Hornets Hype

Last night, before the game, Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler ran laps. Back and forth, seventeen times. If you watched the CST broadcast, you saw it. CP followed it up by nailing 5 out of 5 threes. A tantalizing glimpse at what hope looks like.

The world takes its time from Greenwich. The New Orleans Hornets take their time from Chris Paul. It’s no secret.

And CP would be ready to go, right now, if the Hornets staff said the word. That’s no secret either. Hell, he wanted to go two days after the injury. And if he doesn’t suit up against the Celtics tomorrow night, the game has the potential to go from a marquee matchup to really, really ugly. As in, you thought last night was ugly? Yeah.

Talk about your rough two weeks. I gotta admit, I was pretty down. And then I read this little story by Dan Steinberg, who covers the Washington Wizards:

Before tonight’s Wizards-Pacers game, I went up to Nate and Besse, two of my favorite Wiz fans, and asked why they were here, watching two bad NBA teams, on as beautiful a February evening as D.C. will ever see. They told me they hadn’t missed a game all season, and weren’t about to start now.

Well, after an ill Caron Butler went all MJ in the fourth quarter, scoring 15 straight points in less than four minutes without missing a shot, and after a sleepy and borderline comatose crowd suddenly turned into some whooping remnant of the glory days, and after Caron laid prone on the court with his head in the first row of seats after winning the game, and after his teammates sprinted out to mob him, Nate came running down to the media section.

“Steinberg!” he yelled at me. “That’s why we still come to games.”

Be ashamed, fickle Hornets fans, with your booing and your rustling restlessly and your inane “blow it up because the team is done” trade suggestions. I read that, and realized I was. And, you know, even if CP and Tyson come back tomorrow in time for the Celtics– which, is it really wise to even hope that they will, with the All Star Break coming up?– there’s a huge likelihood the Hornets will still lose. It’s not realistic to pretend otherwise.

But you know what? You should go to the game anyway. And you should have fun at it. If that involves a lot of beer, fine. If it’s a blowout, so be it. But… I’ve seen things happen.

Loyalty isn’t something outdated. It isn’t something that’s for other people. It’s an arena holding its breath. It’s waiting for a familiar face to come running out of the tunnel. It’s swearing you’re going to leave after halftime in a blowout, but then never quite managing to get up out of your seat or switch the channel because you know it’s a lie.

It’s two guys in warmups, running laps on an empty court.

You are right. I am wrong. The Hornets are the Dirtiest! Basketball! Team! Ever! Assembled! There has never in the history of basketball been such a conglomeration of cheap, dirty players on one team. You don’t even have to argue with me. I’m conceding! I even included video proof.

I really don’t even know how I can follow this team and still respect myself in the morning. A Flagrant 2 doesn’t even reflect how dirty the Hornets are, from that little punk Chris Paul to that big punk David West and right on down. They should invent the Flagrant 7 JUST FOR THIS TEAM. Yup. You all are totally right, O Anonymous Internet Commenters. You have converted me. You are wise.

Now will you shut up?

Haters.

Whose face is on the ticket.

Those of you who visited our site last year may remember that we inexplicably decided to keep track of which person’s head was on the season ticket to evaluate how the cosmic strings came together and caused a win or loss.  Well, ladies and gentlemen, get excited.  HornetsHype, via this half-statistical analysis half-divination, has determined that the Hornets will win tonight!  Not only was David West’s head 5-0 in the regular season last year, and 2-0 in the playoffs, but it is 4-0 this year.  It’s like money in the bank.  What about our injuries you say?  Pshaw.

Haven’t you heard, Calderon’s having trouble with his hamstring and Bosh with his knee?  It’s destiny.  Somewhere, somehow, the cosmic scales had to be balanced.   Some players heads on a ticket might not mean much, but David’s?  It’s like having Kobe, Wade, and Howard traded to your team for a day.  Karmically, that is.

So, while the Raptors are TT6’s and I’s adopted Eastern Conference team, and we feel for our Northern compatriots (were they invited to the ledge?), we gotta root against them.  Only we don’t really have to.

The outcome is already written.

By Dariusz.

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Come back, CP. Come back!

In these dark times, what’s better than the Hornets singing Good Times?

I think you’ll all agree, with the exception of if Chris Paul was playing tonight, nothing.

Oh, and in other pregame linkage, Ticktock6 does some Hornets Q&A on Talk Hoops.

Good luck tonight AD! … We out.

Just hype it.  To hype with all the negativity.  People are hypin’ pissing me off.  What the hype is wrong with us?  I thought we were basketball fans.  Nope.  It’s the end of the world.  End days are here.

Trade David West.  Our bench sucks.  Tyson can’t play any more.  Hilton and Julian are busts.  Stop shooting, Devin!  A Kiwi?  Posey is overrated.  Peja costs too much.  CP made a mistake once!  Who’s Ryan Bowen?  Mo and Rasual aren’t starter material.  Yeah, Ely got a ring by wearing a suit to the Finals.  Antonio Daniels, right.  Does this team have a player under 30 other than Paul?  They just can’t draft.  This team has no heart, no hustle, and no offensive flow.  Oh, yeah, and Byron Scott is a horrible coach.  That about cover it?

Okay.  Now take a deep breath.  And calm the hype down.  Historically, New Orleans is a football town, I get it.  In the NFL, every single game matters. The NBA is not the same.  Yes, yes, every year some team makes or misses the April-May dance by a game, or loses a coveted seed by a game.  Whatever.  The best NBA teams, from the GMs, to the coaches, to the players, know it is not a sprint, but a marathon.  The key is putting your team in the right position to be in the right place come the end of the year.  Position.  Not game.  It’s about many games, not any one.  Certainly, guys can’t take games off, and no one wants to lose a game, but it happens.  Shooters go cold, fouls don’t get called (or do the other way), and there’s nothing you can do about it.  It’s chaos.  It’s a microcosm.  Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that professional athletes are somehow active agents of change who have complete control over their destinies.

As many have pointed out, no one has control over their destiny.  That’s why it’s destiny.  You know they feel just as helpless at times, just as unable to change what is happening around them.  They’re just normal folks.  Besides, who’s reading this blog at home, or better yet, work, and can honestly say they’ve never milled through the day or half-assed their way from nine to five?  Go ahead, cast the first stone.  Yes, yes, these guys get paid millions.  Yeah, well, they won the genetic lottery, sour grapes, much?  Here’s my point, they are people.  Imperfect people.  Real people.  So maybe their kid is sick, maybe they’re having relationship troubles, maybe it’s just the flu.  Sometimes it’s just not your day. It’s sure as hype not the end of the world.

But what about the fans?  The majestic blogosphere.  What’s our excuse?  Isn’t this supposed to be fun?  Didn’t we love this game once?  (It’s faaAAAAaannntastic!)  Yet, all I read all over Hornets blogs (I gave up on the boards a long time ago) is the same anti-hype I spouted above.  Listen.  I’m telling you.  It’ll be better tomorrow.  Just wait.  It’s stupid to overreact to any one game, good or bad.  If there is something we can definitely learn from Spurs and Lakers fans–who incidentally, we have seen cumulatively go to the Finals 8 of the last 9 years (and won 7 of those 8)–it is to wait for the real season to begin.  The Playoffs.  Because once you’re there, anything can happen.

Yes, positioning and all that is important.  But the Knicks made the Finals as an 8 seed once, and they’re certainly not the only non-1-through-4 seed to make it.  So let’s be patient.  Let’s allow this team to gel from its multiple injuries and absences and jostling rotations and see what happens.  I, for one, am pretty hyping sure we’ll be pleased with the result.

So from the sounds behind this composition, I leave you with the words, by Chris Cornell, from Soundgarden’s “Blow Up The Outside World”:

Nothing seems to kill me no matter how hard I try
Nothing is closing my eyes
Nothing can beat me down for your pain or delight
And nothing seems to break me
No matter how hard I fall nothing can break me at all
Not one for giving up though not invincible I know

Believe.

One of the best posts of the year over at Hornets247: Remembering Bobby Phills.  Read it.

Why not?  The Hornets have an extra roster spot.  The pundits say that we still lack a reliable big.  Darius Miles is a lanky 6′9″, 235 lbs. that we could use.  You say he’s already 27 and injury-prone; he’s barely played in the last two-three years.  Does he still have anything left after what was declared a career-ending injury?  (Which by the way, was a way bigger deal than most people give credit for…I mean what were Jamal Mashburn’s injuries?  How long did he sit on our cap space after he couldn’t play and was talking in a TV studio?)  I say it’s worth it to find out.

The NBA, like all big business, is a risk-reward equation.  For the Hornets, there is almost no risk in signing Miles.  Sign him to a 10-day contract at the League minimum.  I’m sure he’d be dying to be here (plus the Trailblazers are paying him $9 mil any way each for this year and next).  Keep res-signing him to those 10-day contracts up until just before March 1st, when the playoff roster must be set.  If you like what you see by then, sign him to a contract through the rest of the year.  If not, you can cut him at any time.

Listen, we had issues behind the scenes with Birdman.  Then, he looked horrible last year when he played.  But now he’s doing well in Denver.  Too bad those issues kept us from re-signing him.  Let’s not make the same mistake here.  First of all, as aforementioned, there’s so little risk.  Second, it puts $9 mil back on the salary cap of the Blazers for the next two years.  How can we not want to stick it to a rival like that, especially when we got screwed on the abovementioned Mashburn deal?  I’m sure George Shinn is a good ole boy who doesn’t like to play dirty, but this is, again, a big business; that’s how it’s played. 

So, we stick it to a rival who has way too much cap space and too many players to trade, hamstringing their ability to make moves, and, who incidentally, is directly threatening to our positioning in the conference. Worst case scenario, give him two minutes of play in eight straight games and cut him.  You fuck the Blazers (who I do like and respect, but come on, this isn’t about being nice, it’s about winning), and you get an almost free look at Miles.  Best case scenario, you find another big who can play.  That sounds like a good risk-reward equation.

I say pull the trigger on it while you can, Jeff Bower.

Or at least let him be heard. Score one for the Hype. Mo first off the bench and Brown a DNPCD last game. Now let’s see Marks sit and Ju-Ju get some burn. Then we’ll declare total victory. Nothing against Brown or Marks, just trying to recognize who can most help us win. Ju-Ju helped accelerate this team from a playoff team to a contender at the end of last season, and most of us Hornets fans want to see him get his fair shake this season. Ryan McNeil, over at Hoops Addict, had a chance to talk to Julian about his playing time this year, and here’s how it went down.

Ho, ho, ho, and all that holiday whatever.  It’s snowy in NY and 29 Farentheit, unlike Nola, where it’s a cloudy 20 Celcius.  Although I am a natural devil’s advocate, who springs into optimism when confronted with waves of doubt, and a cynic when everyone else is on cloud nine (where does that saying come from anyway, what is “cloud nine”?), the internet has fallen silent like it was the night before Xmas, so I’ll just reflect on a Black Friday Redux abbreviated and not-really-at-all-daily version of our S#*t List here and now:

1. “REVENGE”: the dumbest question slash lazy media phrase of the week.  Did the Hornets get “revenge” this week on the Spurs for last year’s Game 7 loss?  We quickly all said no.  Stupid question, move on.  Nonetheless several media outlets have dubbed the Lakers’ beating of the Celts as “revenge” for their loss in the NBA finals.  Listen.  Do you people know what the word revenge means?  If the Lakers beat the Celts 20 times this season, the Celts would laugh after every loss and wear their rings to the post-game show.  Got it?  No victory, or set of victories, short of beating the Celts in the Finals will be revenge.  Same for the Hornets.  If we knock the Spurs out of the Playoffs this year, on the road, in Game 7.  Now that’s revenge.  Use a dictionary people.
2. LEBRON’S CHALK: let me say for the 587th time, you stole it from Kevin Garnett.  So it’s not yours.  Why not pretend you invented dunks too?  Oh, and thanks for that commercial that airs every twenty seconds.  Only the sweet bass funk running through that ad spares it from the wrath of the almighty.  [EDIT: as I went to save this post and get more coffee before coming back to finish, that stupid music was running through my head, Damn you Lebron!)  But even all that’s not enough to get the chalk on this list.  Nope.  Someone would have to, say, hand out white confetti to everyone in attendance at the game you premiere your new Nike shoe (“Chalk”, I kid not), and have them all throw it down pre-game while you throw up your chalk.  Oh wait, you did that yesterday?  What a whore.  Let me say it again.  Lebron is a whore.  I don’t care if his team went nuts in the last minute to win that game.  It was the Wizards.  Even Mike James looks good on that team.  The other James’ focus should have been on his team.  On the rings.  Not his self.  Not his Nike promotions.  Call me old-fashioned.
3. PANICKY FANS: yes, I love you all my fellow Hornets’ fans.  But calm the fuck down.  We’re barely a quarter of the way through the season.  We’re injured.  How many of our games have we been missing a starter or two?  A lot.  Of course these guys are off rhythm.  We made the move that shored up our second unit in Daniels, only now he’s out.  I still say our starting five (when healthy) is one of the best in the League.  Posey?  One of the best sixth men in the League.  And that still leaves Butler and Wright, two very talented guys on both ends of the floor.  There’s a reason that Lakers and Spurs fans don’t usually demand trades quite as often as fans like us.  They know it’s a marathon, not a sprint.  We just have to keep working and gelling and making everything click.  Because we’ve seen what this team can do against good teams, not just losers.  While Pargo and Wells brought their own kind of special to this team last year, I refuse to believe that the difference between us last year and this is them, and that we’re worse now.  Bower’s assembled a talented team, and when all healthy, I think they can beat any team in the League.  So relax, folks, it’s a long season.
4. DESTINY: okay, I picked up this a little early because Bob Costas had his annual football meltdown over this last weekend, but I know TT6 hates it too.  So let me preemptively explain: no team controls its own destiny.  It’s out of your hands.  It is forewritten.  That’s why it’s called Destiny.  For example, last year, it was Destiny that Lakers-Celtics ended up in the Finals.  Neither team chose that Destiny, neither team “controlled” their assent into the big Games.  Stern Destiny chose them.  If the teams could control it, whatever that “it” was, it wouldn’t be Destiny.
5. HOOPS ADDICT: who asked, is Lebron unguardable?  Please.  Maybe someone should watch the tapes of every Cleveland loss.  Take, for instance, I don’t know, his game against the Hornets.  It’s called James Posey.  I’ll tell you what, it might even be called Rasual Butler.  For short periods, I’d even be willing to have Ju-Ju on him.  Lebron is not unguardable, he is just unguardable by certain players.  Kobe, with Posey in his grill, hitting shot after shot the other night, was unguardable.  Chris Paul, weaving through four defenders in and out and back into the paint again only to turn on a dime and drop in a teardrop over the outstretched arms of a seven footer is unstoppable.  Those guys can only be stopped if they stop themselves.  Lebron?  Guardable. 
6. BYRON SCOTT: deservedly, was Coach of the Year last year.  But like Coach Scott no doubt repeatedly tells his players: it’s not last year.  I love Coach Scott.  I think is offense works for our personnel, when healthy.  But he has to recognize that Brown is not Stojakovic.  One cannot do the same things as the other.  At this point, why not start Butler and Peterson at the 3 and 2?  Because then the second unit is too thin?  Well, how about Julian?  Start him at 3.  I mean, isn’t that ultimately what we drafted him to do?  To be the guy when Peja starts to slow down (or gets injured)?  Oh, Byron says he doesn’t know his position spacing on the floor.  Really?  Why would that be?  Because Byron’s tried him at the 1, 2, 3, and 4.  I saw him play three of those (1, 2, 4) just last game (and interestingly, not the one position that is his “natural” position).  Coach.  I love you.  But play Wright.  Play Peterson.  USE YOUR BEST PLAYERS.  Great that Bowen, Ely, and Brown are loyal guys, but they just aren’t as talented.  Birdman, for example, violated your trust, and he was banished.  Look how that one worked out.  We complain of not having reliable back-up bigs and he’s having a nice year in Denver (add to it he would have came cheap).  Any way, certain guys, work ethic and loyalty aside, should be used sparingly, in support roles.  Butler’s earned his minutes this year.  Fine.  Hilton is finally being given a chance to make it or break it on his own; he’s not looking over his shoulder and worrying if he’s going to get yanked after every dumb play.  Good.  He’s done both good and bad, but he’s progressing because he has the time to learn on the floor.  That’s the opportunity Julian should have.  Give him his minutes.  Get him into the game.  It’s the only way he’s going to learn.  Additionally, while we have all secretly hoped that Marks would be DX-lite, he’s not; and Byron has finally seemed to grasp this.  I do believe in you Byron, I really do.  But even you might have to prove the least bit flexible to make that push for the Rings.  Sigh.

But all said, Hornets’ fans, there is something to be happy about.  Despite our high expectations for this season, and despite what some call “struggles”, at least we’re not the Wizards.  Now that is a last-year-playoff-contender this-year-a-really-really-really-struggling team.  So it could always be worse.  Besides, some teams come late to the party and make long runs through the Playoffs.  Not to mention, that we still are poised to end up as a 2-5 seed without making a massive surge foward.  I believe.

Geaux Hornets!