Hornets on the Internets: Silliness Edition

I'm not the first person to find uninformed writing on the internet. In fact, it's tough to avoid. But when you go to NBA.com, you tend to hope for better than what Shaun Powell produced yesterday in a piece entitled "For Better or Worse, These Players are on the Spot." He ranks the top fifteen players in order of proximity to "the spot." Chris Paul comes in at 13th:

13. Chris Paul, Hornets. Antsy and restless, Paul wants to play for a winner, but is stuck on a club where the distance between him and his next-best teammate is massive. Hornets would be better off without him only if they could swing equal value in trade, given they already have Darren Collison, intriguing backup point guard. Paul will play for his third coach in seven months and seems wary of the new regime change. Don't be surprised if he pouts his way through the season if things go sour.

Several observations: first, the gulf between Chris Paul and his next-best teammate would be massive on the vast majority of teams. Second, Darren Collison has been called "intriguing" so much that he should replace the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World. Third, to call Chris wary of the regime change would be odd, since he personally pushed for Monty to be hired. Finally, I would be very, very surprised if Paul pouts his way through the season. That would be staggering.

In case you're still interested in the employment status of Jeff Bower, he's still in the running for the Suns' GM job. Bright Side of the Sun has a rundown of the top candidates, and decides to bring back painful memories for Hornets fans:

In recent seasons, [Bower has] made one bad trade after another thanks to his ownership's insistence on staying at or below the luxury tax line (Sarver * 10 here), while Peja Stojakovic aged precipitously and Chris Paul got injured. But even with those guys healthy, that team set a record by losing a deciding playoff game by 50+ points. Ouch.

That was pretty harsh.

Finally, the Washington Post reports some big news regarding hydrocarbon extraction:

The Obama administration may end its ban on deepwater drilling "significantly in advance" of its Nov. 30 expiration date, the administration's top official in charge of drilling told reporters Tuesday.

I'm not sure how soon the drilling ban could be lifted, but there will have to be a series of eight town-hall style forums along the Gulf Coast and in Anchorage, Alaska, before Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will be willing to lift the ban. So that means that the earliest the ban could be lifted would likely be sometime in September. Once that ban is lifted, Edison Chouest will likely resume its money-printing operations, and Gary Chouest will be more likely to be able to close the sale for the Hornets.