Time to bring back last summer's "Hornets on the Internets" (cleverly entitled HIts) series and hopefully run it through the season. Ideally, I'll run it every few days that some significant Hornets' news comes out, and I'll offer my brief takes. For today, some news that's a few days old since this is the first one in a while.

There's been a lot of speculation that Jannero Pargo could return next year. Between the abysmal play of Devin Brown and the non-flashiness of Antonio Daniels translating itself into incompetence in many fans' eyes, more than one analyst has hailed Pargo the "missing piece." Says WWL:

The sudden-fan favorite is back in town. Only on Monday, he wasn’t practicing or trying out. He was there watching younger brother Jeremy go through a pre-draft workout with the Hornets. "I pretty much want the same role I had when I left here. I don’t think that role would be guaranteed to me, but if I come back here, I know the system, I know the coaches and I know the players. It just would be an easy transition for me. I can’t really talk about it, but yeah, I think there’s a mutual interest on both sides," Pargo said.

Neworleans.com confirms the mutual interest aspect of things:

For his part, Paul wants Pargo back. He has made that very clear. Scott wants Pargo back. Pargo's agent, Mark Bartelstein, admits mutual interest. Barring a financial snafu, it is obvious that Jannero Pargo is set to re-join the Hornets by July 11 (or soon after) for the 2009-2010 season. He fits extremely well in New Orleans. While he could play elsewhere, he knows the territory and would be very comfortable with his coach, teammates and minutes in New Orleans. He knows the way to the Alario Center without a GPS device.

Not sure what makes the author so confident about how "obvious" a Pargo return is... but he does sound sure of it.

The Hornets announced Friday that they had mutually agreed to part ways with assistant coach Kenny Gattison... but apparently things weren't as bright and sunny. From the Times-Pic blog:

"This was not a mutual parting," Gattison said via telephone. "In this economy, who would mutually agree to give up their job? Even though technically I only had a little over a month to go on my contract with the Hornets, given my years of service and contributions to the organization, I think some consideration should have been made toward my coaching career and my family."

"There's still work to be done. The mission is not complete until they win a championship. That's the objective. I wish them all the luck. It's a great organization. Incredible fans, the best fans in the NBA, and I wish the owners nothing but the best."

Nice to see him depart with kind words, even if the Hornets' organization did him no favors by not firing him sooner.

Devin Brown officially decided to remain with the Hornets at the end of last week, to nobody's surprise. It's hard to imagine many teams pursuing his services after his last season. In 2009-2010, he will make around 1.1 million dollars, or a 100,000 increase from last year. No other current Hornets have options, meaning Melvin Ely, Ryan Bowen, and Sean Marks won't be back unless the team decides to renew them.

Finally, Peja Stojakovic and Kenny Smith teamed up to help out First Book-Greater New Orleans. From neworleans.com again:

New Orleans Hornets Forward Peja Stojakovic has been named as an Honorary Advisory Board Member of the First Book-Greater New Orleans Advisory Board. "Reading is an important part of everyday learning and I believe that supporting literacy is fundamental for children's education today. It is my honor to be able to team up with First Book and do my part to promote children's literacy in the Greater New Orleans area," said Stojakovic.