Hornets Hype

• Hoops Addict got David West to talk about Michael Eric Dyson, the media, and Byron Scott (although he doesn’t really bite on that one, haha) in a nice interview
• Twitter suspended the fake (and BRILLIANT) Devin Brown for “suspicious activity” yesterday … and there was much sadness
• My fun report (with pics!) about Chris Paul’s bowling event (no spoilers, though) should be up soon
• Dime Mag has Marcus Thornton listed as one of their Top 5 Second Round Steals
• As a resident of New Orleans who experienced Hurricane Katrina, I think we all should be concerned about the devastation in Haiti following the earthquake. Personally, I will always remember the people who sent me checks or donated clothing (try living in Boston in winter without any socks and see how that goes for you… of course I didn’t bring socks when I evacuated, I barely wear socks here) or furniture (we had an empty apartment with one mattress until a lovely couple I didn’t even know donated us their extra stuff). So if you have anything extra to spare, consider donating to Yele (Wyclef Jean’s foundation), or you can make a $10 donation to the Red Cross by texting “HAITI” to “90999? (it’ll be added to your phone bill). I am sort of sketched out by the Red Cross, however, because I believe they are not guaranteed to use your money for a specific disaster. So alternatively, you might want to consider Doctors Without Borders, Unicef, or even, to keep it basketball related, Sixer and native Haitian Samuel Dalembert’s foundation. He personally gave $100,000 and is apparently matching any donations made at the Sixers game tonight.

And so do we, of course. I mean, we always have. It took me exactly one preseason game to become Marcus Thornton’s biggest internet fan. This kid is just flat out making this season fun to watch for me. But Lil Buckets got a lil press this week. Hoopsworld did a piece on him for their Life As A Rookie feature. Some quotes:

“I feel like I have to work harder than everybody else – go above and beyond what everybody else is doing – to maintain this role and not lose it.” – Marcus Thornton

“Thornton is a deadly shooter. He can really heat it up. I’ve seen him in one game get 32 and make like 5 threes.” – Tyreke Evans

He was also featured in this morning’s Times Picayune:

“He’s more than just a shooter, and we try to remind him of that. He can slash. He can get to the basket. He’s unbelievably athletic. We want him to show the world that. Don’t just show us that. Show everybody else that.” – Chris Paul

Thornton on busting out of his weeklong shooting slump last Friday night:  “That’s one of the things I’ve had to work on, if my shot is not going, to work on the other aspects of the game like rebounding, cutting to the goal, getting easy buckets so that my offense starts to generate. Once I started doing that (against the Kings) everything started flowing.”

Higher & higher, Buckets. We believe in you!

With the loss at Sacramento the other night, the Hornets fell to 1-8 on the road this year. This is a new look for our fave team, which actually sported a better record on the road than at home in early 2007-08. Ah, but those were different days… the Hornets were sneaking up on teams, and New Orleans Arena wasn’t quite so full of loudness and win. (I can’t really complain, being a season ticketholder– I’ve only seen two losses live in a waaaayyy down season, and that’s including preseason: NO is 6-2 at home.) Seriously, though, the team needs to get its road mojo back. Thoughts?

Lil Buckets' home and away look... what's up with that?

1) More drunks. Look, I am sure there are drunk people in every arena. I am not naive. But there are a lot of drunk people in New Orleans. The Hornets need to import like 100 bums, you know, from off the street is okay, and give them free beer. Maybe beads too. Do you think the drunks would yell more with beads? Hell, give the drunks some beads.

2) Lil Buckets needs to wear his sleeve! Has anyone else noticed this but me? I actually didn’t notice till last week. Marcus Thornton wears a shooting sleeve on his left arm in all the home games but never on the road. Why? I am dying to know. But we’re begging him. Wear the damn sleeve. Please.

3) Place a large humidifying machine in the locker room and all hotel rooms and practice areas. Make it very damp and gross. This is to simulate New Orleans’ humidity.

4) Bust out the pregame prayer. Surely we’re the only arena that has that. Let’s take George Shinn’s holy rollerisms on the road! Jesus for everyone! In every city! (Disclaimer: My distaste for the pregame prayer is not a knock on Christians. It is not meant to be intended that way. We do not like the prayer because it reflects a lack of diversity. You may feel free to disagree with us. We’ll still love you.) We are at the point where prayer might be a legitimate option.

5) Is David West sitting on his bouncy ball on the road this year? I haven’t noticed. If he’s not, he needs to be.

6) Pass out iPods to the team and play “SHOUT!” on the Hornets bench. This song wins games. It is statistically impossible for the Hornets to lose a game once “SHOUT” has been played in the fourth quarter. Why is it statistically impossible? Because it’s never happened. “SHOUT” is like 65-0, seriously. It’s an ice cold closer.

7) I know James Posey distributes hugs on the road. But does he give fist bumps to the entire bench, coaches, team personnel, the waterboy, the ballboys, and the like six other random people who happen to be sitting around there? C’mon, Hornets. Get this man some random people to fist bump. Each extra person is an extra dose of PURE LUCK. Filled with champagne and championship sparkles and stuff.

8.) Peja on a Stick. I’m sure you have room for one on the plane. Put one of the rooks in charge of it.

Headquarters: right here.

Over on At the Hive, someone mentioned Blazers fans last year showing their rookie love with Team Bayless. Of course, I was struck by what a fantastic idea this is. Plus I really really want a Team Thornton shirt to wear to games. I’ve pretty much been obsessed with Lil Buckets’ game since the first moment I saw him. And thus:

Join TEAM THORNTON! You know you want to.

Why Team Thornton? Why not Team Collison? Well… you know Lil Buckets is my pet rookie, and as a second round draft pick who’s tearing it up out there, as well as a local Louisiana guy, I think he deserves our support! I decided Team Thornton should be purple and gold, because those colors conveniently go with both LSU and the Hornets. Of course, I made it in male and female, in case anyone else wants to join the fun. And no, I’m not violating copyright by putting a Hornets logo on, so don’t even ask me to.

You know you wanna be on Team Thornton with me.

Sorry, guys. It won’t happen again.

Things You Knew Were Possible All Along

Best in the West? … Down.

Best in the East (and, in fact, the NBA)? … Down.

Who wants next?

I'm beginning to fear my love for Lil Buckets' game has reached unhealthy levels. Like, really unhealthy...

Did it really happen?

It happened without Chris Paul. It happened without David West having a good game. It happened by dominating the boards. It happened against the team with the best record of this young NBA season. And it happened on national TV.

Oh my gosh, is my Marcus Thornton love veering into inappropriate and all-consuming territory? Ever since he first stepped onto the floor, I just knew this kid could play. In the first four games of the Post-Byron Scott era, the first of his young career in which he’s received non-garbage minutes, Lil Buckets is averaging an efficient 16 pts in 20 minutes. He just has the self-confidence of a kid who believes he’s going to be a player in this league. You can’t coach that. You can’t buy it. It’s something I wish Julian Wright had. In the first half, Buckets was taken down by an Amare Stoudemire flagrant 1. A little while later, he cuts to the basket along the baseline and lays it in, right in front of Amare.

mW: Wait, was that him just popping back up, or did I see swagger?
Ticktock6: That was totally swagger! I love it!

I was all forlorn when he tweaked his ankle late in the game. He was easily going to set himself a new career high (it’s only 20, after all– he’ll surpass that in the next few weeks I bet). He tried to walk it off, but Jeff Bower was having none of it, and called timeout. But, a few minutes later, there’s Lil Buckets jogging out of the locker room. He spent some time bouncing up and down, stretching it out, and clearly wanted to get back in the game. The coaches elected to sit him. But it just confirms what I suspected: Buckets is indestructible. He certainly crashes the boards in the shadows of much larger players like he is. In summary, my love for my pet rookie knows no bounds.

But. Lest Darren Collison feel left out, I will say that I am dazzled by his speed every time he runs the floor. On one fast break, mW turned to me and said, “He looks like he’s just jogging, and yet he beat everyone down the court.” And the Suns are a running team! He’s going to wreak havoc against unsuspecting bench squads when Chris Paul comes back. Believe that. And that driving layup that sealed the game was positively CP-esque.

Emeka’s block on Amare. Eeeek.

Peja for threeeeee… actually, I’m not going to dwell on that, like the national media did. We knew he still could. Him outrebounding everyone on the Hornets and the Suns? Well. All right. That deserves a shout out.

Loved the standing O from the crowd when the Suns called timeout three minutes in. Hornets were up 11-2, and it just goes to show that fans appreciate hustle. And, seriously, the Hornets best closer is not Chris Paul. It is, hands down, “Shout!” on the jumbotron. By my informal count, I am not sure the Hornets have ever gone on to lose after that song is played. “A little bit louder now… Hey-ey-ey-hey!” … Game over.

Earlier this season I began to have a sneaking suspicion that maybe Devin Brown has got some things going for him that go beyond what we see on the floor. Darren Collison in the paper thanking him for helping him out on the floor… he’ll throw out some genuinely intelligent quotes (one time he was the Shirtless Locker Room Interview on Hornets Tonight, a fact which caused me to be extremely put out… except what he said was so not-dumb I couldn’t even find it in myself to hate on it)… last night he was waving his arms pumping up the crowd. The very foundations of my world have been rocked. Devin Brown is shooting from three in a way that some might describe as anti-detrimental. Devin Brown, I have to say, played well last night. But… what would I do without Devin Brown mockery? What is my place in such a lonely, stark, and frightening new world? I feel lost and helpless, like a small sea creature caught up in the whirl of great tides that I cannot fight or understand.

Oh, Devin. Devin.

You believe you can fly, Devin. Fly like a ninja. And who am I to stop you?

There was a moment just before the final buzzer sounded when I’d forgotten the Hornets just lost.

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably watched me completely spaz out and go crazy when Darren Collison and Lil Buckets checked into the game with six and a half minutes left. And did they ever hit the game with a splash. Thornton had 8 pts and 1 rebound in 6:34, going 2-3 from three. Collison went 6-3 with a steal, running the fast break more times than I think we saw all game. Both rookies hit all their free throws. And they were zipping all over the place, cutting to the basket.

I’ve been mostly Thornton-Thornton-Thornton till now, I know, but there is just a joy and energy that Collison brings that I really enjoyed last night. You can just see it in the bounce of his feet. When he got slammed under the basket by a flagrant foul, he popped right up, clapped his hands, and grinned. And if Byron Scott thinks Bobby Brown brings speed to the lineup? Collison’s speed blows his out of the water. These guys were hungry. It was so contagious even Songaila and Posey seemed to perk up a bit. Hilton was inspired to do at least two things right.

Will people pay to watch a losing team? That’s the question, isn’t it? Clearly one of the answers is you pay to watch Chris Paul, because he’s a future great. But last night I found another answer. I watched Darren Collison steal the ball and zip up court, and Marcus Thornton cut all over the place. And I thought, “I would pay money to watch these kids make mistakes and lose.” If you couldn’t see the difference between those six minutes and watching 4 or 5 guys nearing the end of their careers going through the motions and looking depressed as they realize they might not regain their old form, then you must be blind.

Do I have sympathy? Yes. I do. People get older. I’m getting older too, and the reality is that most of us hate it. My 50-win predictions for this team were based on Posey/Peja/Peterson maintaining some kind of consistency with their career stats. We could probably handle a drop-off from one. But not all three. And you know– this may come as a huge shock so be prepared for it– I don’t include Devin Brown in that bunch. Not today, anyway. Because I think he really tried last night, put in an impossible situation, and he hit his shots. And I love all of these guys. I wasn’t upset when we traded Rasual Butler, because between the Three Ps, the Hornets looked to have that role covered. How do you predict things like this?

But the bottom line is, if Byron Scott really means it when he says he wants the team to run more, if the Hornets take a deep honest look at themselves and finally accept that some players have deteriorated, if the team wants to put a product on the floor that’s exciting for the fans, the last six minutes of Lakers/Hornets is what we need to see. I want to see Chris Paul balling with young kids who are creative, who can keep up with him.

Look, you don’t play the rookies because you think they’re going to be some magical solution, some great mysterious hope that can be plugged in to fix the problems with this team. They won’t. You play them because, even though you may lose with them, you’re already losing without them. The fans who pay the money to sit in the seats deserve to see something fun. They deserve to see something that gives them hope for the future. They deserve to see hustle and heart. Beginnings not endings. The local kid getting his chance and making his dream come true under the bright lights.

If you’re not giving us a championship this year, give us something we can love. That’s all I ask.

Oh, and pssstt. Byron. You looking for answers? Here’s a freebie: Thornton is your starting 2.

LOL Rookies! ... oh wait, we're not LOLing

Look, I am not gonna be that overeager fan jumping up and down going, “Start the rookies! They’ll save us! Straight to the championship!” I just wanted to make that clear.

But.

It is frustrating in the extreme to watch the Hornets lose to the Spurs on national TV and be left thinking, “Huh. The same stuff that pissed us off last year has not changed. At all.” The loss is not what’s frustrating. I expected it– the Spurs core has been the same for years, while this Hornets team still hasn’t played an entire game together (Diogu, a guy who we expect to get significant backup minutes, is still out with an injury, and last night was Okafor’s first outing after missing the entire preseason). The Spurs are a good team, and realistically they weren’t going to lose the season opener on their home floor.

I won’t say I’m panicking– I have calmed down after a night of sleep. But I am concerned that our first round pick didn’t see the floor– in a game in which the Hornets were down by 14-20 points in the 2nd half– until 2:30 in the fourth quarter. I am concerned that Byron Scott thought Marcus Thornton, the team’s third leading scorer with 12.2 PPG in preseason, wasn’t ready to even dress. I am concerned we pay Peja Stojakovic and James Posey a combined $20 million and they combined to take one shot in the second quarter while our undrafted minimal-salaried backup point guard took 5 and missed them all. If you’re going to move Peja to the bench, the first thing you do when he checks in is run a play for him. Having him get three shots an entire game is an issue that needs to be addressed by the coaching staff. If Bobby Brown can’t or won’t facilitate for guys more talented than him, he needs to be slapped with a red light and sat down, not given the most playing time of anyone off the bench.

Byron Scott is like a parrot at this point. He apparently felt called upon to defend his decision to not dress Thornton in favor of Devin Brown (my old nemesis….. we meet again):

“He’s still got a ways to go, ” Scott said. “Devin (Brown) is much farther along on both ends of the floor as far as knowing our offense,  and Devin knows almost every position,  which is vital. Defense,  he understands what we’re doing with our rotations and things of that sort. Marcus is getting there. He’s just not there,  yet. I don’t think it’ll be all year long he’ll (be inactive) because he doesn’t get it on offense and defense. He’s going to get it.”

“Marcus is a young player who is still learning. He makes a lot of mistakes in practice. Devin (Brown) is a veteran guy who I think I can depend on a little bit better on both ends of the floor. It was a tough decision, but I think it was the right decision.”

Yeah, well. This is exactly what Devin Brown did when he got into the game: He immediately committed an offensive foul. Then on the next Hornets possession he threw a wild pass that went out of bounds. Whoo. I just don’t buy it. “He understands what we’re doing with our rotations” on defense. Who saw that game? Did ANY Hornet look like they knew their rotations on defense?

Frankly, I’m depressed that “Devin Brown getting talented young players’ minutes” is already something I’m complaining about one game in. I thought George Shinn issued a mandate to play the youth. The coaching staff responded by…. doing the opposite. Great way to start the year, guys. And watching Eric Maynor and Ty Lawson get minutes for Utah and Denver in the late game just rubbed all kinds of salt into the gaping raw wound. The bottom line is, I don’t care what naked pictures Devin Brown has of Byron Scott– what he brings is just not enough to justify playing him over young guys. Particularly Thornton, who can and should be getting at least ten good minutes off the bench because, despite being a 2nd rounder, he fills a huge positional need. Period. As far as Scott’s unnecessary comments to the T.P. about “well, Darren Collison didn’t have the whole playbook memorized before summer league, like Chris Paul did”… don’t get me going. Really. News flash: Chris Paul is a once in a generation talent. That’s so colossally unfair to make that comparison. Drafting a kid in the first round, then trading for a run-and-gun undrafted point guard and giving the draft pick’s minutes to him, and not giving him minutes even in a blowout… if Darren Collison’s confidence ends up getting destroyed, I am just saying we know who to blame.

But there were good points. The defensive rotations were horrific, by the starters and the bench alike. The team just looked like a bunch of guys who hadn’t played together before. But you know what? That can get better. Ryan at Hornets 247 points out the Hornets actually played at a decent offensive efficiency, scoring 96 points on 86 possessions. Okafor’s 18-10 game blew me away, mostly because I had set my expectations low. Imagine with those three guys (Paul, West, Okafor) clicking offensively and defensively. Julian Wright had his ups and downs, but I think he’ll learn. If the three point shooters are involved early, rather than left to stand around, one of Peja/Peterson/Posey should get hot.

Oh, and speaking of which, I think that’s how I’ll wrap this up:

Memo to James Posey,

The season has now started. Anytime you feel like showing up, that would be, you know, cool.

Love,

The Hornets

As you all may know, I bestowed upon Marcus Thornton in the 2nd game of the preseason the spontaneous nickname of Lil Buckets. “Lil” ’cause he’s a rookie (Look, is Lil Wayne too good for the “Lil”? No. No, he is not). And “Buckets” ’cause he flat out gets buckets. There’s really not much more to it than that. “Wait,” several people have since asked, “why is he Lil Buckets? Is that something that’s a real nickname, or is it just you?”

Um, yeah. It’s just me. But whatever. At least it’s better than the time Gil (I think? or one of the Hornets radio guys) said, ridiculously yet memorably, that David West’s jumper was soft as a fluffy bunny, and a bunch of people on Hornets 247 started referring to him jokingly as Fluffy. Finally, when asked about it, D West was like, “Yeah, no. You guys are not calling me Fluffy.”

By a stroke of fortune, Marcus Thornton stopped by Hornets.com to do a live chat this afternoon. Naturally, circumstances being what they are, and me being completely incorrigible on this topic, of course I decided I’d ask him. Here’s the result:

Lil Buckets says we can call him Lil Buckets. I win.

So there. What? It’s a live chat with fans and he has to be nice to us for PR purposes? …. Whatever. He had his chance to say he doesn’t wanna be Lil Buckets. Now I’m never letting it go. Hehehe. If only I can come up with something for Darren Collison that matches… hmmm….