Hornets Hype

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.   

Okay, so no big moves, but the NBA ranks to continue to be depleted by those heading overseas…

• Brian Skinner, PF:  signed by the Clippers.
• Walter Hermann, SF: re-signed by the Pistons.
• Adonal Foyle, C: re-signed by the Magic.
• Louis Williams SG: re-signed by 76ers.
• Dee Brown, SG: signed by the Wizards.
• JamesOn Curry, SG: waived by the Bulls.  Honestly, I just wanted to use the name “JamesOn.”  Seriously.  What were his parents thinking?
• Taureen Green, SG: recently traded to the Knicks and then cut, he apparently signed with Cai Zaragoza in Spain.
• Dwyane Mitchell, SG: this former D-League and Summer League  standout is getting his shot in the big league.
• Ndubi Ebi, PF: this big man, who played for the Hornets in Vegas, is heading to Carife Ferrara in Italy.
• Carlos Arroyo, PG: signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv.
• Nick Fazekas, SG: had his tender offer rescinded by the Clippers; that’s pretty weird.  I mean, they gave him an offer so he wasn’t a free agent, waited for the market to dry up with money already spent, and then let him go?  They can do that?  He too should tell the NBA to f*&# itself and head overseas for a big pay day.

Oh well.  That’s it for now.  Nothing huge.  Except the for the continued exodus of legit players to overseas teams.  It kind of makes me wonder how good these leagues are…

The summer of the defection continues and moves abound, with players switching allegiances, reuniting with old cities and coaches, and the NBA diaspora is in full swing in search of greener, tax-free pastures…summaries to follow, starting with the big splash:

• Rockets: get Ron Artest by giving up their first round pick this year, their first round in later years, and poor Bobby Jackson, who’s had trouble finding permanent residence as of late.
• Kings: give up their 1 year left with malcontent, Ron-Ron, and get (probably) Donte Green (there’s a 30 day waiting period after his signing), B-Jax, and a future 1st round pick. Smooth move. Also, if you hadn’t heard, they stole our Summer League sensation, Bobby Brown.
• Lakers: they may have had to let Ronny T go to do it, but the Lake-show retained the services of Sasha “the Machine” Vujacic for a cool 3 years and $15 million. Looks like a solid move in light of the $60 mil deals disclosed below…
• Warriors: the Bay Area cats finely chose to pony up for their big two free agents, paying out 6 years and $67 mil to keep SG(/PG?), Monta Ellis, and giving Andris “Not-so-Big-Daddy” Biedrins 6 years and $62 mil. GS also strangely choose to match the Clips’ offer sheet on Azubuike, because…um…they don’t have enough lanky swingman that don’t play D?
• Clippers: meanwhile, losing out on Azubuike, the Clips continued their own mad sprint this summer by signing SG, Ricky Davis, to a 2 year, $4.7 mil contract; not a bad replacement for Maggette, and um, for about $100 mil less. They also chose to waive F, Josh Powell, with Camby aboard.
• Bobcats: MJ’s crew finally signed their big man, Okafor, to a 6 year $72 mil contract. See The Machine, supra. They also re-signed C/F Ryan Hollis.
• Knicks: yes, yes, I swear, the Knicks are still around; the rumors of their demise have been greatly ex–er–linked to Isiah Thomas? Any way, deciding they didn’t have enough guards already on the roster, and refusing to cut Starbury, they picked up G, Anthony Roberson, from the Summer League. But realizing they then had 17 players (there is a max of 15 during the regular season), they traded away Renaldo Balkman for, um, two more players: Tauren Green and Bobby Jones, along with a 2nd round pick in 2010. So, realizing that they had 18 players, they quickly waived both, saving about $2 mil a year, and ending up with only 1 player over the ultimately allowable roster.
• Nuggets: apparently, their GM was told to make moves or find a new home. And he started by giving away Camby. Not content, he acquired Balkman from the Knicks, and then signed our own Birdman to a 1 year deal, and also gave G, Dahntay Jones, a contract. Wow. Strong moves.
• Pistons: interesting move in giving Kwame Brown 2 years and $8 mil; that’s a lot for someone everyone considers a bust in all three of his stops so far. They also signed G, Will Bynum. Woo.
• Timberwolves: re-signed restricted free agent Ryan Games, a nice move.
• Bulls: finally gave Luol Deng his big contract, at 6 years and $71 mil. And they think we overpaid for Posey. Cheer up Hornets fans, you could have been stuck with this.
• Hawks: fresh off their Josh-Childress-slap-in-the-face, they gave Mo Evans a 3 year deal worth $7.5 mil. Considering he started starting for the Magic last year, this is a nice pick-up. They also signed C, Randolph Morris.
• Nets: already having made several good moves this summer, the Nets lost Krstic, who didn’t appear to be a part of their plans anyway, to Triumph Moscow, for around $9 mil a year; and don’t forget Euro teams pay their players’ taxes, so that’s his take-home. Damn. I need to work in Europe.
• Magic: not content with losing players left and right, they waived F, James Augustine.
• Raptors: lost another player to Europe, as Jorge Garbajosa took off for Russia’s BC Khimski, the terms undisclosed; but let’s just assume its like they’re giving him all the money they “nationalized” after throwing that oil tycoon in jail. They did, however sign free agent G, Will Solomon, who conversely, played the last two seasons in Turkey.
• 76ers: continued their moves by signing G, Royal Ivey, and 3-point shooter, Kareem Rush. Guess Kareem didn’t like his brother, who his former team, Indiana, just drafted.
• Jazz: matched the OKC offer sheet on C.J. Miles, keeping him around. Smart move.

That’s it for now. Some news, some just recitation, but it’s all relevant because we’re going to play them all next year. Of course, it’s nothing to get excited over, because, you know, the Hornets will win it all anyway.

P.S. check back soon for Hype on TT6’s elsewhere declared Hiltonwatch.

A few quick notes from Monday’s Free Agent market:

• Josh Childress: headed to the Olympiakos team in Greece for 3 years, getting about $20 mil after taxes; Hawks can only match NBA offers, not international ones.
• Bostjan Nachbar: similarly, this ex-Net signed with Dynamo Moscow for 3-years and $14 mil.
• Ronny Turiaf: Warriors get their man when Lakers didn’t match the 4-year $17 mil offer from GS.
• Matt Barnes: Suns signed this ex-Warrior to a 1-year veteran minimum deal of $1.2 mil.
• Eddie House/Tony Allen: the Celtics re-signed these backups; allegedly both received deals of 2-years for over $2 mil per.
• Sebastian Telfair: the T-Wolves kept their PG by giving up a multiyear deal for an undisclosed amount. 
• Kurt Thomas: the Spurs lose, um, I mean “win” the KT sweepstakes, by re-signing this veteran forward. 
• Marcus Williams: not really free agency, but the Warriors traded for this Nets backup PG by giving a conditional 1st round pick.
• Keyon Dooling: ditto here, as the Nets gave up cash and a trade exception to the Magic for this guard.
• Brevin Knight/Jason Hart: in one last trade, Clips and Jazz exchanged backup PGs (BK to Utah, JH to L.A.).

Also to cross the newsticker, the NBA team formerly-known-as the Seattle Supersonics, will now be the “Oklahoma Thunder.”  And to their credit, they are already reporting over 16,000 season ticket requests.

All work and no play makes a person, well, it depends on what your work is. Seriously, I was just updating links on the sidebar, making sure we have a handy way for our readers to access other teams’ blogs and news sources for when the season cranks up. And yes, as a result, the first post I’m putting up since Ticktock left for a week to NYC is about cheerleaders, but I swear it’s a coincidence. I just happened to stumble onto two news items, one timely, and the other just too good to put down.

As some of you may know, HoneyBee tryouts are in full swing. Finalist workshops are going to be held July 22-23, and the audition finals will be held Sunday, July 27th, at 2-5 P.M. at the House of Blues. These auditions are open to the public (the doors open at noon). Also, as recipients of BeeMail know, you can also enter a contest to get VIP seating for this event. So, as Hypers of everything Hornets, we of course hope plenty of you will turn out on Sunday!

But this, too, is a cautionary tale. Sure, being a cheerleader can be glamorous. You know, in the kind of sexist, no-of-course-we-don’t -have-male-cheerleaders-at-WNBA-games kind of way, in that special, the hell with it, we cater to what people want, and it’s physical excellence in either execution or appearance, acquiescence. So just as TT6 and others have their crushes on NBA players (read Tyson, CP), NBA teams exercise their marketing know-how that says, you know what, politics be damned, sex sells. So there it is. Cold realism. Now. That said, ladies, D-O N-O-T get swept up in your own success if you make the team. You are just as much a public face of the organization as the players.

Don’t believe me? Ask the Kings’ Royal Court dancers. It might start in the clubhouse. It might just be a drink or two. Maybe at some point you’re just too comfortable with the camera. Smile! Give me happy! Snap-click. Give me sexy! Snap-click. You’re signing autographs, you’re recognized. Before you know it, you’re completely comfortable with your fifteen minutes on the stage.

And then this happens.

People, listen. There is such a thing as the internet. Camera phones. Video phones. Wireless networking. I-N-S-T-A-N-T information. Nothing is private anymore. It’s either the golden age of information or the apocalypse of privacy, you make the call. But either way, if you are trying out for the HoneyBees, remember to watch yourself. People will exploit you and use your image for their own purposes. Overnight, images of you are around the world and your employer can judge you based on it. It kind of sucks. I’m not judging either, I’m just saying when you’re involved at that level, be you a player or cheerleader, you need to watch what you do and who might be recording it.

But if anyone is out with the HoneyBees-to-be at some random FQ party and you have salacious pics…um…let me know.

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.

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!

Whether or not you have issues with the slightly excessive 4-year contract (OK, OK, I’ll stop… hey, at least in 2 years we’ll have a hot ‘n’ spicy expiring contract to use as trade bait!), we can all rejoice in the fact that, after a maddeningly dull offseason, we have a new Hornet on the roster! The last time we saw Posey, he was chillin’ in the corner bombing 3’s for the Celts during the NBA finals. Ya know, if I was going to retire at age 36, I’d do it in New Orleans, but maybe that’s just me…

I would be remiss in my duties as Queen of Hornetblogging if I did not scour the internet for everything you need to know about Posey. (This is a blatant fabrication. As you will see, most of this post will consist of things you didn’t need to know. But it’s more fun that way….) Here you are:

• Posey wore #41 for the Boston Celtics and the Memphis Grizzlies, and #42 for Miami. I’m going to guess that was because 41 wasn’t available, because he also wore 41 in college. And hey, we’ve got #41 free!
• Posey went to Xavier, but was drafted in 1999. This means he didn’t overlap with David West, who graduated in ‘03. (Ha– I didn’t even have to do the math in my head on this, because I too went to college from 1999-2003.)
• Now the Hornets have 3 guys on the roster who shared the same college coach, Skip Prosser: West, Posey, and Chris Paul.
• Posey’s birthday is January 13th.
• In 2005 he was involved in the massive wacky 5-team trade that also resulted in the Hornets getting Rasual Butler from Miami.
• He wears a mouthguard striped in the team colors (see above– that’s Miami, and the Boston one was green/white, naturally)! Teal and purple… teal and yellow… teal and white… oh, the possibilities! What’s he going to pick?
• There are questionable photos of him on the internet wearing no underwear. Hey, I said I was gonna bring you only the best!

P.S. Summer League Alert: New Orleans Baby Bugs (Hornets) vs. L.A. Dinghies (Clippers) coming up at 5:00 Central via webcast.

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.