I have decided to resume my summer-long sports blog...back by popular demand. I currently intern for the NBA's New Orleans Hornets in their Game Operations Department, which has rekindled a love for professional basketball that had escaped my being since the beginning of this decade. Rooting for the Hornets is perfect for me. They're team that has not had a whole lot of success in their history, has a small fan base, plays in a city that demands its fans to be intoxicated while viewing, and is considered an underdog among its geographic and divisional neighbors, which in this case consist of the dreaded "Texas Triangle": Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. They're essentially the Mets with more black people. Hopefully they can emulate the recent success of the Mets (and by recent I mean before October, '07), but this will be difficult.
Yes, the Hornets have proven to be a highly legitmate squad throughout their first 25 games. They have a record of 15-10, and are on track to be a mid-seeded playoff team in the Western Conference. Yet, like with my favorite baseball team, I have my doubts with the Bees. They have an impressive starting five, consisting of: Morris Peterson, Tyson Chandler, Peja Stojakovic, David West, and the floor general Chris Paul. Each of these guys individually has a ton of talent, but can they translate it into a successful season free of dire injury? I'm not so sure. And as with most teams, the Hornets can't afford to lose any of their starters for an extended period of time and expect to survive in the NBA's Varsity conference.
Chris Paul is phenomenal. You really have to see him live to understand how great he is. He penetrates as good as any point guard I've seen in a while, he's an assist machine, plays solid defense, and has improved his shot immensely. Most importantly, Chris has become the go-to-guy when the game is on the line. Especially with Peja being in and out intermittently due to injury, Paul has become the team's most consistent clutch shooter. What used to be a criticism of his has now become one of his strong points. If I'm not mistaken, he's actually shooting around 40% from 3-point line. This kid is really good, and has established himself as the most underrated, under-the-radar point guard, if not player in the NBA. The only thing that concerns me about Chris is his on-court leadership. He sometimes appears to be too harsh on his teammates. I watched some highlights of the Portland game on Monday, and the Hornets looked awful on both sides of the ball. Granted, Portland has won like 7 in a row and seems to be playing nice basketball, but the Hornets looked tired out there. At one point late in the game while the Hornets were getting thrashed by a team it destroyed at home at the beginning of the season, Paul and D West were seen getting in a shouting match on the court in the middle of the game. That might be worse than Zach Randolph arguing a call while play was still going on, and neglecting to play defense. Chris is 22 years old. West has to be close to 30. The point guard is supposed to be the leader of the team, but Chris has not garnered the respect or experience of a Steve Nash or even a Tony Parker to get away with barking at his players in medias res. As a former goalkeeper in soccer who served as the team's on-the-field general, I understand that yelling criticisms at your teammates doesn't typically get them to improve their play. If anything, it gets them more flustered and causes them to respect your advice even less. Chris Paul has a great future in this league, but he needs to learn how to become a better leader, and understand his role on the team. While he should be urging on his teammates and setting the tempo of the play, he needs to find more constructive ways in doing so. One rarely sees Steve Nash publically admonishing his teammates during the game. Getting flustered in the heat of competition is understandable, but you can't afford to isolate yourself from your teammates in the process.
The Hornets have a great chance to be a contender in the West. They have a superb point guard, sharpshooters at the 2 and 3 spots, a nice power forward in West and a solid rebounder in Chandler. I would like to see the Hornets improve upon their toughness though. They got beat up by Detroit and Orlando in two of their losses. Granted few teams can effectively match up with Dwight Howard or the Pistons' big men, but the Hornets got severely dominated inside in both of those games, which led to losses to other playoff contenders. I feel that they might need to sign a more physical big man to come off the bench if they really want to reach that next level. Melvin Ely may end up serving in that role of "enforcer", and he's actually done a pretty decent job lately off the bench. But I'm not sure if he will be sufficient. Only time will tell.
I know this is often the case with most NBA teams, but the Hornets NEED to stay healthy if they want a chance making the playoffs. They don't have a dominant center in terms of scoring, and they have two streaky shooters in their starting lineup. Chris Paul cannot be counted on to produce 20 and 10 every night as a point guard. If the Hornets want to be a legit playoff team, they need someone besides Paul to step out and become a consistent play maker. West has shown signs of being that player, but not consistent ones. Until that happens, I don't see the Hornets gaining a home series in the playoffs, but I do believe they'll be in the final 8 when mid-April rolls around.
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I do believe that the Hornets are for real (they could be this year's version of the Utah Jazz), but they need some more recent quality wins to really impress me. Yes, they beat Phoenix and Dallas in December, but I'd like to see a little more consistency. Still, if they can close out the year with a few wins against mediocre teams (@ Charlotte, then Cleveland and Toronto at home), then win a couple in early January (@Golden State, @Phoenix, Lakers), I'll be on the bandwagon. And Chris Paul may not be flying under the radar much longer. He needs a couple of games on the national stage (make some noise in Round One of the playoffs against, say, Denver or Dallas, and he'll definitely ON the radar - 22 ppg, 10 assists, and 3 steals are BIG TIME numbers).
Now, to the Knicks: they have "talent", which means nothing. Quote-unquote talent means players like Zack Randolph, who can score, Eddy Curry, who can score, and Jamaal Crawford, who can score, but very little character. Only one player knows how to win (Malik Rose, and he rarely plays). The one good thing to come out of the Knicks camp lately is that they finally decided to start David Lee in last night's loss (close early, but, of course, a late-game collapse). He put up as-expected excellent numbers (11 points, 14 rebounds, tons of intangibles) and his numbers will improve as he continues to play 38 minutes per game. Lee could be the Charles Oakley of this team, if they ever figured out the rest of the team. But that won't happen as long as Isaiah Thomas is around. I almost root for them to lose, sadly.
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