Hornets Hype

D West: For the love of god, if you lose Anthony Morrow one more time I am going to come over there and kick your ass. I’ma slap you in the face like Dirk.

Pose: But–

D West: Shut up, Pose. Man, what is up with you this month? You give away and-1s like they’re candy. Defensive stopper my ass. And what happened to your three?

Pose: I just hit a three. It was a big one.

D West:  You have made 6 field goals in the last ten games.

Pose: That can’t be true. Total?

D West: Total. Let us not forget how you only played 10 minutes against Memphis and managed to rack up five fouls and lose the game in the last 7 seconds.

Pose: Aren’t you guys over that? It was last week.

D West: No one is over that. Back me up here, Darius.

Songaila: No one is over that.

D West: Marcus?

Marcus: Were yall talking? ‘Cause all this talking is getting in the way of me scoring.

Man, y’all know there isn’t much I love more than Marcus “Lil Buckets” Thornton and James Posey. But you know what might be an exception? A post all about Buckets and Pose. Which this SB Nation one by Andrew Sharp is. Is Thornton a future “glue guy”? He’s certainly got the hustle to be, even if the biggest knock on him is that he doesn’t have the height.

Watching the end of the Hornets-Grizzlies game last night…  I noticed Marcus Thornton, the rookie guard for New Orleans. He’s surprisingly solid, and has been playing well all season long. Last night in the fourth quarter, in a close game, he didn’t look out of place on the floor. Between Chris Paul and James Posey, there was Thornton in the backcourt, more than holding his own.

For a rookie drafted in the second round, that’s a pretty serious endorsement. And while it may not happen in New Orleans, there’s a good chance that Marcus Thornton will wind up making serious contributions to a contender down the line. He’s that good. Or more specifically, he’s good at specific things that are important.

Really, I think the thing I love most about loving a rookie is not knowing who he’s going to be. There are players like Emeka Okafor who’ve put up the same stats every year of their career from the get-go. And there are guys who show flashes as rookies, only to disappoint. And then there are players whose numbers are only all right, until a switch inside of them flips and they suddenly “get it” two or three years in.

Today Thornton is averaging 9-2 in 18.5 minutes. He’s been in double figures for seven straight games, after that December rough patch, and he’s recently graduated to seeing crunch time minutes. So I guess the question is, has Thornton “gotten it” yet? What’s his ceiling? We ended up getting a sweet seat upgrade for the Grizzlies game the other day, and were pretty low down in 111, right behind the Hornets bench. From there it was interesting to see how much time the coaching staff is spending talking to Marcus. Chris Paul, commendably, is also always in both the rookies’ ears. Thornton is only about 6-3 but he crashes the boards more aggressively than most of our guards (and forwards, really). He has one of the quickest releases on the team, hustle, and good instincts. And he plays like he’s got absolutely no fear. I’ve been reading “if only he was three inches taller, he could be our shooting guard for the future.” With all due respect, that’s kind of B.S. coming from fans of a team that is led by the best small guard on the planet. How much of success is raw physical tools, and how much is drive? You can’t quantify that, and Buckets happens to have one of the best role models for doing amazing things with the size you have.

You keep that chip on your shoulder, Buckets. Draft position ain’t nothing but a number.

A little background: The Hornets held a 94-93 lead over the Rockets with 43 seconds left when Carl Landry ran over James Posey and subsequently fouled out. Rick Adelman was apparently incensed about this and made a few cutting statements to the media after the game. I have to say the officiating was pretty bad in this game– probably the worst I’ve seen at a home game this season– but it was also evenly bad. There were plenty of unbelievable calls that had the home crowd yelling and booing as well.

I know this is a floppers’ league, but come on. Can we at least pretend not to be so obvious about it?

From the AP recap:

Landry said he didn’t run over Posey intentionally and that Posey “tried to flop a little bit.”

Posey said he’d recognized the play Houston was running and moved into Landry’s path.

“He didn’t even slow down and he just ran me over and I was able to get the call,” Posey said. “It was just one of those heady plays, just saving it for a stretch like that.”

But the quote in Landry’s home paper is a little different:

When Landry ran over James Posey while looking to post up — the call that most infuriated the Rockets and fouled Landry out of the game — the Rockets had gone more than two scoreless minutes, putting Paul in position to adroitly guide the Hornets through the final minutes.

“I knew (Posey) was going to be there,” Landry said. “I tried to flop a little bit and get the call to go my way. They were at home. I guess it didn’t go our way.

The NBA: Where Complaining Because the Other Guy Is a Better Flopper Than You Happens.

James Posey: OMG Chris. You know what could make us best friends MORE THAN EVER this season?

Chris Paul: What?

James Posey: MATCHING MOUTH GUARDS!

Great NBA Moments in Bromance & Matching Accessories

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

Only tangentially Hornets-related, but for those who aren’t into the whole Twitter thing, I got what is pretty much the Twitter Holy Grail this afternoon: a rare and coveted @ reply from His Shaqness. I had originally posted a link to this article by Jimmy Smith of the Times Picayune:

POSEY PLAYED HURT: No one knew it, but Hornets forward James Posey played all but the first two games of last season with torn meniscus cartilage in his right knee. Posey, who underwent surgery to repair the damage in late May, recalled Monday when and where the injury took place.

“In Game 3 here (a home opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers), I came down, had a couple shots – and I was on that left wing,” Posey said, pointing to the end of the floor where the Hornets’ bench is located. “I was fouled, but I thought I was going to have more contact – and I came down awkward.

“My knee buckled. I went to the free-throw line, then I started moving, and then I subbed myself out. I went straight to the back, and I just sat in the hallway. It just didn’t feel right. The docs came back and checked it out. Afterward I had an MRI, and they told me what happened.”

Posey said doctors assured him he would do no additional damage to the knee by playing. So he taped it up and padded it each contest – for 72 more regular-season games and five in the playoffs – and continued to play.

And all this time we never knew. It wasn’t in the paper. It wasn’t on TV. It wasn’t out there. Which basically affirms my view of Posey as a warrior. Therefore, I tweeted the following:

A little bit later, I check my @ replies. To my complete surprise, out of nowhere, I see this in my feed! (Red arrow is Shaq, above which is an amusing glimpse at several people reacting to Shaq randomly @ replying me, in pretty much the same way I reacted.)

So there you go. Shaq agrees with me. Ha! If Twitter were life, I would win at it. But more seriously, I think that says something about what kind of a player Pose is. We’re lucky to have him.

Alas, where does one go from here? I am so young, with nothing left to live for.

There are two unalienable truths in the world of Hornets Hype: 1) James Posey is amazing, and 2) Tracy McGrady sucks. Rare indeed is the gossip item in which we get the two in practically the same paragraph.

Spotted at TAO Nightclub, James Posey of the New Orleans Hornets. The NBA pro was with twelve guys and girls celebrating a friend’s birthday. Tequila was a favorite at the table and the basketball player even bought a bottle of champagne for a group of girls on the dance floor.

Also seen at TAO with friends was Houston Rocket Tracy McGrady. The shooting guard was extremely friendly to all and stuck to water throughout the night.

Original post here.

I guess not everyone is epic enough to have champagne and bacon for breakfast… And no, the fact that he was allegedly nice did not succeed in distracting us from our hate. By nature this blog cannot bring itself to trust someone who goes clubbing in Vegas without drinking…

I should get one. What would it look like?

Kinda slow on the uptake, a little depressed, and with a goofy “it wasn’t me!” grin? Why, Pose, why?

We need to put an APB out on the Hornets bench. Like now. Lost: one bench. Age: 23-33. Height: 6′8″ish, on the average. Ethnicity: mostly African American, with a touch of Iowa and Kiwi. Last seen: In the second quarter, looking sheepish. If found, please return to Verizon Center, 601 F Street NW, Washington, DC. Before tomorrow afternoon if possible.

But since it’s always nice to end with something funny after you talk about something horrifyingly bad, here: go  over to Ball Don’t Lie and caption this photo of Shocked!DWest.

Last night James Posey was the guest on Hornets Sportsline.  Frequent commenter Matt and I were on hand to check it out, he with a very large camera, I with nothing but my unquenchable love for Mr. Posey. Pose himself came rocking Xavier gear (and snuck glances at the game over everyone’s head).

Amazingly, I managed to refrain from telling him about our occasional blog features in which… well, you know the ones. See, I have some self-restraint.

All photos courtesy of the awesome Storm Surge Photography.

P.S. mW said I had to include the second to last one for all the dudes out there. But the bottom one is clearly the coup de grace. CLEARLY.

Chris Paul and James Posey, out and about in Baton Rouge yesterday for the Xavier/LSU game. I guess David West didn’t go because of his back.

#13 Xavier won 80-70.