Hornets Hype

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!

Even MVPs have off days.  Not every basket falls.  Some days you’re just a step slow.  Sometimes the other guys is just better than you that day.  We still love you.  We still believe. 

See you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

mW

Here is a 100% true story from last night’s game.

Last night James Posey already had ten points in the second quarter, before injuring what was apparently his calf muscle. He was clearly limping on court. He was camping in the corner, and Chris Paul had the ball at the top of the circle. mW is like, “Chris! Call time out!” But here’s Posey and he can barely walk, and he’s waving at Chris like, “Yo! I’m open for three!” Because that is just the guy that he is. Tough as… you know, they always say tough as nails, but nails are actually rather easily bendable, aren’t they? Whereas Posey is not. Anyhow, he hangs on through the next possession and a half, and then heads for the locker room.

Now, I had been planning on purchasing his jersey in the team store at halftime, for a couple of reasons. First of all, he’s the only bench guy who has his jersey in the store, and I like to support the guy whose jersey everyone else isn’t wearing. I bought a Chandler one on the internet last year and was one of the only people who had one for awhile, because for some inexplicable reason the store wasn’t stocking them. Second, I think Posey is amazing and I want to be him when I grow up (which, you know, means I don’t have much time to get that amazing, since he is only 4 years older than me). So now I’m like, man, I don’t know. What if his ankle’s injured and he’s going to be out a while? Is it bad luck to buy the injured dude’s jersey? But I buy it anyway, a white pinstriped one.

I get back to my seat, and not a minute later, who comes loping out of the tunnel but Posey. And then a few minutes later, here he is checking into the game. I look at the scoreboard and wonder whether Chris Paul’s 24-8 so far is going to be in danger if I take off his jersey and put on Posey’s. I decide, clearly not. So I put on the new jersey. Posey goes on to score 19 points, and not just threes. I mean he was banging around in the post throwing up all kinds of crazy shots. Indestructible.

Fast forward to the end of the game. They have just finished the T-shirt gun thing. I have just finished ignoring it as usual. The players have come back on the court. mW is on his iPhone checking stats, and I am watching the screen as they announce Pose as the sub of the game.

At that moment something bangs into the glass between our heads. “Holy shit!” I yelled. It was a late shot (and I mean a way late shot– like the kind of thing where some guy brings his arm down and bludgeons some other guy under the basket 5 seconds after the play, and the ref blows the whistle and is like, “WHOA! LATE HIT! Foul!” Except in real life, not in the course of a basketball game, so really you could say it was a party foul) with the t-shirt gun, and it almost killed us. I am not making this up. We put Hugo on the Shit List for this. What the hell. That is seriously dangerous. No one was standing up, waving their arms. No one was looking that direction. The players were back on the friggin court! The deadly projectile ricocheted into the row in front of us. “Hey!” I yelled down to the guy who caught it. “That almost killed me!” And he tossed it up.

And so, James Posey = indestructible. Ticktock6 = narrowly escaped death while wearing the Posey jersey. Now, I don’t know if this all means anything. Take it as you may. But I am JUST SAYING.

P.S. I would be remiss in my job as Hornets blogger if I did not mention the most awesome thing in the history of Christmas, namely that they played a clip on the jumbotron of Mo Pete, Tyson Chandler, and Ryan Bowen singing Jingle Bells. Tyson didn’t do much besides announce the clip and then dance around in back of the other two who were doing all the work. Surprisingly (or not? he’s rather versatile) Ryan Bowen could actually sing. But Mo Pete was doing a nasty nasty beatbox, which totally stole the show. No, seriously, it was awesome. It was by far the best thing that has been on the jumbotron possibly ever. HORNETS ORGANIZATION– IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THAT WAS YOUTUBE GOLD. IT NEEDS TO BE ON THE INTERNET. IT BEGS TO BE ON THE INTERNET. Please either post it or send it to me!!

The James Posey replica jersey: If life was a video game it woud be +100 against CERTAIN DEATH

We’ve called for Mo repeatedly.  No offense to Devin Brown or Rasual Butler, but Mo is the best two guard the Hornets have.  (Rasual is second.  Sorry, Devin.  I love you, but sit down.)  We have bitched in every forum we could find.  And tonight?  Redemption.  Byron Scott is renowned for making sure his guys are conditioned properly, so I wasn’t overly optimistic about Mo getting a lot of time after his recent bout with the flu.  But tonight presented a pleasant surprise, courtesy of the aforementioned Byron Scott and his acknowledgment and/or acquiescence to the phenomenon that is Mo Pete.

Mo slipped into the line-up some time in the second quarter, and TT6 and I were on our feet, yelling and clapping as loud as we could.  We love Mo.  He had a quiet few minutes.  Until the Kings slowly stole the lead from us.  The bastards.  And then CP drove to the rim as the clock expired in the first half and dished to the wing.  To Mo.  In the corner.  For three.  Money.  Tie game going into the half.

Huge emotional lift.  And listen, I’ve been a huge critic of Byron for being stubborn, and not recognizing the hot/cold hand, but he proved me wrong tonight.  With Devin and Rasual going 1-13 from the field and 0-8 from deep (Rasual hit one lay-up cutter to start the game.  It was quite nice, but all downhill from there), Byron played Mo most of the second half.  The man responded.  In spades.  He ended up with 4-8 shooting on the night, and was 2-4 from beyond the arc; adding also 2 rebounds–which I feel compelled to say were timely rebounds, when we really needed them, he just happened to be in the right place.

When playing with the second unit, Mo kept us afloat.  When playing with the starters, he fit right in.  Moreover, what those stats don’t show are all the hustle plays he made on both ends of the floor, getting into the right spaces on offense, and sliding into the right places on defense, including key stops on Salmons.  I think Salmons had about 18 at the half, but only finished with 26.  Nice job Mo.

The moral of the story?  Mo is back.  And he’s money.  Hopefully Byron took notice.  Because we sure did.  If the Hornets struggled without Peja, they surely missed Mo too.  Having him back helped seal this win against a pugnacious team that was unwilling to go away, but ultimately was shown the door.  I can only feel that this win, and Mo’s role in it, signal the best is yet to come.

Fourth quarter. The Hornets are in the hole big time. The crowd doesn’t know what to do. The usual shots just aren’t going in. We’ve been here before. May 19th. The Spurs went on to take a heartbreaking Game 7 on the Hornets’ floor, 91-82.

Tonight, on Chris Paul’s historic record-setting ball-thieving night, the Hornets also found themselves down in the fourth quarter. The crowd was subdued, after coming out screaming and booing and standing in what absolutely looked and felt like a playoff game. With 8 minutes to go, the Hornets were behind 74-67. I sat in the arena watching the shots not falling, thinking, “Not again.”

Not tonight. I wrote on May 19th that Game 7 would be one that defined the team.

And maybe it did. This time New Orleans won 90-83.

• Wow.
• CP’s huge jump ball against Manu Ginobili. Insane. He’s at least 6 inches shorter, maybe 7. It was like he just went, “I will not be stopped.” (mW while watching the replay: “Oh my god, I think he actually flopped on the jump ball. No, seriously, I think he’s in the act of flopping WHILE IN THE AIR.”)
• D-West for three? Wait, really? OK… D-West for three AGAIN??
• I straight up want to have sex with James Posey. But that’s OK, because so does everyone else who was in New Orleans Arena. Yep, even the dudes. The man seals the deal like none other.
• Our side of the arena saw CP’s steal right away and everyone leaped out of their seats and started yelling. “THAT WAS IT! Was that it? That was it!” It rolled into a standing O that lasted several minutes, drowned out the PA guy, and ended with Chris Paul going to center court alone and waving to the crowd.
• I forgot about mW’s rampant hatred for Kurt Thomas.
• Tyson! Making both free throws down the stretch to give the Hornets the lead! Tyson, I love you! I wear your jersey!
• I want a stat for how many consecutive games CP has done that thing where he runs in a circle around the opposing team’s entire defense and then either passes or scores. That alley oop with Chandler where no one should conceivably have been looking that direction was… whoa.
• Oh, yeah, and this all happens with Peja and Mo Pete not dressed, and in fact not even there. The Hornets rolled with the same nine guys all night (they didn’t have to– hello, Byron– but whatev).
• “Why are they booing Tony Parker?” – random commenter on Spurs blog. Psshhh. Why AREN’T we booing the Spurs? That is the question.
• Rasual Butler’s ridiculously ridiculous stretch of what had to be the best 10 seconds of his career. He races down the court to get the hard foul on a Spurs breakaway, somehow comes up with a block instead, steals the ball back, dives to save it from going out of bounds, and then scores on a jumper.
• LOL at CP being interviewed after the game calling his steal record “a weird stat.” Also, sure enough, as he’s said before, he also mentioned the fact that D West shoots threes all the time and is perfectly capable of it, he just doesn’t take the shot in games. We’re all glad he took it tonight.
• Quote of the Night: “Ginobili is 6′6. He used to be 6′7. But his hair flopped.” – mW
• At the free throw line with 17 seconds left, Chris Paul received the first MVP chant of the season. This time he hit both of the free throws too.
• Best game I’ve seen this season, hands down.
• I wore my tall socks to this game, and I am not sure I should launder them ever. I wouldn’t want to wash the Win off them.
• Wow.

I told you I was going to wear tall socks. They are an homage to Posey. They are the wrong color for tonight's game, but the gods of the three care not.

If you want to see a trash-talking clip about the Spurs, check out this clip from the always hilarious Steve Nash, ironically, courtesy of Project Spurs.