Have faith, and gamers shall provide…

This screenshot (it’s from NBA 2K9– someone over on Hornets Report had their eyes open) seems to spoil the Hornets’ new uniforms, which are supposed to be unveiled next Wednesday afternoon. So we’ve got the fleur de bee on the sides of the shorts and on the back of the neck, as well as a bluer teal (I fully support this), and a bluer purple (matching the bluish purple that’s been showing up the second half of last season in all the official FDB stuff). I thought I’d hate the pinstripes, but this looks kinda cool. They alternate teal and purple. Can’t see much of the font from this shot, so I guess we’ll have to wait for the official jerseys. Also I’m not sure what exactly is going on with the side striping.It’s team… then blue in the middle and it widens… into a shape we can’t see because the jersey is being folded? Hmm…

I’m going to assume this is pretty close to what we’re going to see. I think I like: they’re nicely retro, and they’ve got the FDB, and vertical striping will just make Chris Paul look faster. I shall bestow my stamp of approval and go back to stirring my gumbo…

Bonus points to who can tell me what 2K got wrong about CP3 in this shot.

A revenge game, as our guys take on the team that knocked us out of the last World Championships.  This team is good and  poses a huge danger to us.  Let’s see how it goes by position, such as it is.

PG: Kidd picked up three fouls in the first two minutes.  CP’s come in and instantly improved the ball movement. He’s also smartly realized the tenor of the game and picked up two quick fouls on Greek players with his penetration drives.  This may be a factor as he drives to the rim on the fast break and the Greeks look afraid to touch him (plus the replay shows a sweet head fake like he was going to pass it off behind him).  Followed by a CP steal and feed to Kobe under the basket.  D-Will starts the 2nd, but quickly moves to the 2 when Wade goes out; CP back in, gets some nice ball movement again, but is fairly quiet.  By-the-by, at the 5:08 mark in the 2nd, we’re up 36-26.  D-Will comes back in at point; oof, he just committed an offensive foul, so that’s his second.  Surprisingly, Coach sits him (and brings back CP).  Kidd starts the 3rd.  In short order he gives up a wide open three at one end, fails to get the rebound at the other, and a few possessions later slows down a fast break; how lucky are we to have his leadership and veteran presence?  What the hell?  On a later fast break he tries to throw the ball off the backboard to a trailer and is not even close to reaching anyone.  Right.  Sit down.  CP comes in immediately, but has a few quiet minutes.  CP starts the 4th.  Schools their center on a switch, nice jumper.  Oof, then torched at the other end by a driving Spanoulis. Comes back with a nice pass to D-Will, but DW is fouled.

SG: Kobe starts off well, but picks up an early intentional foul; the Greeks are frustrating us and it shows.  Wade comes in, but for once is quiet.  D-Will then checks in; doesn’t do much.  Wade starts the 2nd, and gets a great steal and alley-oop to Kobe to start the quarter; and then another steal and a fast-break to Lebron who dunks it home. He then lands funny on a play and immediately asks to come out.  D-Will slides to the 2.  But, before he does anything, Wade comes back in, and quickly makes two nice plays on the offensive end, and then adds a 3 for good measure; how much were the Greeks hoping he was injured?  Kobe back to the 2; how any of these guys know what position they’re playing when, I have no idea.  At halftime, it’s 51-32, maybe Coach will explain it to them in the locker room.  Kobe starts the 3rd.  Nice drive to the rim, takes the contact, still puts in the shot, but misses the and one.  Damn, nice block by Mamba at the other end.  Wade comes in at the 2 and Kobe slides over.  About twenty seconds later D-Will comes in and picks up his 3rd foul (what is with the substitutions?).  Nice dish to Wade for 2.  D-Will starts the 4th.  Makes a few good hustle plays.  Interesting; they go to the Syracuse zone in the final minutes (Coach Boeheim is an assistant coach).

SF: Lebron misses his first two lay-ups.  Kobe moves to the 3. Nice penetration on the feed from CP and he makes the pass to Lebron for the easy lay-up.  Now Wade shifts to the 3; smothering D by him helps hold the Greeks to a 24-second violation.  HOLY CRAP.  Wade just came out of nowhere to snag an offensive rebound over the entire Greek team and then put it right back in.  Hmmm…next play he gets shoved to the ground and then a no call…strange calls tonight.  Kobe moves back to the 3 to start the 2nd; he’s still struggling from 3-point range–there it is!  I told you, Kobe gets a pass from Lebron  (who finally realizes he can’t take on 5 players), and nails a 3 from about four feet behind the line, that is, around the NBA line–why these guys don’t keep to their normal rhythms and do this more often, I don’t know (it would also stretch out the defense).  He then slides back to the 2 and Lebron returns to the 3; Bron-Bron gets a steal and takes it home. After a time out he makes a nice pass to Bosh for 2, followed by a selfish 3 next time by the floor (clank).  Outlet pass to Lebron, he stumbles, and through sheer skill, keeps his balance and the dribble, gets up, and realizing that inexplicably, he’s not being covered, takes two steps and jams it.  Lebron starts the 3rd.  Does nothing.  Kobe slides over, he’s starting to make some shots, which is a good sign for Team USA.  About twenty seconds later, Wade slides to the 3 and Kobe sits.  It’s 69-49 with 2:05 left to go.  He draws a foul on a 3, but only makes 1 FT: must be the trapezoid playing with his head.  Wade starts the 4th.  Makes a few steals, the team is vicious defensively in the fourth, no sign of letting up.  Redd finally comes in with about six minutes to go, but is fairly quiet, though drains a 3 near the end of the game, and does give a dish off for a 3 by D-Will.

PF: Carmelo has done nothing in the first four minutes, but helps put us in the penalty for team fouls at the five minute mark.  Lebron moves to the 4, he is quiet, and then ‘Melo comes back in a few minutes later, who does nothing, and Lebron moves back to the 4.  Wow, ‘Bron just turned down the iso set to pass to an open Wade for 3 (he misses, but it’s the point).  Lebron is picking up some points tonight, but they’re mostly clean-up points.  He’s done little spectacular, really, unless you count thundering home dunks off a loose ball or on a fast break spectacular; my point is, these are all plays Erick Dampier could have made. With Bosh’s return, ‘Melo slides back to the four.  Carmelo starts the third.  Hits a 3 about three minutes in.  Doesn’t do much else; Lebron slides to the 4.  Oh, nice block on the fast break! But on the next possession,   when he’s knocked down under the basket, he looks for a pushing foul instead of getting up off his ass.  Carmelo comes back in right after, who is subsequently blocked twice in a row under the rim; so next time down he decides to try a contested 2 from deep, and isn’t even close. Carmelo starts the 4th.  Does nothing, and Lebron comes in quick, gets a few steals, but one throwaway.  So with it 80-57 at the 6:25, he sits in favor of Prince. Prince plays some good D, but doesn’t see much action on the other end.

C: Howard has to watch his fouls, they’re calling this close. Bosh comes in half way through the first and immediately gets a nice feed from CP; two straight bad plays on D, though–oh, but then he draws a nice charge on Greece’s center.  Howard starts the 2nd, and starts with a big dunk, but then Coach puts Bosh back in at the 7:31 mark.  What the hell?  And Bosh then picks up his second foul with 7:00 to go.  Ultimately, he does take out Bosh, for ‘Melo??  He does get a steal and stumble coast-to-coast, only to miss the lay-up (quickly jammed in by Lebron).  But about a minute later, Coach goes back to Bosh, who closes out the half by avoiding his third foul and getting a rejection on a straight up jumper.  Howard starts the 3rd.  Brings down a couple boards to start. Bosh comes in around half-way through the quarter.  Oh, Bosh’s rejection follows ‘Bron’s!  Bosh starts the 4th.  He plays solid, if undistinguishing.  So at half way through, Boozer comes in.  Boozer.  At the 5.  He’s guarding the line, and there’s no one in the paint.  Why?  Then he struggles against a much bigger center.  Oh well, U.S. wins, 92-69.

Coach:  they said coming in that the Greeks struggled against the zone, but Coach K said he didn’t plan on using the zone; interesting way to ignore your scouts.  He’s yelling at the ref for a non-call early.  Interesting.  CP and Bosh pick up their second foul early in the second–why doesn’t he sit CP and bring in Redd, and also bring back Howard?  Isn’t Coach K used to guys fouling out with 5 fouls?  We’re short big, he might want to be careful.  Apparently, they’re reporting that Coach is going to a 9 man rotation here, so Redd, Prince, and Boozer are apparently all on the outside looking in. The real question is why the hell is Kidd not on the short list?  He looks horrible.  Imagine CP/D-Will feeding Redd all game?  If it’s all about the “team,” and not ego or appearances, why does Coach start Howard and Kidd, both of whom he doesn’t give as minutes as their back-ups?

For once, I’m impressed by Team USA.  Moreover, I don’t feel as if anyone really stood out. That is, the TEAM did well.  I’m really excited about their next game against Spain 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.

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.

First Quarter Impressions: unfortunately, we don’t get to see Jerry-Dee Bayless play tonight (yes, he’s on our list of players whose name we refuse to pronounce correctly). Regardless, the Hornets came out looking good. Bobby Brown had 5 assists in the first stanza, and the word from the announcers is that Jeff Bower is really excited by BB’s play. Hilton is looking imposing on defense and aggressive on the offensive end. Derrick Byars, meanwhile, is one of our scoring leaders, with a high shooting percentage, nice second-efforts, and just started the second quarter with a nasty fast-break dunk.

Second Quarter Impressions: off to a slow start, Ju-Ju is getting aggressive and getting to the line; I like it. Several good plays on the defensive end, too. (Although, his socks and shorts almost meet, and that’s weird.) BB seemed to walk off a turned ankle from the end of the 1st quarter and continues to play well. Baby Bugs up by 10. Haven’t seen much of Dalron Johnson this summer, but he’s made some good plays tonight; couple long jumpers on one end and some good hustle rebounds on the other. To answer TT6’s ongoing “Where is Chris Paul?” question, the answer today is in Vegas, watching the Baby Bugs. OoooHHHHHhhhh!!!! Last basket of the half for the Bees is a sick alley oop from BB to fellow-starter Brandon Bowman. Nice way to close out. And by the by, while Bowman’s been quiet on the offensive end, and strangely wears a long-sleeved shirt under his jersey, he took down a couple nice boards near the end of the 2nd. That said, our lead’s down to 2.

Third Quarter Impressions: rough start here. To quote ticktock, “we’re building a brick castle here. Not a brick house.” Yeah. Bowman and Haluska both throwing up several ugly shots. Hilton getting to the line is the only thing keeping them in the game. They’ve brought in a lot of reserves, like Courtney Sims, Ndubi Ebi, Filip Vedenov, and Larry Owens, but to little effect. Another nice alley oop to Byars, though. Then, Byars finishes the quarter with a nice basket on a pick and roll from BB. Baby Bugs now down by 5.

Fourth Quarter Impressions: the Hornets are sticking around, but haven’t done anything to shrink the lead. For a team that has been outstanding in the 4th quarter in the first five games, they haven’t really impressed tonight. Bowman and Haluska are nowhere to be seen and Hilton looks exhausted. The Blazers’ J.R. Pinnock is lighting them up for about 30 points, and now they’re just jacking up 3s to try and close the gap. None are falling. Baby Bugs lose by 15. Rough second half. Oh well.

The Vegas Summer League is over. Not the excitement or skill level of the NBA game, but it get’s you hyped for the season to come. The Hornets still have quite a few roster spots and it will be interesting to see where they go from here.

NBA.com’s feed refused to work for the Baby Bugs’ game at Cleveland. CST wasn’t there. NBAtv had other lame games to show. Only Jim Eichenhofer came through from Vegas: http://neworleanshornetsblog.blogspot.com/. Game 6 should be on TV. We’ll have more on it Sunday night.

As we’ve said before, it doesn’t really matter if you win in the Summer League, but I liked how they won tonight.  They were down by 11 or so at some point in the second half, and then managed to use solid defense to whittle the Clippers’ lead away, all the while steadily plugging away a the other end of the court, culminating in a 23-14 fourth quarter lead and a 6-2 overtime lead.

The story of the game was Hilton.  Monster 25-8 game in just over 30 minutes (on 10-17 shooting).  Bobby Brown again looked good, leading the team on its comeback, and recovering from a poor shooting start to go 4-6 at the end of the game, for a total of 17 points; although, he did have a few Pargoesque moments where he inexplicably jacked up a three or long two on the move rather than pass to an open teammate.  Ju-Ju didn’t look as great on offense this game, but put in solid defense.  Similarly, Adam Haluska continued to struggle with his shot, but played some good defense down the stretch.

Surprise of the game was 6′11″ Courtney Sims going 6-9 and putting up a quick 13 points.   Larry Owens also had a good showing in limited minutes, although Derrick Byars and Filip Vedenov struggled again.

Rumors that new Hornet, James Posey, would play in this game were not true.  Okay, there were no such rumors.  I just like to say “Hornet, James Posey.”  Sweet.

Next Vegas game is Saturday at 9:30 CST. Have some Abita and watch the game before going out!

Both ESPN and CNN-SI are reporting that, the Hornets have signed James Posey.  Posey, as most of y’all know has been one the most coveted unrestricted free agents this summer.  The reports say he has agreed to a 4-year deal with the Hornets for an estimated $25 million.

Slacking here. Missed Summer League Game 3. Sorry folks. But I can give you the word on the end result. Hornets won. Not that that matters. What is important is that Ju-Ju and Hilton continued to look good. The biggest disappointment, though, has to be Adam Haluska, who again had a miserable shooting game; get you confidence back, son, because you know you can play. Our other starters, Bowman and Brown, continued to look good, with Brown looking more and more like a possible backup PG, and 6′9″ Bowman putting up his own 12 points on 3-6 shooting from the field and 5-6 from the line. Over at TrueHoop, Henry Abbott named Ju-Ju the best defender of the Vegas League and Brown the best surprise. The next game is on the 17th, at 5PM CST.

In the real NBA, Marcus Camby got traded by the Nuggets to the Clippers for, drum roll please, cap space. The Cavs gave Daniel Gibson a 5-year deal to keep him. The Knicks signed another guard, Anthony Roberson, to a 2-year deal. The Magic signed backup PG Anthony Johnson.

UPDATE: Bucks get Tyronne Lue and Malik Allen. T-Wolves re-signed Craig Smith. Also, Clips signed Kelenna Azubuike to a 3-year $9 mil offer sheet (Golden State still has the chance to match). Elsewhere, Darius Miles, out 2-years with an unprecedented “career-ending” medical designation, is trying out with several teams, in attempting a comeback. In Utah, the Jazz allegedly gave D-Will $2 mil more than CP got on his 4-year deal…suckers.

According to Boston.com: “New Orleans Hornets should know that in James Posey they are getting a pure mercenary, totally devoid of sentiment according to Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan.” This, after the guy helped bring them a ring? Wasn’t the whole city cheering him a few weeks back? That’s gratitude for you. A.K.A. the city that caused the scar across my eyebrow. Fuck Boston. Enjoy your one and done like the Heat had a few years back. We have a stacked line-up for the next 4 years.