I'm not going to lie; I thought Melvin Ely would be much better than he was this year, and I thought David West would be a little bit worse. Both players defied my expectations. One was an All-Star, and one registered a -3 +/- score in game that he played exactly 1 second. Here's a game-by-game look at the two Hornet power forwards, again using Hollinger's Game Score (individual game PER). At the top again, are the high GS, low GS, average GS and standard deviation. The yellow line is a 5 game moving average. Click either graph for bigger.

Best Game: January 28 vs. DEN. Ely missed 12 consecutive games in December and January with a broken eyesocket, courtesy of the Nuggets' Kenyon Martin. So it was especially satisfying to see him go off against Martin and Co. to the tune of 16 and 9 on 7 for 9 shooting. He played 22 minutes in his best game of the year, slightly better than a start at Detroit.

Trends: Really nothing spectacular, and not too much to draw from the graph. The trend line is all over the place. Interestingly, he was playing some of his worst basketball going into the playoffs. He peaked early in the year, and never reached that level after his injury.

Best Game: DX had quite a few excellent games during his first All-Star campaign. But I think all Hornets fans will agree that one stood out more than the rest: March 22nd. West poured in 37 points against Defensive Player of the Year Kevin Garnett, unafraid of KG's menacing glares or incessant floor pounding. He not only had those 37 points, he also had the flexing pose of the year, perhaps topping Tyson Chandler's swagger off the court in January.

Trends: The consistency you would expect from an All-Star is surprisingly lacking; even watching every game during the regular season, that didn't seem to be the case to me. But it is. West seems to take a few games to recover from a single bad game, which is the opposite of what the media kept reporting during the playoffs. But still, a 15.3 Game Score average? Nothing to sneeze at...

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And One!