Hornets247.com Blog

Summer League Observations

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:47:30 -0000

The Hornets lost to the Clippers last night in summer league 88-86. The Clippers Sophomore Deandre Jordan and #1 overall pick Blake Griffin dominated in the paint, combining for 37 points, 21 rebounds and 8 assists as the Clippers outrebounded the Hornets 44-29. None of the Hornets bigs provided much resistance at all, and their problems were compounded by the Clippers Eric Gordon, who took the ball freely to the hole, scoring and getting fouled regularly.

The Hornets could have really used Courtney Sims and the rebounding prowess he showed in the D-league. Since their wasn't anything that good I could say about any of the Hornets bigs, whether it was Tolliver, Barron, Nevill or Cusworth(who was probably the best) I'll focus on what the Hornets did that was good, which occurred in the backcourt.

Julian Wright was active as usual and willing to attack off the dribble. He didn't shoot very well and opened the game pretty rough, but ended with 12 points on 9 shots and some nice defensive play. He still doesn't seem to get it all the time, though.
Thornton was ice cold through most of the first three quarters, managing just 4 points on 9 shots, including 0-3 from deep. He was playing hard and with a lot of energy, but his shot wasn't falling. Then he re-entered the game with a minute left, got an assist from Tolliver for a layup, and the lid came off the basket. He hit a three, and through the fourth kept pouring it on, drilling 6-8 in the least twelve minutes to finish with 19. He'll have some growing pains in figuring out his shot selection, but he was playing well enough I could easily see him as a Flip Murray scorer in the NBA.(I've also heard Eddie House, but Thornton has shown a nice ability to drive and pop)
Darren Collison was very, very good. He doesn't take bad shots, and has impressive ball control. Though he had a couple costly turnovers in the fourth I can't fault him because he was being aggressive, showed a nice floater in the paint, a good pull-up shot, and never settled for an early three, choosing instead to drive into the paint where he drew nine free throw attempts. He's also a better than advertised athelete - showing impressive speed and quickness, and at one point getting an open court steal and taking it in for an emphatic dunk. The whole game he played with energy and focus, and I'm having trouble containing my enthusiasm for him the more I see him play. He finished as the game's leading scorer, with 23 points on 14 shots, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, a block, and 4 turnovers.

Random Item of the Day
I kept meaning to post this during my earlier evaluations of the Hornets cap, but it never really fit into the theme of any of my posts - so I'm just going to toss it out here. It salary cap stuff, which I find fascinating, but you may find it as exciting as the 300 straight hours of Michael Jackson coverage we just suffered through, so feel free to stop reading now.

I've seen some complaints here and there on message boards about players like Ryan Bowen or Devin Brown who make the league minimum but because they've been in the league six years or more, have a minimum salary of $1.1 million. There is some frustration last year and this year about those players being on the roster instead of younger players who have minimum salary requirements of 700k or so. Why spend the same money for one player that you could for two? That frustration will probably increase this year if the team ends up over the Luxury Tax line.

Well, the Collective Bargaining Agreement holds the answer to why the Hornets were fine paying older veterans over younger ones. The Players Union, which is made up of veterans, don't want older veterans to be shunted aside in favor of unproven young kids solely because their minimum salaries are lower. I can see the argument - if two players have equal skill, but one has been in the league 4 years, and the other 10, the 10 year vet is probably going to lose out, solely because of their minimum salary requirements. Possibly, the 10 year vet will lose out even if their skill set is more complete due to the financial incentives.

So the CBA incorporates the following rules:

Teams pay ALL minimum salaried players with more than a year of experience the minimum salary of a 2nd year player. The NBA pays the rest of the contract.
For minimum salaried players, any salary over that which a 2nd year player makes does not count against the Luxury Tax.

Example: Devin Brown was paid $1.14 million on a minimum contract last year. The second year minimum salary, however, was set at $711,517. That means that the Hornets paid Brown $711,517, and the NBA paid him the other $400k or so. If the Hornets were over the Tax Line(like they are this year) they would only pay the luxury tax on the $711,517, not the full amount.

So, to NBA teams over the Salary Cap, all minimum contracts cost the same. Of course, if you want to argue that Devin Brown or Melvin Ely don't really have a place in the NBA at this point at any salary number . . . then you probably won't get any argument from me.

6 masterful comments

Honeybee Audition Photos

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:56:52 -0000

Posted by Niall Doherty

Saturday morning at the Arena. 2009-2010 Honeybee auditions. 124 tried out. 40 survived and went on to the finals, which will be held next Sunday, July 19.

Thanks to the legendary Matt McIntosh of Storm Surge Photography, we have photographic evidence of the fantasticness. Have at 'em...

Bunches more photos from the auditions uploaded to our Flickr group »

Also, more audition shots and photos of the finalists over at Hornets.com.

In other, less sexy news, the Hornets lost to the Spurs in their Vegas Summer League opener earlier today.

2 marvelous comments

Patience Ain't a Sexy Word

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:15:59 -0000

Posted by Ryan Schwan

Today, Brandon Bass agreed to terms with Orlando, taking another semi-pipe dream free agent the Hornets were said to be interested in off the market. Bass joins McDyess, Chris Andersen, Zaza Pachulia, and, frankly, Jannero Pargo on that list.

I was talking with my buddy about the sorts of players that leaves the Hornets with as potential backups in the frontcourt; Chris Wilcox, Drew Gooden, Joe Smith, Mikki Moore, etc, and realized two things:

I was dwelling on their negatives.
Even with their negatives, they won't produce less than Hilton Armstrong did last year.

So again, I'm back to the fact we can't really help but improve. Either Hilton finally improves - or we get someone else who has already proven they can produce more than him.

Yes - that's a joke. Sort of. I know if Chandler is traded, it'll be tough replicating what he gave us last year on the cheap, and nearly impossible to replicate what he gave us when he was healthy, but as I gain more and more time and distance from the Game Which Will Not Be Named I become less and less anxious about the team.

Jeff Bower took a calculated gamble last season that the Hornets were on the verge of a contention. Injuries hit him in the spots that were exposed by the gamble, and it didn't pay off. Then the economy went and crapped all over Bower's ability to trade away only a single smallish contract for tax relief. He had it set up nicely, really. If the tax rate had increased at the same rate it had over the last ten years, we would be talking about having to trade Hilton Armstrong or Rasual Butler this off-season, and that's about it.

So the gamble will most likely cost the Hornets next year. It's likely we'll see a team that won't improve much, if at all. To me, however, that's a better option than having a fire sale like I've seen proposed on message boards and the like. If the Hornets dump West for unproven young players and maybe a draft pick or two, I don't see how that helps the Hornets reach contender status anytime in the next three years.

It's already been proven that Chris Paul and David West can make the Hornets a contender with a rebounder, defensive supporting cast and a capable third scorer. If the Hornets stand pat and eat this season, the following season they have a crazy $33,503,630 in expiring contracts to play with.

Most importantly, those contracts are expiring the summer after the big free agent extravaganza of 2010. Here's the thing you should know about that summer: There are four or five franchise-level free agents. Right now, there is slated to be about $376 million dollars worth of cap space. That number will probably be whittled down to around $250-$300 million by the summer of 2010 by extensions and free agent deals but that's still a lot of free agent cash floating around. Especially when the franchise level players can only claim around $80-100 Million dollars of it.

What does that mean to the Hornets, who won't have cap space next year? Next summer, after those top free agents go, there are going to be a bunch of second or third bananas like Mehmet Okur, Carlos Boozer, Joe Johnson, Luis Scola, Marvin Williams etc, who will have desperate teams come courting them with big money deals to be their new "franchise player". Then, halfway through that season, there will be a few of those teams forced to realize their new star player isn't going to take them where they want to go - and that player will become available at the trade deadline - or the next off-season. The Hornets will be in a good position to snap those people up. Oh, you don't want Joe Johnson? Would you like an expiring Peja? If they can grab another second banana or two to pair with West and Paul, the team can be pretty nasty.

So, to me, I'd prefer a little patience. It ain't sexy, but I think in the long run it'll be better for the Hornets.

What do you think? Waiting a year worth it?

33 masterful comments

Hornets Bide Their Time in Free Agency

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:22:53 -0000

Posted by Ryan Schwan

I said the Free Agency period would be 'tepid' and so far, the Hornets have proven that to be a valid prediction. Other than multiple outlets reporting that Chandler is on the table with Phoenix for Ben Wallace, it seems that most Hornets-related rumors are merely speculation or nebulous at best. There have been rumors about the Hornets going after Brandon Bass, Joe Smith and Jannero Pargo - and Pargo's agent, Mark Bartelstein also reported the Hornets inquired about Mikki Moore, Maceo Baston and Jake Voskuhl - doing what any good agent would do and letting the market know someone had at least mentioned those guys. To me, it seems that almost all of the "interest" the Hornets have been attributed with has been agent-generated. The Brandon Bass rumors were started by his agent Tony Dutt, who reported Bass was interested in the Hornets, but later stated he hadn't met with the Hornets about Bass, but planned on doing it soon. Other rumors - like Chandler to Detroit for Kwame Brown, filler, and a small amount of cap space have even less of a foundation in fact and appear to have more of a foundation in talk radio speculation.

So what are the Hornets doing? For now, the Hornets have cast out a couple lines, and are simply waiting. This shouldn't really be a surprise. They need to wait and see what happens with Chandler before they can make any moves. They already have the largest payroll in the NBA and aren't about to sign any new players without knowing what sort of relief(if any) they can get for Tyson Chandler - and they won't know that until two things happen:

July 8th arrives and the NBA releases the official Salary Cap for 2009-2010, which will allow the Hornets to more accurately estimate the Luxury Tax line for the same year.[Update: Cap has been announced. The Luxury Tax line will be $69.2 Million, down $1 Million from last year. The Hornets will have to clear almost $9 million this off-season to get below it.]
Both Phoenix and New Orleans are satisfied with the terms and agree to pull the trigger on Chandler for Ben Wallace.

That last item is key. It appears the Hornets are interested in that trade, but both sides have sticking points. Phoenix wants to wait a little bit and see what other opportunities present before trading Wallace. The Hornets want to make sure that trading for Ben Wallace actually gives them the Tax Relief they require - because Wallace is the wild-card. Wallace is guaranteed to make $15 million, but has indicated he's willing to take a only a portion of that salary and retire instead. What the Hornets want to know is what is the "portion" he's willing to take? If he wants $10 million, that hardly solves the Hornets problems and leaves them with no center and no budget to replace him. If he wants $5 million or less, then the Hornets will probably play ball.

Interestingly, the Hornets don't have a lot of other options. The Raptors, Pistons and Grizzlies have already committed most of their cap space. Portland doesn't need or seem interested in Chandler. The Thunder have indicated they don't want to use their cap space right now and have already turned down Chandler. That leaves Phoenix and a few other teams with much smaller non-guaranteed contracts as options.

Which leaves me wondering - is the perception that the Hornets will never pay the Luxury Tax a reality? If its true the Hornets are insisting on a palatable buyout number, then are they willing to just sit on Chandler and take the hit this year?

Normally, I'd say no, but . . . perhaps it is possible. A week ago, Jim Eichenhofer, who works for the Hornets and writes the Hornets.com affiliated Big Easy Buzz Blog, posted an article refuting the assumption the Hornets would never pay the Luxury Tax and re-iterating statements made by Hornet's President Hugh Weber that the Hornets haven't ruled it out. That could just be standard spin, but it could also be an indication they are considering paying the tax. Or I could just be suffering from wishful thinking.

Either way, here's my take on what to expect: If Tyson stays, the Hornets aren't going to bring in much of anything new other than a couple minimum contracts and their rookies. If Tyson goes out the door, the Hornets should be able to turn the expiring contracts of Butler and Daniels into something adequate at the center position, but that's about it.(Wouldn't it be cool to combine their contracts into a sign and trade for David Lee? Right? Urgh, damn my fantasies.)

At least there is one silver lining: If Chandler remains, even if he does struggle again with injuries, I don't think he'd play as badly as he did last year.(he was below his career averages - and league averages - at almost everything) If Chandler goes, even if the Hornets bring in just a mediocre center to play most of the season, he'll probably at least match what Tyson did last year, and can't help but give us more than Hilton Armstrong managed. So . . . our frontcourt will probably be improved. That's good, right?

Right?

And a Website update! Niall has added a neat little feature over on the right of your screen, below the Stubhub advertisement. It gives you quick links into all the stuff we've posted recently, including new items in our news, lagniappe and journal sections. Now you can just scan what's been posted recently in one spot.

Enjoy!

37 super-fantastic comments

The Summer League Approaches

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:50:11 -0000

Posted by Ryan Schwan

First off, summer league games mean next to nothing. Many players who shine in the summer league end up doing nothing in the NBA.

However, while summer league games mean very little, the rosters that individual teams send can frequently tell you something about the team.

The roster the Hornets are sending to Vegas for the July 10th Summer League tells us two things:

The Hornets spent some effort after the draft trying to gather big men who had a potential NBA future for their team.
The experiment of trying Julian Wright as a backup point guard may not be at an end.

Other than Julian Wright and the draftees, the "big" names on the summer league roster are all potential Centers and Power forwards:

Power Forward Anthony Toliver, who spent a ten-day contract with the Hornets last year
Power Forward Courtney Sims, who was one of the best two or three players in the D-League, was in the Hornets Training Camp, and spent time on three different NBA team rosters last year
Center Brian Cusworth out of Harvard who put up some nice numbers(16 and 7) in Spain last year and even has a Youtube highlight video of him dunking a lot.
Power Forward Marc Salyers of Samford, a dynamic scorer who has played all over Europe. Last year he averaged 13.5 and 5 in Ukraine.
Center Earl Barron, formerly of the Miami Heat, played in the D-League last year.(somewhat poorly)
Center Luke Nevill, an undrafted 7-2 rookie out of Utah(bad rebound numbers though)

That's a nice, diverse stable of big men from europe and the d-league, especially considering last year we had Hilton Armstrong and . . . Hilton Armstrong. Of course, Summer League isn't really a place to see big men shine, since guards dominate the ball and the Hornets will have Wright, Thornton, and Collison as options 1 through 3 to score. Regardless, there are several players there that could get invites to training camp or if they seem to fit in well, or even possibly get minimum deals to join the Hornets.

As for Julian and the ill-fated attempts last year to have him run the point during summer league, I'm not convinced we won't see it again. Other than Darren Collison, the only member of the Hornets team that could be called a point guard is Earl Calloway - and he's more of a combo guard. Collison will get a lot of minutes, but last year so did Bobby Brown, and they still managed to have Julian spend time at the Point. I hope we don't see it though. To me, Julian isn't a viable candidate as a point guard. At one point this season Chris Paul said that Julian Wright played best when he was on the break and didn't have to think about what he was doing. I can't agree more. Wright's an instinctual player, not a cerebral player and playing point guard is almost entirely cerebral. I hope they keep him on the wing and try and set him up, letting him build his confidence at his natural position.

Anyways - I'll most likely watch some of the summer league games(being in full basketball withdrawl already) and I'll put together some updates here to keep you all informed about what I see.

14 magnificent comments

Forecast: A Tepid Free Agency Starts Tonight

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:49:50 -0000

Posted by Ryan Schwan

The NBA Free Agency period commences tonight, as NBA teams may begin negotiating with Free Agents at 12:01 AM July 1st. Usually, free Agency is usually a time for optimism. The past few years, the Hornets have identified primary targets, and then gone out and signed them, picking up Peja Stojakovic, Morris Peterson and James Posey. This time, however, I have a feeling a lot of Free Agents - and the fans of a lot of teams - are going to be disappointed because only a small number of teams are willing or able to offer sizeable contracts.

What the Hornets Can Offer

First off the Hornets are over the Salary Cap. In the NBA, that means they can only make better than minimum offers to their own players or take advantage of a pair of Exceptions offered to all NBA teams. The first is the Mid-Level Exception. Every year a team is allowed to offer a contract or contracts equal to the average salary of an NBA player. The past two years, the Hornets have made that offer to James Posey and Morris Peterson. Teams are also allowed to offer a bi-annual exception every two years as well, which is a contract worth roughly double what most players would make on a minimum contract. Both of these exceptions will be available to the Hornets this off-season. So all together, if they wanted to spend, they could contracts worth about $7.5 million, with the biggest possible contract being worth about $5.6 million.

What Will the Hornets Offer?

I don't have a clue. Really. I've posted a lot here about the Luxury Tax and its effects - and how I think some combination of Tyson Chandler, Hilton Armstrong, Rasual Butler and Antonio Daniels could be moved to get the team under the Luxury Tax Line. That's all well and good - but without knowing what trades may happen, it's impossible to really figure out what sort of players the Hornets might target in the off-season.

The latest rumors have Tyson Chandler(plus a minimum contract like Devin Brown) possibly being traded to Phoenix in return for Ben Wallace. Ben Wallace has expressed a desire to retire - which could allow the Hornets to pay Wallace a much smaller portion of his $15 million guaranteed contract and have him leave, giving them the Luxury Tax relief they are seeking. There are some interesting roadblocks - The Hornets would only want to have to pay Wallace $5 million or less in order to cut the salary they need to - but Wallace will probably want more - and I don't blame him. He doesn't have to retire, in fact, he could just sit around out of shape and collect the $15 mil. That he's giving up any of that guaranteed cash at all seems pretty decent of the guy.

Regardless of what happens on the trade front - whether Tyson gets sent out for peanuts like I'm expecting or not - the Hornets already need big men who can rebound. If Tyson goes, they need it even more badly. So who could the Hornets get? Here's a list of big men they could target - as well as how much each would probably cost.

Tier 1: Will demand the full Exception.

(Some will want more and probably not get it)

Antonio McDyess - McDyess has always been a very solid rebounder, and he combines that with being a low mistake player with adequate scoring and solid defense.
Marcin Gortat - Someone is going to pay the Polish Hammer their full exception. I have no clue if he's worth it because of the limited minutes he played - usually against another teams backups. He did post some crazy statistics, grabbing a huge 20% of available rebounds and scoring efficiently. I think he's probably worth the risk, but who knows.
Drew Gooden - over the course of his career, Gooden's been a pretty good rebounder, and his scoring has been solid too. He's also always been a headcase and lame defender, but he's still an okay player. I doubt San Antonio lets him go.
Anderson Varejao - Varejao is a pretty up and down player. Overall, he's an okay rebounder, a good defender, and a fairly decent finisher. He also thinks he's much better than he is. I'd stay away.
Brandon Bass - Bass is going to be grossly overpaid. I know he's pointed at by a lot of Hornets fans as "the one that got away" and pumped up into some awesome player who the Hornets made a terrible mistake over, but that's not reality. As a scorer, Bass is fairly solid, getting points efficiently on a nice number of shots. As a rebounder, he's pretty awful, actually. his best season as a rebounder he dragged down 13.4% of rebounds. David West beats that number - and like I said, West isn't so hot himself.

[Edit] I somehow let Chris Andersen off the above list. He should be there, right below Gortat - since he's 31.

Tier 2: Probably will get a deal in the $3.5-5 Million range.

Zaza Pachulia - Pachulia is pretty tough, is a better than average rebounder for a center, and scores efficiently. He does turn the ball over more than he should, but he's definitely serviceable.
Jamaal Magloire - Magloire has never figured out he should shoot less often than he does. He likes to turn the ball over and has always been mediocre as a scorer. However - throughout his career he's been good for delivering some pain in the paint - and controlling the boards nicely. He could be serviceable in a backup role.
Chris Wilcox - Wilcox's talent is putting the ball in the basket. He's always scored well and kept his turnovers to a reasonable level. However, he's a worse than average rebounder, and hates passing the ball. I'm still fixated on a rebounder - and he's not cutting it.
Joe Smith - Joe Smith has been Chris Wilcox Lite over the last three years. Same bad rebounding, slightly less scoring. If we're going to go for someone, go for Wilcox.
Rasho Nesterovic - I've always been a fan of Nesterovic, who never got enough credit for what he did well. Unfortunately, he's now 33 and declining - so whoever pays him probably won't get his best. As a scorer and passer, he's at his best. As a rebounder - he's poor. The Hornets need boardwork, so I'd pass on him.
Glen Davis - Big Baby is horribly overrated. He's mediocre at scoring - and the worst rebounder in this group. In fact, he barely surpasses Hilton Armstrong as a rebounder. No. Thank. You.

Tier 3: Scraping the bottom of the Barrel

These guys probably can be had for the minimum. I'm not happy about any of them - so ranking them by preference was too annoying to bother. Instead, I simply ranked by boardwork.

Aaron Gray
Shelden Williams
Ike Diogu
Sean May
Sean Marks
Chris Mihm
Stromile Swift
Donyell Marshall
Mikki Moore
Austin Croshere
Joel Anthony

D-Leaguers:

Richard Hendrix
Courtney Sims

Tier 4: Please Don't. Please. These guys either suck or are done. Two of em couldn't ever crack the big man rotation for the SuperThunder - where they were desperate for big men.

Jason Collins
Jarron Collins
Robert Swift
Juwan Howard
Melvin Ely
Saer Sene
Raef Lafrentz
Michael Ruffin
Theo Ratliff
Calvin Booth

40 glorious comments

Hornets draft reviews

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:44:01 -0000

Posted by Niall Doherty

Last night, the Hornets selected UCLA point guard Darren Collison with the 21st pick in the draft, and later acquired LSU 2-guard Marcus Thornton (43rd pick) from the Heat in exchange for their 2010 and 2012 second round picks.

Both players will be introduced by the Hornets today at 3 p.m. Central. More info on that when we hear it. For now, let's see what folks are saying about the Hornets' moves on draft night...

NBA.com lists the Hornets among the losers on draft night:

Darren Collison may have been a reach at No. 22. And he's also a point guard. Finding a backup for Chris Paul, who plays a ton a minutes, doesn't seem to make much sense in the Big Easy. The Hornets need scorers, especially on the wing, to play with Paul.

Chad Ford's take at ESPN.com:

Collison is a bit of a surprise here. The Hornets had one tiny point guard in Chris Paul and now they have two. They had bigger needs than backup point guard, but I do believe he's going to be terrific in that role ... if Chris Paul ever leaves the floor, that is... Thornton played at LSU so he should feel right at home. He's a nice pick. He's a big-time scorer, but his lack of size and athleticism hurt his stock a bit. He has a chance to stick.

More from Ford, who gives a Hornets a B- grade for the draft:

A team with huge holes in the frontcourt addressed, instead, its backcourt.

I think Collison is rock solid and a terrific backup for Chris Paul. He's steady, he defends and he can really push the pace of the game. Thornton is a terrific scorer who slipped because of his lack of size and so-so athleticism.

I like the picks, with my only issue being that Hornets passed on a few big men who could have helped, like DeJuan Blair, B.J. Mullens and DaJuan Summers.

CBSSports.com on Collison:

Defensive stalwart ideal tag-team partner for Chris Paul ... Play versatile guard along Paul and Hornets fast break becomes blur.

SportingNews.com:

Collison is probably the fastest player in the draft, and he’s an excellent shooter, which is why he’ll be a perfect second-quarter point guard for the Hornets. He’s not terribly decisive in the halfcourt offense. He tends to over-dribble and is not a strong post passer. Those limitations may prevent him from ever becoming a significant regular. The Hornets might have made better use of Sam Young, but Collison is a solid pick.

At The Hive looks at some stats and finds that Collison may be better than most people think. An excerpt:

...let me address the "8th or 9th best point guard" deal. Collison was absolutely not the 8th or 9th best point guard in this draft. He was the 8th or 9th most hyped point guard in this draft. Huge, huge difference. For two straight years, he'd lost his buzz to more famous backcourt mates at UCLA- Russell Westbrook and Jrue Holiday...

Collison is a college senior, a category of player that empirically does not do well in the NBA. Flynn, Evans, and especially Holiday are absolutely teeming with upside while Collison has almost no upside. But can anyone definitively say Collison is not a top 5 point in this draft, filled with so many excellent ones? Absolutely not.

Some video of the newest Hornets:

Also, be sure to check out our News and Lagniappe sections for lots more on the Hornets draft.

33 remarkable comments

Initial Thoughts on the Hornet's Draft

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:57:43 -0000

Posted by Ryan Schwan

Tonight, the Hornets drafted Darren Collison out of UCLA and traded 2 future second round picks to Miami for Marcus Thornton of LSU.

That's a haul I can respect. Of the players available when we picked, we essentially got my second and fourth choices, with DeJuan Blair slipping fairly deep into the second round with his bad knees(to the Spurs, ouch) and Sam Young sliding inexplicably even further.[Edit: Wups, right before. Doh.]

Once our haul was set, I began to think about where the Hornets were going to fit the new players into the rotation . . . and something interesting began to percolate in my mind.

Collison will clearly be groomed as the new backup point guard - with the obvious hope he can replace Daniels in the backcourt while adding athleticism and better deep shooting. Marcus Thornton was acquired to eventually replace Rasual Butler in the near future as the Hornet's shooting guard.

The most important part of that, however, is financial. The guys Collison and Butler could replace; Daniels and Butler, also happen to have expiring contracts. Should the Hornets find other homes for them, taking advantage of their expiring contracts to move them to teams in return for cap space or draft picks(or send Butler to Miami for their 4Mil trade exception) then suddenly the Hornets have almost entirely solved thier Luxury Tax issues.

That's all speculation of course. But it is interesting speculation, is it not?

Oh, and like many of you have mentioned in the comments - Pargo may be the big loser this draft. He's suddenly seeming rather redundant.

17 magnificent comments

Live Draft Chat

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:29:11 -0000

Posted by Niall Doherty

The TrueHoop Network has come together to host one mega live chat during Thursday's NBA Draft. Ryan and I may not be able to partake due to other commitments, but there will be plenty of good commentry and insight from the other infamous Network bloggers (check the roster via the drop-down menu at the top of the page).

You can follow the chat via the window below. It all gets going at around 4 p.m. Central. The draft itself kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Central, and you can watch it live online at ESPN 360. You'll also be able to watch ESPN's Draft Preview Show live online here. That's set for 6 p.m. Central.

TrueHoop Network NBA Draft Liveblog-O-Rama-Rama

61 exceptional comments

The Southwest Never Lets Up

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:14:11 -0000

Posted by Ryan Schwan

The Spurs have made the first move in the Southwestern Arms Race.

ESPN.com is reporting that the Spurs have traded Bruce Bowen, Fabricio Oberto and Kurt Thomas to the Bucks for Richard Jefferson.

R.C. Buford and Greg Popovich continue to impress, as they always have. They spent the last half-dozen years building a team around a trio of high level players while filling in around the edges with smaller contracts.

This time, they put together a classic "Buy Low" transaction. Jefferson's reputation hit its zenith during the Nets two runs to the Finals under Byron Scott, but then he was part of the Olympic Debacle in Athens - and caught a fair amount of blame because he was supposed to be a shooter - and didn't shoot worth a bean curd. Since then, he got an over-sized contract, had some injury problems and caught a lot of the blame for the Nets not being able to do jack.

Here's the rub though - remember that list of Class-A scorers I put together?

Jefferson is on it.

Jefferson took 15 shots a game, while still producing 1.32 points per shot, and I can't see how that efficiency won't do anything but increase playing with the big trio of Spurs. Now, other than scoring, Jefferson's doesn't give you much, and the Spurs now sport a big man rotation of a slowly-breaking-down Tim Duncan, limited Matt Bonner, and unproven Ian Mahinmi, but there is a lot to love in this trade if you are a Spurs fan.

Matt Bonner is hyper efficient with his shooting - Duncan and Ginobili are already Class A Scorers, and Parker is a solid B. If the Spurs re-sign Drew Gooden as a back-up big to join Roger Mason and George Hill in an effective eight-man rotation they should scare every team out there. Their defense may slip a little (though not too much with Popovich at the controls) but their offense is going to more than make up for it.

The Spurs have made their move. I fully expect to see the Rockets make one of their own with McGrady this summer. The Mavericks are definitely going to try and make a move.(though I expect little) The Southwest Division is just a nasty place - particularly for a team struggling with some cap issues.

At least we always have the Grizzlies.

55 fluffy comments