defender wouldn’t give him the room to shoot, he was aggressive going to the basket, and got the calls.  Smart play.

The supposed weakness of his NBA game, defense?  His main opponent, Dahntay Jones, who aside for being known for having parents that can’t spell, is pretty much only known for being rough on CP last year in the playoffs.  (He was jeered and booed by the home crowd, who won’t forgive or forget.)  Jones managed to get a couple open cutters under the basket to make his statline look decent, but had a -14 plus/minus.  His other assignment, Brandon Rush, was 1-4 from the lane.  I can live with both stats.

Byron Scott isn’t known for playing rookies.  But he’d be absolutely out of his gourd to not play Lil’ Buckets.  A lot.

Your annual look at the Hornets promotional calendar, hitting all the highlights (ie: the days that things are given to you for free). So if you’re still looking at which games you might want to attend, mark down these days.

Oh, and just FYI, I am excluding the games where the giveaway is Thunderstix. No particular reason, other than that I personally think they suck:

• 10/17 preseason vs. Pacers– Hornets schedule magnets (everyone)
• 10/30 home opener vs. Warriors– Opening Night t-shirts (everyone)
• 11/6 vs. Raptors– Hornets jersey keychains (first 10,000)
• 11/17 vs. Clippers– Go Green bag (first 10,000)
• 12/4 vs. Timberwolves– Emeka Okafor bobblehead (first 10,000)
• 12/16 vs. Pistons– Honeybee posters (first 10,000)
• 12/23 vs. Warriors– Hornets Christmas ornament (first 8,000)
• 12/30 vs. Heat– “BEE a Designated Driver” T-Shirts… ho ho what a great pun (first 8,000)
• 1/2 vs. Rockets– Mardi Gras mini-basketball (first 4,000 kids)
• 1/8 vs. Nets– Elvis Night. No giveaway listed, it just made me snicker.
• 1/29 vs. Bulls– Mardi Gras youth arm sleeve (first 4,000 kids)
• 2/5 vs. Sixers– Chris Paul Mardi Gras bobblehead. I must own this. (first 10,000)
• 2/10 vs. Celtics– Mardi Gras beads (first 10,000)
• 2/21 vs. Rockets– Mardi Gras youth jerseys (first 4,000 kids)
• 3/22 vs. Mavs– Hornets team poster (first 10,000)
• 4/9 vs. Jazz– Mardi Gras youth shorts (first 4,000 kids– hell, these kids are gonna have a whole freakin Mardi Gras outfit by the time this season is over)

Here are all the links you need to catch up on what all our big rival bloggers think their teams are going to do this year. (I haven’t read them all, but let me hazard a guess that everyone thinks their team could win the Division except the Grizzles and maybe the Rockets.)

Dallas Mavericks

Mavs Moneyball | The Two Man Game | NBA Mate

Houston Rockets

The Dream Shake | Ballerblogger

Memphis Grizzlies

3 Shades of Blue

New Orleans Hornets

At The Hive | Hornets Hype

San Antonio Spurs

Pounding The Rock | Project Spurs

And once again, shout out to Celtics Blog for putting together and hosting the whole NBA preview shindig!

Team Name: New Orleans Hornets

Last Year’s Record: 49-33, 7 seed West, first round playoff exit

Key Losses: Tyson Chandler, Rasual Butler, Antonio Daniels, Ryan Bowen, Melvin Ely

Key Additions: Emeka Okafor, Darius Songaila, Ike Diogu, Bobby Brown, Marcus Thornton, Darren Collison

Reasons to Smile, Reasons to Be Cautious

What Significant Moves were made during the off-season?

C Tyson Chandler was traded to the Charlotte Bobcats for C Emeka Okafor. Rasual Butler, who took over Mo Peterson’s spot as the starting 2 guard last year when Mo was hurt and ended up keeping it, was traded to the Clippers. Aging backup PG Antonio Daniels went to the T-Wolves for PF Darius Songaila and not-so-aging PG Bobby Brown. The Hornets drafted PG Collison and SG Thornton. Intrigueingly potential-ful (*not a real word) PF Ike Diogu was signed in free agency. As you can see, every move was specifically made with 2 objectives in mind: 1) Get David West better backups so he isn’t playing 38 MPG and 2) Get Chris Paul better backups so he isn’t playing 38 MPG.

What are the team’s biggest strengths?

1) Chris Paul. There is a shortlist of teams in the league that you can never count out, because they have a player who can put everyone else on their back and drag them where he wants them to go through sheer talent. Those teams are Miami, Cleveland, and New Orleans (I don’t include LA because of their depth). Chris Paul is just that good, and I don’t think I need to elaborate.

2) David West. Just a matchup problem for other teams because he’s big and yet he’s a killer with the long two. The combination of him and Okafor on the frontline could be more potent than the West/Chandler combo.

3) Potential! Talent! Rookies! Fun! The Hornets actually did what I’d been begging for last year and got younger. With two rookies on the roster and guys like Bobby Brown and Ike Diogu who haven’t had a chance to show what they can do yet, this could be exciting. (Or a disaster. But I put it in strengths, so we’ll focus on exciting.) Last year’s team just looked old and dragging, especially toward the end of the year, and especially the bench. Even Emeka Okafor is an unknown quantity when paired with Chris Paul.

What are the team’s biggest weaknesses?

1) Too many new faces in the starting lineup.

2) Lots of swingmen who are either going to have solid seasons or lose a step due to being 32ish.

3) That quick athletic pure scorer-type SG or SF who we don’t actually have, who combined with Okafor+West+Paul would take this team to the elite level. This guy is a weakness because, as aforementioned, we don’t have him.

4) See Strength #3 and Weakness #1. The Hornets upgraded the talent level of the bench. They might suck anyway. That’s the problem with unknown quantities.

What are the goals for this team?

From what we hear coming out of training camp, they’re aiming high. However, some bad contracts and the salary cap hampered their moves in the offseason– the fact that they were able to get better in spite of this is actually rather remarkable– and I think we all know they’re missing one or two pieces for the future championship run they want to make. I think these Hornets can be second in the Southwest Division, and I think we’d be satisfied with a second round appearance.

What does Hornets Hype mean when you keep referring to The First Rule?

It’s like Fight Club. The First Rule of the Denver 58 point playoff beatdown is: we don’t talk about the Denver 58 point playoff beatdown. The Second Rule of the Denver 58 point playoff beatdown? You guessed it: we don’t talk about the Denver 58 point playoff beatdown. Seriously, though, this is something that’s crucial to the team as well as the fans. If you have never seen the team you follow look as utterly bone-deep tired and hopeless as I saw the Hornets look that night against Denver, I hope you never have to. But the point is the team needs to find a way to move on.

I believe the Hornets believed they were destined to be “The Next Big Thing” after their run in 2007-08. Now, of course no one will admit this. But you could see that the underdog fire they rode to the top of the West in 2008 just wasn’t there at times last season. Great teams find a way to maintain that fire, and to know that things are not going to be handed to you. So, I say the Hornets need to remember the First Rule. 2007-08 is gone. Last year’s playoffs are gone. The old faces who used to be on the team are gone. The Tyson Chandler trade saga? Done. Over. This year let’s only look forward.

You know what? I’ve broken the rule 4 times just by explaining this to you, and I am really not comfortable with that. So if you don’t mind, we’re going to move on before I ruin the whole season.

Projected Finish: 53-29

You know, I really no idea. I just rolled the dice, stabbed some numbers on a piece of paper with my finger with my eyes closed, and picked 53-29. Unless everyone gets hurt again, the team should be better because 4 out of the 5 offseason replacements represent a talent upgrade. The numbers just don’t support the team being worse than last year.

Iiiiiiiit’s blogger preview time, it’s blogger preview time! Today we take a cruise around the Atlantic Division to check out what the Celtics, Nets, Knicks, Sixers, and Raps bloggers think about their teams’ chances this year. (Here, I’ll even use one of the Poseys-in-a-Celtics-jersey for today’s mood, just to keep the theme alive!)

Links to all the Atlantic Division Previews below:

Boston Celtics

CelticsBlog | LOY’s Place | Celtics17 | Red’s Army | Hoops Addict | Celtics Central | Celtics Hub | Gino’s Jungle

New Jersey Nets

Slippery When Nets | Barkley’s Mouth

New York Knicks

Posting and Toasting | Bandwagon Knick

Philadelphia 76ers

Liberty Ballers

Toronto Raptors

RaptorsHQ.com | Hoops Addict

The heartless staff of Hornets.com have posted on YouTube the video evidence of the rookie humiliation that went down at Saturday’s open practice in Lafayette. Darren Collison totally did the best job, but the video of Marcus Thornton is the funniest, because D West and JuJu jump in the middle and start doing the beat– causing the rookie to stop and turn around like, “All right, who the **** is doing that?” Also featuring Darren Collison and Guy With the Braids Who Isn’t Going to Make the Team (now I feel mean about being too lazy to go and look up who he is– OK, the guilt was too much: Larry Owens), who come and help him finish up the song, James Posey MCing, Peja doing something vaguely mocking in the background, and Ike Diogu looking completely unamused. It’s sort of heart-warming… well, as heart-warming as a bunch of huge 30-ish dudes torturing college kids who can’t carry a tune can be, anyway.

Collison:

Thornton:

I dropped in on yesterday’s Hornets.com chat with Jim Eichenhofer and rookie Darren Collison, and managed to get several questions in. I thought I’d recap some important bullet points from the chat, since we did find out some new info that fans, especially local fans, will want to know.

• Season ticket sales have dropped slightly this year, understandable with the economy and the disappointing playoff showing … Remember the first rule of Fight Club, ticktock. But group sales and sponsorships are doing well.
• There will be a pep rally held somewhere downtown the Monday of the week the season starts. The reason we haven’t heard anything is they haven’t finished confirming some of the details. But you can fairly reliably put October 26th on your calendars.
• The Buzzfest will be returning! (For you out of towners, a Buzzfest is an outdoor block party with free local bands, free beers for season ticketholders, and $1 beers and hot dogs for everyone else.) They’re going to have them before every home game, weather permitting. See, we’re so spoiled that it hadn’t even occurred to me they might not have Buzzfests … but this is something we have that most NBA cities don’t have and also something that could easily have been cut out due to the poor economy. So, thank you Hornets!
• I asked which players have the coaches been most surprised with in camp, and apparently– though surprised is not the word since he’s been in the league a number of years– the Hornets staff have been impressed with Darius Songaila.
• Darren Collison said the NBA game is different from the college game in that there’s a lot more space and guys are faster getting around the floor to different spots.
• He has the best chemistry on the floor so far with Marcus, Peja, and Posey, because those are the guys he practices with (guess we’re looking at our bench!).
• He’s been in New Orleans about a month and he loves the seafood.
• He has worn the #2 since his freshman year in high school.
• His biggest goal is to improve his three point shot.
• Dariusz Ejkiewicz’s question totally won at being the best though. He asked, “Is David West as scary in real life as he is on TV?” And Darren said, “Yes. And he’s even bigger in person. But he’s a great teammate.” ….. HA!