SB Nation - Hilton Armstrong

Lakers, Clippers: A Tale of One City

atthehive — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:55:56 -0000

A 28 points win a night after a 16 point loss. It was a pretty interesting Staples double dip for New Orleans, and we learned quite a few things. In no particular order, a double recap:

Emeka Okafor

It's tough to say he was bad. But he definitely wasn't good. Versus the Lakers, he put up a stat line of 10 pts (5-12), 14 rebounds, and a blocked shot. Versus the Clippers, he went for 2 points (1-2) and 6 rebounds. He played 26 and 25 minutes respectively on Monday and Tuesday. I'd argue that the Lakers' game was the poorer showing. Against the LAC, the Hornets' offense didn't really require him. As a result, Byron Scott drew up very few plays for him, certainly a wise move with the perimeter showing.

But against the Lakers, we finally saw some of the bad side of Emeka, some of the things that Charlotte fans have been complaining about for years. He had a couple cases of brick hands and missed at least four wide open layups. If this is going to be the season that he puts it all together- in the ilk of his first 6 games- then he'll need to have a short memory and forget this one fast. Not the best Los Angeles trip for the big guy- a poor showing one night, and then denied a chance to redeem himself the next.

JuJu, the Starter?

As much as we've bashed Byron over the last year, he has given Julian Wright a very fair shake this season. He's started him, he's drawn up plays for him, he's even defended him in the media after horrible games. For a long while, I hid behind the "Byron killed Julian's career by not playing him properly as a rookie/sophomore" argument. Now? I renounce it. Julian Wright is simply not very good at basketball right now.

He's struggled defensively, missing easy rotations. More annoyingly, he's just as tentative with his dribble now as he was his rookie season. Simply put, JuJu has not grown much over the last 2+ years. And the blame has gradually shifted from Byron Scott to Julian himself. It's absolutely the right call to bring him off the bench; nothing he's done warrants a starting role.

Peja, the Starter?

Stojakovic is showing that he's still got it. Of course, that was never really the question. The real issue was if Peja could sustain his health and shooting over the course of a full season, and that question won't be answered until, well, a full season is up. I don't see Peja as the long term answer at SF for that reason. I think we can really save him and his minutes off the bench. At this point though, who else can we plug in at SF? Posey? Songaila?

We're going to see some interesting lineup combos over the next few games. When the dust settles, I wouldn't argue if this was the final setup: Paul/Thornton/Posey/West/Okafor with Collison/Brown/Peja/Songaila/Hilton doing the bench work.

Rookies!

Neither Darren Dimes Collison nor Marcus Buckets Thornton played particularly well against the Clippers. What matters is they finally got off the bench, and they provided exactly the energy we all thought they would.

Thornton clearly has a sweet stroke. I'm impressed at how quickly he can release it, and how consistent it looks over defenders. He's clearly not gun shy either. I would like to see Byron commit regular minutes to him, and more importantly, draw up cutting plays for him. Thornton has the skill set to allow cuts of different sizes; he doesn't need to get all the way to the hoop since he can stop in the midrange area and pull up. At the beginning of the season, I felt a lot of the Jason Terry comparisons were cliche'd and obvious. The more I see Thornton, the way he moves, and the quick release on his shot, the more I like the comparison a lot. Of course, if Thornton plays even half as well as Terry- one of my favorite guys in the league- this year, it'll be well worth it.

As for Collison? He gets into the paint at will, that's for sure. As nifty as a couple of his up and under moves were, I foresee close range finishing as his biggest issue of the near future. In that vein, his scoring development should be similar to Chris Paul's. In the two games, Collison also showed great on the ball defense (well except against Baron Davis, which is excusable). If Collison can evolve into the full court press man that Jannero Pargo was, the Hornets' defense will be that much better. For now, he clearly has defensive fundamentals down pat, and far better than the majority of rookies. He moves laterally extremely well, and it's refreshing to see.

The Defense

Well, there's plenty of work to be done here. New Orleans has attempted a hybrid zone/man at various junctures, especially prominent in this LA back-to-back. In my mind, it's not a good idea. Zone is a very difficult defense to play, even with very good personnel and coaching. Can the Hornets pull it off? I wouldn't put it past them, but it would be tough to use it consistently.

Thus far, the rotations have been very poor all around. With the red hot Phoenix Suns on tap, we're going to need to figure out something, fast.

Ike Diogu and Sean Marks

This one perplexes me. In the very negative news department, it appears Diogu will be out at least a couple more weeks, with Rotoworld claiming his season could be in jeopardy. As a huge Diogu proponent over the offseason, that would be devestating news for me.

As for Sean Marks? He's apparently had a "sore neck" for approximately the last month. So either something is up and the team simply likes Hilton Armstrong over him or his neck is in very poor condition. Armstrong did have a strong showing against the Clippers, so I'd expect Marks' neck to be "sore" for at least a couple more games.

The Pick and Roll

I'm probably going to devote an entire post to this at some point, but for now, it's clear out dependence on the pick and roll has diminished drastically. Some see this as a negative, pointing out how many easy dunks we got with Chandler and Paul. I see it as a positive for sure. The 2008-2009 offense just became ridiculously over reliant on the P&R. It got to the point where our offense literally could not run anything else (the Christmas day Magic game was a prime example of this). This year, the pick and roll hasn't been run because Emeka isn't as good at it. But as a direct result, the offense has become far more varied. We saw maybe a dozen successful back cuts all of last year. In the LA series, I already saw a couple well executed ones by Bobby Brown, Devin Brown, and Peja.

The pick and roll will be something Paul and Emeka work on behind the scenes, I'm sure. The West/Paul pick and roll will still be run at similar levels. But while the P&R sorts itself out, the offense is becoming more diversified than it's been in years, and that's a very good thing in the long run.

Chris Paul

The man is simply brilliant. Leads the league in three point percentage, PER, true shooting percentage, eFG%, Win Shares, and is second in assist percentage. He absolutely toyed with Baron Davis last night; if Okafor and others had done a more competent job on Monday, he could have kept his team in the game a while longer. There's absolutely nothing Paul can't do right now- stretch the defense, pass, rebound, man defend, help defend, knock down fadeaways to beat the shot clock, drill threes... let everyone talk about Kobe and LeBron and Carmelo. We're watching the best player in the league on a nightly basis. Enjoy it.

Knicks 117, Hornets 111

Seth — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:02:44 -0000

More photos » by Frank Franklin II - AP

De...fense? (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

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How sweet it is! The Knicks finally looked like a basketball team tonight, and turned back the Hornets with an even, consistent effort tonight at the Garden. I missed what sounded to be a hot start in the first quarter, but got to see the victorious fourth, which was more than a little refreshing. Some notes:

- The three-point shooting this evening was much more tempered, and came mostly when called for. The Knicks weren't especially accurate (7-23), so they refused to settle. They moved the ball instead and attacked the basket as well to earn 24-28 from the charity stripe.

- The defense made some key stops in the fourth, and looked generally improved throughout. You can't really call giving up 111 points a "good" defensive performance, but the Knicks helped much better and didn't switch on absolutely everything. Credit the Hornets with taking whatever New York gave them. Emeka "The Dream" Okafor was busting out post moves like you wouldn't believe, and finished with 24 on 9-13 shooting. Chris Paul, for his part, is a near-perfect basketball player. Good lord.

- Holy tits, Larry Hughes. What's gotten into you? For those of you who didn't bear witness, Larry dropped in 20 points on 8-13 shooting and added 6 boards, 2 assists, a steal, and an overall +10 as side dishes. Hughes made a few gorgeous passes, checked Chris Paul as best he could (Paul hit some tough, tough shots), and even made a big bucket or two down the stretch. Until the other shoe drops, this is excellent.

- I wanna give Chris Duhon a noogie or buy him a soda or something. Duhon dropped 18 and 9, and was incredibly precise on the pick-and-roll. Defying all the flak I've given him this past week, Du repeatedly conjured new ways to find David Lee in scoring position. Sure enough, that opened up his scoring opportunities, and Chris dropped 18 points to go with his 9 assists. Way to bring it, Du. Keep pushing.

- Danilo Gallinari's shot was in preseason form tonight. His legs just weren't under him, and he kept fading away for no apparent reason. This meant for just 1-6 from three (which probably made his percentage plummet, which makes me terribly sad) and 2-9 from the field. On the bright side, Gallo drove more than his line suggests and handed out a career-high 5 assists, a couple of which were rather pretty.

- Wilson Chandler reined in his attempts a little bit, opting to shake and bake against the bigger David West rather than spotting up from outside. Wil had only 9 points on 4-10 shooting, but I was pleased with his shot selection, both in quality and quantity.

- I totally missed Toney Douglas's six minutes, but it doesn't look like it went very well. The kid needs more time to get comfortable. Larry Hughes's mini-breakout doesn't help matters. The Knicks have too many players with names ending in "s".

- Speaking of which, Jared Jeffries caught a Hilton Armstrong arm right in the eyehole. Knowing that Armstrong sharpens his elbows twice daily, I was not surprised to see Jared lose quite a bit of blood. He hit one of two free throws with his eye hastily patched and didn't return. He probably got some stitches.

- Funny Walt Frazier moment: With the Knicks starting the fourth down four points, Clyde noted that "the Knicks [had] not won a game this season when they trailed after three quarters". Coulda cut that sentence short, Clyde.

- David Lee's mid-range shot has come along quite nicely. He got his usual fill of easy finishes off pick-and-rolls, but also did a superb job facing up and hitting jumpers at various ranges. Lee put up a very impressive 28 (13-17) and 8 in 35 minutes.

- I can't wait for this movie with Sandra Bullock and Big Baby.

- Bobby Brown should probably reconsider most of what he does on the basketball court.

- Al Harrington played his second game off the bench and was similarly instrumental in the fourth quarter. He put up double-digit points (I think) and spiked one of Paul's late-game layups off the backboard. Al's pretty animated down the stretch, but he's backing up his antics.

Tonight was a welcome departure from the heartbreak of last two games. It didn't take much, really. The shot selection was slightly better, the help defense was a step quicker, and the ball movement was a bit more precise. It's a game like this that makes games like the first three even more aggravating. The Knicks are deep and not without talent. It just takes a little effort.

My only complaint? Needs more Toney Douglas. Other than that, tonight was the first positive experience of the 09-10 season. Hopefully the first of many. Or at least several.

Preview: Kings at Hornets

Exhibit G — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:00:33 -0000

Before we get to the preview for your Sacramento Kings versus the New Orleans Hornets, I think I must first make an important public service announcement regarding the season opener:

We've been through one game. It did not go how we had hoped it might. But it was one game. This game is the second game. After this, we have 80 more. You'd think we be able to handle a loss a little better after we all endured last season, but apparently we still need to talk a few folks away from the edge.

Let me say that this will still be a long season for us as fans of this franchise. We'll enjoy the highs, we'll look for silver linings in our losses. Just remember that we cannot live and die with each win or loss. All signs point to the idea that we will experience more losses than wins this season. Look for small victories where we can.

Along those lines, was anybody not a little bit inspired with the way Casspi played last night? Look for those little things. Those are the aspects of the game that we can enjoy, even in tough losses.

All that being said, yesterday's recap thread was incredible. Great discussion all around. Kudos to everyone. That's the sort of thing that makes me proud to be a member of this site.

Now, on to the preview of tonight's game.

Opening Thought

This should be a compelling match-up. Both teams are on pace to end the season 0-82. But after this game, one team will be on pace to go 41-41. I'm no mathematician, but that seems like a sweet deal.

Thoughts I Stole From Section214

Section was once again kind enough to leave his notepad out on his desk. Ya'll know how much I enjoy stealing things, so here it goes...

Tonight's coaching match-up will be a showdown between what is and what might have been. Byron Scott's name was bantered about during this summer's coaching search. Considering he was still under contract to New Orleans at the time, you've got to imagine that his seat might be feeling a bit warm if they end up 0-82. Scott should hope they end up on pace for 41-41.

Former King Peja Stojakovic is now coming off the bench for the Hornets. As Section noted, this is a bench that scored only 20 points and collected only 9 rebounds in 95 minutes against the Spurs. For all the criticism that has been heaped upon Geoff Petrie in regards to overpaying players, I think we should recognize that Petrie successfully unloaded Peja, got assets in return, and didn't overpay.

Speaking of which, interesting to note that Peja is joined on the Hornets by former Kings Darius Songalia, Ike Diogu and Bobby Brown. Ah, memories.

Section214's match-up to watch: Spencer Hawes vs. Julian Wright. Although we probably won't see them face off head to head, recall that Wright was on the board when the Kings drafted Hawes. Take a gander, see what we might have ended up with instead, and make of it what you will.

Tyreke Evans' debut was less than stellar. Whatever the cause, a match-up against Chris Paul is a less than ideal second test. CP3 will make Evans look bad at various points throughout the game. Try to recall the context when lambasting our rookie. If Bobby Brown makes Evans look horrible, you may throw the context in my face as you lambast the rookie.

In the preview for the season opener I mentioned that the frontcourt for the Thunder would be kinder to the Kings than most match-ups this season. I don't think the statement was wrong, I think it just shows us the state of our current frontcourt. It is...less than good. Facing Emeke Okafor and David West will probably demonstrate this to us again.

The Kings lack of frontcourt depth is rivaled by the Hornets, who bring Songalia and Hilton Armstrong off the bench. Our best hope is that Okafor and West, the untalented defenders that they are, resort to a hack-a-Sean-May defense early and often.

Diogu could also potentially come off the bench, but since this is the second game of the season and not the last 2 games of the season, we should be ok.

For Your Added Entertainment

Mr. Section214 also devised a fun game for your viewing pleasure. He suggests picking when you believe the following events happen. I also believe that this could be a hell of a drinking game if you don't particularly feel like being conscious for the second half.

Pick the time in the game that the following will happen –

Sean May gets his first rebound of the season.

Tyreke Evans shoots a layup.

Tyreke Evans makes a layup.

Jason Thompson gets called for his first foul.

Jason Thompson actually commits his first foul.

Spencer Hawes enters the game.

Spencer Hawes pisses off someone within the game thread.

Kevin Martin draws his first foul.

Andres Nocioni draws his first blood.

We make our first basket.

We call our first timeout.

Emeka Okafor and David West are officially inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.

Omri Casspi and James Posey square off.

Mario Elie and Byron Scott square off.

The Details, in Which I'm Told The Devil Is In

Game is at 5:05 PM PDT. Televised coverage on Comcast Sports Net. Go Kings!

Unbounded Enthusiasm Is What I Have After The Spurs First Game

Wayne Vore (ATS) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:35:18 -0000

Sure, the Hornets don't look that good. Sure, I'm still mad I couldn't go to the game last night. Sure, I feel lousy. Sure, I'm rundown and tired. I STILL couldn't go to sleep last night after that game. I STILL can't stop thinking about how stoked I am for this season.

(With photos from JanieAnnie)

Man, Was I Right Or What?

Last night the Spurs hit on everything I said I thought this team could do.

Deep - Check. Nine guys with 9-17 points. Ten guys played 18 minutes or more.
The Big 3 - Check. Tim with 9 and 12. Tony with 17 and 6. Manu with 16 and 4.
Four - Semi-Check. Was RJ great? No. But that's mostly because he didn't shoot well. He did look smooth out there.
Quite Giant - Check. 9 points, 3 boards, in 18 minutes. He set picks, made jumpers, and looked a little lost.
Bomb Brigade - Check. 6-15, thanks to Mason's 1-5. For the most part, though, they hit the 3's that came out of the ball movement.
Cubits - Check. He looked really good. He ran the offense. He made plays defensively. He was aggressive offensively when the team needed him to be (meaning late in the shot clock) . And he made his corner three.
Oldies, but Newbies - Weak check. They didn't play much.
Beast, Man-Child, Freak Of Nature - Check. 14 and 11. I'll let Eric figure out which is which.
Defense in the last 3 minutes - N/A. Our defense in the second half was poor and it still didn't matter.
Manu's Explosiveness - Check. He's not 100% there, but he looked really good.
The Second Unit - Extra Big Check. They made plays.

This game was really about our second unit. Or really, the guys not Tony and Tim. In my preview, the main point I highlighted, in contrast to last year, was the ability for our second unit to make plays. They made plays last night against the Hornets. They got out on the break after a Manu steal. They closed out the third quarter with a Hill steal -- against Paul no less -- that was picked up by Blair and thrown back to HiIl for a dunk. And they scored. They scored and scored and scored. New Orleans all-stars couldn't get them back in the game against our bench. Chris Paul played great for 34 minutes. David West played well for 38 minutes. The closest they got was 15 points.

But, It's Just One Game

True. True. So let's talk about the game. We'll do it as a series of pictures from JanieAnnie.

Tony looked pretty good. He seemed a little out of sorts to start the game, but then settled down and had an efficient night. It helps your efficiency when you shoot a bunch of layups.

Manu Check In

Manu Hits the 3

Manu Knows He's About To Make A Layup

Matt locks up West. He's showing off his new defensive skills. You know he was leveling up on them all summer.

Rage with his only make. The best part of this play, it's in the highlight footage, is the way he makes space for himself with the bump against Wright. Rage is a big man.

The Beast was Beasting on Hilton Armstrong all night.

"Yes Bill, Hilton really tasted good tonight."

[update]

Reading the comments in a couple different threads points out the downside of me writing with a fever. I forget stuff I had meant to say. But, let's pretend these weren't original thoughts and that I'm stealing OPP.

Chris Paul was really, really good last night and we still kept them at a distance. Long distance. If he doesn't have his shot going, then they lose by 40.
Our deep bench and youth is going to help us a lot in the SEGABABA. Tonight is a SEGABABA.
We didn't have a single blocked shot. Very strange.
We rebounded really well early. The NOOCH only got 5 offensive rebounds which means our defensive rebounding rate was 86%.
Blair's natural scoring ability was on display last night. One was after an offensive rebound of an airball when he spun and threw up a quick jump hook-type shot from about 5 feet. The other was the dish from Rage where he caught it in mid-air and got the shot up before he came down. Very few big men can do that.
In the second quarter was a great example of how having Rage will help us. Roger Mason was on the left side of the court working the pick and roll. Which means he was dribbling around and getting nothing. The shot clock had got down under 10. He passed to a covered Bonner who passed to RJ. RJ took his man off the dribble and got to the rim to draw a foul. Last year, we didn't have anybody on after Tony who could salvage broken down plays. Now we do.

Thunder Gameday: Oklahoma City Thunder at New Orleans Hornets

Mr Pappagiorgio — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:30:22 -0000

The first thing you need to know about tonight's second pre-season game is that it isn't "tonight's" game at all, its actually an EARLY afternoon game, which tips off at 1pm Local time. Once again, the game won't be televised, and you're only chance to watch this one is going to be listening to WWLS, The Sports Animal, on FM 98.1 / AM 640 in the Oklahoma City area, or on 97.1 FM in the Tulsa Area. Again if there is anyone out there with a little bit of pull or power that wants to push for all the pre-season games to be televised next season, we'd certainly appreciate it, and I think just by me watching the game it'll have better ratings that "Matlock" and "In the Heat of the Night" which apparently was more important for KSBI to broadcast than showing a Thunder pre-season game. So if you can get that taken care of for us, I'm sure all us die hard Thunder fans would appreciate it.

As the Oklahoman points out in this article, essentially four players are battling for one roster spot. Those guys are Ryan Bowen, Mike Harris, Tre Kelley, and local boy Michael Ruffin. In the Thunder's first pre-season game the other night against the Memphis Grizzlies, Ryan Bowen got a nice chunk of playing time to show what he could do, while the other 3 guys watched from the bench. Bowen got 21 minutes of playing time which he used to take just 2 shots, both of which he missed (1 of which was a 3 point attempt), grab 3 rebounds (1 offensive), block 1 shot, and turned the ball over just once. All in all, just looking at the stat-line its hard to judge his performance, especially when we didn't get to see the game since it wasn't televised, but he didn't have too bad of a game, considering he's making an attempt at being the last guy on the bench, so to speak. From the article linked above, it was his hustle that really stood out, and I think one thing all Thunder fans love, and me especially (which is why I love Nick Collison so much), is hustle. Today's game should give one of the other three an opportunity to prove what they can do. Click the jump link to hear some more about today's game and what we are hoping to see.

The first thing I'm looking for in today's game is Russell Westbrook, and whether that 10 assist effort the other night was a fluke, or if he's improved his style of play so much this off-season that he's already going to be one of the leagues better point guards this season. He took just 4 shots, and racked up assist after assist to go along with 4 rebounds and only turned the ball over twice. Sure, we're used to RW0 racking up at least double digits in points, but with the addition of James Harden to the mix, perhaps that pressure for him to score upwards of 20 points per game is being lessened, significantly. If that's the case, imagine how many double doubles the kid is going to have this season, seriously! If he can keep up distributing the ball like this he'll be pushing the double digit assist mark all season, and I think we can pretty much bet that he'll be at least double digit in score on a nightly basis as well, and that's not even mentioning his rebounding which can sometimes pop up there into double digits as well.

The next thing I'm looking for is Jeff Green, and a much a improved outing for him. In Wednesdays game he had probably his work game, at least statwise that I can ever really remember seeing from him. Again, its hard to know what else he was doing on the court just from listening to the game, but, in 26 minutes of play, he managed just 6 points on 3-10 shooting to go with only 2 rebounds and 2 steals. This is not the Uncle Jeff we know and love, and this is not the guy we expect to see on a nightly basis this coming season. So it'll be interesting to see how he responds today and what kind of game he has. I'm banking on a 16-20 point performance with 5-7 boards today for Jeff Green. Let's see if he can do it.

Thirdly, is that even a word? I guess so since spell-check didn't change it, anyway, we're going with it. Thirdly, I want to see more of the young guys, Serge Ibaka, James Harden, D.J. White, and Kyle Weaver. I want to see what Ibaka can do with 20-30 minutes if he was able to score 4 points (2-2 shooting) and grab 2 rebounds in just 4 minutes of playing time. I want to see if D.J. White can continue to perform at such a high level in back to back games, and against good competition. Perhaps throw DJ out there early in the first quarter to get him some time against Nola's starters and see what he can do. Of course to do that, you'd likely have to cut into Jeff Greens time early, but hey its pre-season, why not start D.J. and throw Green out there late in the first and let him work the remainder of the 1st and most of the 2nd before bringing D.J. back in with the rest of the starters to clean up the end of the half? Look at me trying to be coach here. Anyway, I'm just intrigued by the way D.J. played on Wednesday and want to see what the kid can really do, as I'm sure Uncle Jeff's performance was just a fluke, we all know what he's capable of.

Finally, I'm just interested to see what Brooks plans on doing today. Is he going to give starters 25 minutes of playing time again? Is he gonna play with the rotations more? Work some of the young guys in with the starters to see how they will work with our premier players and against better competition? What's he gonna do? How is he going to continue to get this team prepped for the season opener which is already less than 3 weeks away! Can you believe that? just 18 more days until live regular season Thunder basketball! Man I'm excited, so turn that radio (come on guys, its the Hornets!) on at 1pm today and Thunder UP!

Oklahoma City Thunder Roster

	#	Pos.	DOB	W	H	College
Ryan Bowen	40	F	11.20.75	218	6-9	Iowa
Nick Collison	4	C	10.26.80	255	6-10	Kansas
Kevin Durant	35	F	9.29.88	215	6-9	Texas
Jeff Green	22	F	8.28.86	235	6-9	Georgetown
James Harden	13	G	8.26.87	220	6-5	Arizona State
Mike Harris	-	F	6.15.83	240	6-6	Rice
Serge Ibaka	9	F	9.18.89	220	6-10	None
Tre Kelley	6	G	1.23.85	188	6-0	South Carolina
Nenad Krstic	12	C	7.25.83	240	7-0	None
Shaun Livingston	14	G	9.11.85	185	6-7	Peoria Central HS
Byron Mullens	23	C	2.14.89	260	7-1	Ohio State
Kevin Ollie	7	G	12.27.72	195	6-2	Connecticut
Malik Rose	9	F	11.23.74	255	6-7	Drexel
Michael Ruffin	51	F	1.21.77	248	6-8	Tulsa
Thabo Sefolosha	2	G	5.2.84	215	6-7	None
Etan Thomas	36	C	4.1.78	260	6-10	Syracuse
Kyle Weaver	5	G	2.18.86	201	6-6	Washington State
Russell Westbrook	-	G	11.12.88	187	6-3	U-C-L-A
D.J. White	3	F	8.31.86	251	6-9	Indiana

New Orleans Hornets Roster

	#	Pos.	DOB	W	H	College
Hilton Armstrong	12	C	11.11.84	235	6-11	Connecticut
Earl Barron	55	C	8.14.81	268	7-0	Memphis
Bobby Brown	6	G	9.24.84	175	6-2	Cal State Fullerton
Devin Brown	23	G	12.30.78	210	6-5	Texas-San Antonio
Darren Collison	2	G	8.23.87	160	6-0	U-C-L-A
Ike Diogu	1	F	9.11.83	250	6-9	Arizona State
Sean Marks	4	C	8.23.75	250	6-10	California
Emeka Okafor	50	C	9.28.82	255	6-10	Connecticut
Larry Owens	25	F	1.8.83	210	6-7	Oral Roberts
Chris Paul	3	G	5.6.85	175	6-0	Wake Forest
Morris Peterson	9	G	8.26.77	220	6-7	Michigan State
James Posey	41	F	1.13.77	217	6-8	Xavier
Darius Songaila	9	F	2.14.78	248	6-9	Wake Forest
Peja Stojakovic	16	F	6.9.77	229	6-10	None
Marcus Thornton	5	G	6.5.87	205	6-4	L-S-U
David West	30	F	8.29.80	240	6-9	Xavier
Julian Wright	32	F	5.20.87	225	6-8	Kansas

Can Hilton Rebound?

atthehive — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:51:22 -0000

More photos » by Bill Haber - AP

This is slightly amusing.

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Ha ha ha, I'm funny.

Hilton Armstrong will have earned approximately $8.5 million dollars at the end of this season. It's a sum most of us can only dream of. More importantly, Hilton won't see such money again barring a quick turnaround.

The Hornets surprised me by picking up Armstrong's 2008-2009 option as quickly as they did. He did, after all, put up one of the most abysmal seasons (07-08) by a center in recent memory. In fact, only two centers have posted inferior sophomore seasons (Olowakandi, Diop), given comparable playing time, in the last two decades (win shares). I thought the Hornets would make him sweat at least a little.

They didn't, which makes me averse to flatly predicting that this will be his last year. New Orleans has a 3.85 million dollar option on him for next year. How good does he need to be to justify that contract and will he achieve it? It's unclear whether the front office seriously asked that question last offseason. Next summer, they may have no choice.

And this is why. If there is one thing Armstrong can do to save his career, it's reversing the above trends. Forget catching the ball, forget shooting the ball, forget anything and everything else. If Hilton can't stop this slide, his NBA career is effectively over. Sure, the Hornets might end up picking up a 2010-2011 option anyway. But being out-defensive rebounded by a guy a foot shorter than you is just plain ridiculous.

It's important to note that Armstrong wasn't always this bad. With a 17% D-reb rate as a rookie, he provided himself with a nice jumping off point. Granted, he never took advantage of it. But he was once at that point. If nothing else, he provided the team with solid boardwork now and again. Honestly, I think that's all it would take for the Hornets to give him another year.

Pinpointing the exact reasons behind the slide is difficult. I'm surely not alone in observing zero strength gain in the past three years. We've seen David West bulk up considerably, Chris Paul become much stronger, and even Sean Marks toughen up as last season progressed. But Hilton doesn't look much changed. The bigger problem with him seems to be not one of rebound anticipation, but inability to execute on box outs and positioning. It strikes me as a strength issue above all else.

My other main concern is a lack of footwork. This hinders his rebounding ability, and more importantly, his defensive skills. When a post player faces up on Armstrong, Hilton does a good job of using his length and height to deny most passing angles or the face up shot. The moment the offender makes a lateral move, though, everything falls apart. Of course, this quickly leads to him slapping the offensive player on the arm. Last season, Hilton averaged 6.0 fouls per 36 minutes... which was actually an improvement from his 6.4/36 the year before.

Moving to the offensive side, Hilton improved quite a bit last year. After a 57% true shooting performance as a rookie, he dipped dangerously to 50% as a sophomore. Last year saw him recover to almost 59%. I hate to keep hating on Hilton here, but there are signs that the recovery was illusory.

Most importantly, Hilton saw a sharp spike in his on-floor minutes with Chris Paul (due to Tyson Chandler's absence). Qualitatively speaking, it's fair to say big men are more efficient scorers with Paul around. There's quantitative evidence too. In his sophomore campaign of 45% shooting from the floor, Armstrong was assisted on a paltry 46% of his buckets. Last year, playing alongside Chris Paul more often, he was assisted on a significantly higher 59% of his field goals. In other words, there isn't much evidence suggesting that Hilton will maintain similar production, as he returns to a full time bench role.

Other flags: his ability to get to the free throw line (one of the best measures of isolated offensive performance) dipped again last year. Despite a decent increase in his jump shooting ability, he only converted on about 35% of them... not nearly efficient to justify the shot selection. Finally, he was blocked on 19% of his close range shots.

As much as I enjoyed seeing Hilton break out in three or four games last season, the numbers suggest he has an entirely new challenge ahead of him with an exclusive bench role. At this point, Sean Marks has to get the nod as the first C off the pine. His defensive rebounding is simply much beyond Armstrong's. Marks certainly relies on his teammates' shot creation just as much as Hilton, but until Armstrong can match the rebounding and defensive intensity, he should be saddled with the the 3rd string big man role.

NBA Previews- The Hornets

atthehive — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:23:30 -0000

More photos » by Gregory Smith - AP

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As part of CelticsBlog's annual round of previews, it's the Hornets' turn.

Team Name: New Orleans Hornets

Last Year's Record: 49-33

Key Losses: Tyson Chandler, Rasual Butler, Antonio Daniels, Ryan Bowen, Melvin Ely

Key Additions: Emeka Okafor, Darren Collison, Marcus Thornton, Ike Diogu, Morris Peterson, Darius Songaila

1. What Significant Moves were made during the off-season?

New Orleans did its fair share of wheeling and dealing. Tyson Chandler for Emeka Okafor was the headliner, with the Hornets swapping out a defensive ace with injury questions. Okafor enters the season nursing his own injury, but the hope is he can offer more consistent minutes than Chandler did in '09. The Hornets also saved money by offloading Rasual Butler and Antonio Daniels. Via the draft, Chris Paul's new backup- Darren Collison- joined the team, as did Marcus Thornton, a potential scoring threat off the bench. Toss Darius Songaila into the forward mix, and the Hornets enter 2009-2010 with a significantly different look and feel- three new players will step into the starting roles (Peterson, Julian Wright, Okafor), and a plethora of backcourt and frontcourt minutes should go to Collison and Diogu.

2. What are the team’s biggest strengths?

The point guard position. Obviously, that's been the strength since 2005; however, the Hornets seem to have the backup PG position locked down for the first time in a while. The organization has shown continual confidence in UCLA's Darren Collison. On draft night, they took him over a variety of front court options. They unloaded incumbent 2nd string PG Daniels relatively early in the offseason. And instead of bringing in a veteran 3rd string standby, they decided to roll the dice on Minnesota's Bobby Brown. If things go according to plan, not only will Chris Paul be awesome, his backup will allow him a couple more minutes of rest a game.

3. What are the team’s biggest weaknesses?

One of New Orleans' biggest issues last year was an utter lack of offensive rebounding ability. Only 5 teams went one and done more often last year (now, granted 2 of those were Orlando and San Antonio... but they made up for it in many other areas). Granted, a lot of the problems had to do with severe injury issues. However, neither Okafor nor Ike Diogu is an o-rebounder in the ilk of a healthy Chandler, so that weakness could persist.

On that same note, front court depth was another huge issue. While the addition of Diogu should help, Sean Marks and Hilton Armstrong still figure to get decent minutes off the bench. That shouldn't need much elaboration. The bench sucked in general last year, but more on that under Question 5.

Finally, the team still lacks a creative scorer outside of West and Paul. Obviously, having three marquee scorers on one team might be a little too much to ask for, but having a creative wing would help snap the stagnant stretches the offense is prone to fall into. Some have hyped Thornton into the role. I'm not saying a 6'0" shooting guard can't get that job done; there are a few examples across the league. But I'll believe it when I see it.

4. What are the goals for this team?

Hard to say. From a media perspective, the Hornets certainly won't have too much expected of them after last year's disastrous ending. From a player perspective, I'm sure a few guys are feeling some pressure. David West will be 29 next year. Chris Paul's only 24, but his chances at a title have taken a step back from 2007. From a fan perspective, I feel like a first round series win would satiate the majority of New Orleans appetites. Realistic goals will only become clear at least a couple weeks into November. Between Okafor, Wright's starting job, Collison, and Diogu, there are simply too many new pieces to say for sure.

5. Will the bench suck as badly this year?

The second unit was arguably the Hornets' biggest shortcoming last year. Antonio Daniels is the only guy I can possibly defend. Julian Wright, serious step back. James Posey, mediocre. Morris Peterson, invisible. Sean Marks, eh. Melvin Ely, bleh. And that's without even getting to the unmentionables, Hilton and Devin. Speaking of which, we should combine them into one player this year. Delton Browstrong. Okay, that sounds way cooler than this combo player possibly deserves to. Helvin Brownarms. There we go. Helvin Brownarms.

The overall point is that the bench can't possibly be this bad again. I mean... it could. But it can't.

Darren Collison is a respectable player by all accounts. Ike Diogu can be rock solid if healthy. Peja Stojakovic could have a rebound year and keep his back healthy, coming off the pine. Of course, Marks, Armstrong, and the rest are going to pick up some minutes. But a second unit of Collison/Thornton/Peja/Posey/Diogu with light servings of Bobby Brown and some Kiwi sprinkles should easily outperform last year's. It simply has to.

So to answer the question, no the bench will not suck as badly.

Projected Finish: 53 wins
Projected Finish Rationale: None whatsoever

Game 69: Hive Live

hldomingue — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:07:33 -0000

Golden State 89 (25-45) | New Orleans 99 (44–25)

Great game, no question. The Hornets were able to pull out in front pretty quickly (up 7 by the end of the first), and then held a 20 point lead until latter half of the fourth. It would have been nice to see them hold that margin until the end, but Golden State started hitting shots that they were bricking for most of the game, so it's hard to complain.

The Hornets did what they could to control the pace, but eventual settled into Nellie-ball using 10+ possession more than usual (game pace was 97 compared to our usual 85 or so). But you know what? It worked. It helped that the Warriors looked a little out of sync, often running into one another, but I was generally impressed with the offense all night.

Probably the biggest story of the night was the success of the bench in the second quarter. Not only did they outscore the Warriors 11-6 in the first 6 minutes, they gave CP an unprecedented 9 (Nine!) minutes of rest. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

Detractors might note that our bench was playing an even weaker bench since the Warriors were missing 2 starters in Biedrins and Crawford. But to that I say that A) we were still out 2 starters and B) their bench features Corey Maggette, who's way better than anyone we have coming off the pine (no matter how healthy we are). Regardless, even if this performance is just a confidence booster for the second unit—and it should be—that would be a victory.

In the end, the Warriors shot such a poor enough from the field (39.5%, 21.1%, 77.8%) that no number of possessions could have saved them from the onslaught of Chris Paul, David West, and Hilton Armstrong (yes, you read that last name correctly).

Bullets after the jump.

Hilton "double-double by halftime" Armstrong was the player of the game in my book: 14 points on 5 for 6 from the field and 4 for 4 from the stripe, 11 rebounds, 1 block, and 0 turnovers in 16 minutes. Great showing for him.
CP was his normal (read: awesome) self and added 27 points on 9 for 20 from the field and 7 for 7 from the stripe, 2 treys, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 steals. Ok, he probably deserves the player of the game, but I don't want to spoil Hilt's effort.
JuJu's shot wasn't falling last night, but he still found ways to contribute by pulling down 5 boards, and swatting 4 shots. I think it's worth noting that Peja's (re)injury might turn out to be pretty well-timed as it's giving JuJu plenty of opportunities to grow (both in skill, experience, and confidence) on the court. And we're going to need him come playoff time.
Golden State's bench (Maggette, Randolph, Watson, and Morrow) went 6 for 23 from the field. They also went 11 of 11 from the stripe, but 9 of those were Maggette's. Oof.
Stephen Jackson dropped a 22-10-5 line on us, but he also found it hard to hit shots consistently, going 7 for 17 from the field and 1 for 5 from deep.
The Hornet's +/- lines tonight were pretty interesting. CP, DX, and Mo were in the negatives, while everyone else was in the positives, including Ryan Bowen's team-leading +16.
Speaking of the the Hustle Man, Bowen gave quite an effort going for 6 points, 1 rebound, and 1 steal in 6 minutes (his only missed shot was a prayer at the end of the shot clock that almost dropped). The fans thanked him with a standing ovation when DX subbed in for him. Unfortunately, we were informed in the third quarter that he suffered a separated shoulder during the game.
Nellie didn't stand up the entire game. His assistant was the one running around and barking orders. Don't know if it was laziness or health related, but neither seems ideal.

Photos courtesy of yahoo.com

Composed to: Tift Merritt's Another Country

The opponent's take: Golden State of Mind

Game 67: Hive Live

hldomingue — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:23:28 -0000

Do not go gentle into that good night.

***

Minnesota 93 (20–48) | New Orleans 94 (42–25)

Well... that didn't quite unfold the way I thought it would.

The Hornets started strong in the first quarter. Our shots were falling and our defense was forcing the Wolves offense deep into their shot clock. Bad decisions abounded leading the Hornets to go 8 to 0 within the first 3 minutes. You could tell the guys were playing with a bit of a chip on their shoulder, trying to earn some cred back after a few tough losses.

We got a little lazy toward the end of the first and through most of the second, allowing the Wolves to get within a basket. But we picked up the slack again in the third, heading into the fourth with an 8 point lead.

Then, out of nowhere, the Wolves started hitting their shots. They (meaning mostly Kevin Love) had gained a large portion of their points from the stripe, but had been unable to convert much from the field. But in the fourth, the treys started falling and the Hornets found themselves having to go bucket-for-bucket just to keep the lead (or keep within 1, as the case might have been). A few solid defensive performances toward the end allowed the Hornets to seal the W, but damn if my blood pressure didn't shoot through the roof on those final 12 seconds.

Bullets after the jump.

Though many of us expected a blowout tonight, the actual result of the game shouldn't have surprised us too much. Though the Wolves were missing Jefferson, we were out one Peja and one Tyson. Add a terrible night night from DX (14 points on 13 shots, 4 turnovers) and a pitiful team showing from beyond the arc (28.6%) and I'd say a close game against these guys is not too far out of the question.
That having been said, CP pretty much won this one for us. Each time we missed a few shots in a row, he'd take over. He probably didn't want to play 41 minutes tonight, but he also didn't want to lose. And adding 26 points, 10 assits, 4 rebounds, 5 steals, and 2 turnovers will go a long way towards winning.
Julian looked good tonight. The stat sheet really doesn't do him justice. He looked sharp, knocked down a few shots, and was perfectly annoying on defense. Just what we wanted out of him. Too bad he only got 19 minutes.
Hilton, who started in TC's stead, finished with 4 blocks. Just saying.
Hilton also had 12 points, 8 rebounds, an assist, and 0 turnovers in 29 minutes. Well done, fella.
Kevin Love had a really strong outing. 23 points, 11 rebounds, 1 block, 1 turnover in only 33 minutes. Some of that could have to do with the fact that David likes disappear on defense every now and then, but I don't want to take away from Love's effort. Even more impressive was that he took quite a beating from us down low and then converted 11 of his 13 free throws.
Quick mini-rant: CP drove into the lane on one possession and drew THREE defenders. But instead of someone (Sean Marks) following behind for the easy, open pass and high percentage shot, everyone (Sean Marks) stayed in position (at the top of the key) and watched Paul not be able to pass to anyone and throw up a prayer to try and get a foul... which he did... but still... COME ON, GUYS! Little help.
And the award for "Worst Single Possession of the Year" goes to... Morris Peterson! Mo rebounded a missed free-throw and ended up bring the ball up the court. He then settled outside the arc near the Hornets bench while he proceeded to do absolutely nothing for for a solid 7 seconds or so. He did think about passing it once or twice, but decided to just fake it instead. He then went left, taking Mike Miller one on one to the top of the paint, settling for a lousy jump shot that was blocked by Miller at the free-throw. Thanks to all our contestants out there.

Photos courtesy of yahoo.com

Composed to: Prince's Purple Rain (little shout out to all the folks in Minny)

The opponent's take: Canis Hoopus

Game 63: Hive Drive

Junsier — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:31:02 -0000

Hornets 108, Wizards 98

Chris Paul once again demonstrated why he possibly deserves an MVP and why he ought to be compared with the greats like Magic and Isiah (pre-coaching).

- The first quarter was extremely sluggish. It looked like the Hornets were just walking up and down; CP3 only had a couple of points and assists. Even going into the second, I was really surprised to see the Hornets go down 12. But, Chris Paul pretty much owned after that. He scored 10 points in an ensuing 12-0 run, cutting the Wizards' lead to just one at the end of the half.

- And the amazing-ness continued on to the third quarter, where the Bees outscored the Wiz 40-22. Chris Paul put up 14, 6, and 4 in the third quarter alone. Eventually, the Hornets jacked the lead up to 17 in the fourth, and apart from a couple of hiccups along the way, closed out the game.

- Regarding those hiccups, I'm really starting to worry about the bench. The bench almost blew the lead, allowing the Wizards to come back within 6. If it wasn't for some good shooting from Rasual Butler, this may have ended up a harder to win game. To reiterate: the Hornets may have lost a game to the worst team in the East. The East. Looking at the non-adjusted "+/-" stats themselves, Hilton and Antonio Daniels were both -13 in 8 minutes of play each. I'm guessing that with adjusted stats, the bench would be even worse.

- Mo Pete sat out for some reason, I saw him in uniform on the bench. After missing 20 games with that foot injury, perhaps Byron just wants to ease him back by first letting him get used to the uniform? I have no idea about Coach Scott's intentions; I couldn't see a reason why Mo Pete sat.

- Sean Marks had flu-like symptoms (seems to be going around: Mike James just had the flu as well) and Peja missed his fourth game due to his back spasms.

- As a side note, I was pretty happy with Razwall's play today, he had 21 points and stopped a couple of Wiz comeback runs with threes. I also found it slightly amusing that he took 13 three pointers.

- Chris Paul = Awesome, no news, but he just got his 6th triple double with 30, 13, and 10. All he has to do is eat more so he can become better than Deron Williams.

- Oh yeah, Tyson had like 5 million dunks today.

- Taking a look around the league, this really seems to be a good day to be a Hornets blog writer (or fan, or player, or coach, or athletic trainer) as Utah, Houston, and Portland all lost. I believe this brings us up to the 4th spot in the West and a game out of 3rd. I find it very sad that no team in the West has clinched a playoff spot though.

That's it for this one, winning 8 out of the last 9. Next game in Milwakee on FRIDAY THE 13TH so beware of that one. Ramon Sessions might just dish out 100 assists.