The Hornets came away with the biggest prize in the 2012 NBA Draft - Anthony Davis. They also got Austin Rivers with the 10th pick and Darius Miller, who was a teammate of Davis in Kentucky.

What this means is that with Davis and Rivers alongside Eric Gordon, New Orleans gets a team full of energy and athleticism, able to hang with the young and at the top of the West Oklahoma City Thunder. However, this gets a bit complicated when one considers Gordon and Rivers are both backcourt players. So what can coach Monty Williams do to develop these guys and see if they have chemistry? Simple - play small.

The NBA is currently a perimeter player's game, after the rule changes especially with regards to hand checking and the decline of the elite big men of the last decade in Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, and Dirk Nowitzki. This means teams that employ elite wings have the competitive advantage in general, like the Miami Heat (with Dwyane Wade and LeBron James on the wings) or the Oklahoma City Thunder (whose Big 3 of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden are all perimeter players). Those were the two Finals teams last season, and unsurprisingly teams will design their teams to match up well with those two, not to mention both teams went small a lot, with Erik Spoelstra starting a lineup of Mario Chalmers/Wade/James/Shane Battier/Chris Bosh, while Scott Brooks went to a lineup with Durant at the 4 and a combination of Westbrook, Harden, Derek Fisher, and Thabo Sefolosha on the perimeter.

Going small and deploying 3 guards with 1 or 2 bigs may help the Hornets, because even if they may lack in perimeter defense due to a lack of height, guys like Davis will make their impact more on the defensive end.

Perhaps Coach Monty may like a lineup of Jarrett Jack/Gordon/Rivers/Davis/Kaman(?) at times.