What is wrong with the New Orleans Hornets?

That is a very complex question at the moment. With a third of the season past, I believe it is time for the fans and the organization to do some damage control by analyzing what went wrong in Wednesday night’s loss against the number one team in the East, the Chicago Bulls. Where to start? How about pre-game planning. The Bulls bring to the court a consistent and seasoned lineup with only Richard Hamilton sitting out. In his place was a much younger and athletic Ronnie Brewer. On the other side, we have the Hornets shuffling their deck of cards and pulling out a new fab five to place on the court. Head Coach Monty Williams is beginning to place players in the starting lineup on a game by game basis. If they play well today, perhaps they will play well next time. I can understand rotating the lineup for matchups, but every successful team has something in common, they have a standard starting five. The Hornets have three consistent starters, Jarrett Jack, returning from a knee injury, Trevor Ariza, and Emeka Okafor. Other than those three, let’s just put some players on the court and hope some chemistry develops within the next five minutes.

Now that we have a lineup, let’s break down the Hornets offense and defensive strategy for the game. Looking at the five on the floor, the Hornets have a great arsenal of weapons when used correctly. Their bigs can run the pick and roll and have a stellar post game, their guards can shoot off screens, and their cutters can drive to the basket for the two, a foul, or even better, the and one! The only problem is, not one player can manage to execute a play. Point guards choose to dribble around the pick rather than through it, our screen shoots fail miserably due to a missed screen or indecisive shooters, our cutters are just terrified to go to the basket and would rather settle for a guarded three or long two, and our post players look timid when backing down smaller defenders and pass out to the perimeter. The end result, missed shots, turnovers, and missed opportunities for free throws. Some key examples would be Okafor and Kaman backing down smaller defenders, such as Carlos Boozer and Ronnie Brewer, and instead of taking the ball to the rim for the foul, they settle for a pass or the fade away jumper.

Players not executing is one factor leading to the demise of the Hornets. The second is poor execution. Let me say this now, the play calling for the Hornets is a shining light down this dark hole of season. Jack can run the point, Greivis Vasquez is learning very quickly, and Monty can read mismatches on the court. The problem occurs when the play fails. A player will miss a screen, get caught in a defensive trap, or the shot will just not be there. That is basketball! The other team will play defense. After the play fails, our players seem to not have one clue what to do. This is where your players are supposed to create shots for themselves or pass out. Problem is our players cannot create shots. Belinelli will pump fake and then dribble around the perimeter looking to pass, Ariza will try to drive the basket or pull up a contested jumper and Jack will pray that a big man is guarding him so he can step back and shoot. Poor execution leads to poor shot selection. You cannot shoot 37% and expect to win. How do you remedy this issue? Run the play! If the play does not work, run another or drive to the basket for the foul!

So where else do the Hornets fall short? How about in rebounding, free-throws, or even better, turnovers! The Hornets were out rebounded 49 to 39 in the game, many coming from the Bulls crashing the boards and bringing down offensive rebounds. You have to block out, which is a basketball fundamental. We had the size advantage tonight. Yes, Noah is a seven footer that brought down five offensive boards, but he cannot go over the back to get those rebounds. Get in front of the man and block out. As far as free throws go, unless you have Shaq, Dwight Howard, or Ben Wallace to name a few, these are easy points. We have a shooting guard, Belinelli namely, that misses free throws on a regular basis. That sums up free throw shooting for the Hornets. As for turnovers, tonight the Hornets managed to keep it below the twenty mark with nineteen. They gave the Bulls 29 easy points. Ball security and execution should be stressed at the next team meeting.

Now that we discussed the downfall of the Hornets offense, let’s break down their defense? First, the pairing Monty concocted on the floor. Jack was set to defend Derrick Rose. Okay, I’m a realists, not one player on our team can guard Rose. Make your arguments that Ariza can hold him, but he is just too explosive. Your goal is merely to contain him, especially with Rose coming off a back injury. Brewer was to be defended by Belinelli. Marco’s defense is as good as his free throw shooting, so you could imagine him trying to guard Brewer and then Korver off the bench. The rest of the defensive matchups were as follows, Ariza on Deng, Ayon on Boozer, and Okafor to contain Noah. Those are matches you can live with if your team blocks out for the rebound, which they did not. Their largest failure on the defensive end was due to poor rotation. The Bulls swing the ball and pass out to their shooters or cutters. The Hornets would double team Rose or Deng leaving open shooters on the perimeter and big men in the paint, where 58 of the Bulls points would derive. Lack of defense is due to poor communication. The Hornets do not talk on the court and furthermore are very passive when it comes to denying shooters the ball. Lastly, the transition defense is horrid. Hornets’ players slowly matriculate to the paint for the rebound expecting a missed shot. In open court transition you must stay in front of the ball handler and foul hard in the paint. Make a statement. Send them to the line to earn their points and close out on wing shooters.

Well there you have it. All the negativity I saw from the game. But with the negative comes the positive. What positive aspects can we pull from this season thus far? The answer is a lot! New Orleans is a very young team that is learning. We have novice players that are developing well. Ayon and Vasquez are picking up the game quickly and seem to be a bright light for the future. Once Aminu and Henry get over their fear of shooting and driving the ball, they will become great assets to the team. Our coaching and management is another bright spot. Monty is a defensive minded coach and defense wins games. Dell Demps is very creative with trades and acquiring talent. I am very curious to see what he does with Kaman. That idea leads me to another notion. Make the trade! You have made it known you do not have future plans for Kaman. Get what you can by the March deadline. This goes for some other players on the team as well. I see a few that should hit the trade block, do not be gun shy. Build for the future. Lastly, we have many players that want to play. Young guns like Henry, Vasquez, and Ayon are eager to hit the court and provide instant energy. This is our future Hornet fans, do not take them for granted.

So in closing, what are we to do? As a rabid Hornet fan, I speak from the heart when I say, finish the season strong, make the necessary changes to the roster, and start from scratch. Work on fundamentals, rekindle that defensive spirit Monty possesses, and just watch guys, they will win.

Now before I go on, let me state that I've been one of his staunchest supporters from day one. However, tonight, after viewing every second closely w/o distractions, I feel I have to change my tune.

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[Bumped from the FanPosts. We're starting to get the very beginnings of some anti-Monty rumblings, and this is a great, measured response to that. -R]

It’s been said over and over again – coaches are hired to be fired. When a team fails to win as often as its fan base and its owner requires, coaches are asked to leave. This is because coaches are the easiest to let go. Players are harder to let go because of the restrictions of the CBA and the difficulty of the free agent market. That is why when a team is losing it is easy to blame everything on the coach. Fans and owners alike believe that by simply replacing a bad coach with a good coach, they can make any group of players (no matter the skill set) into winners. And why wouldn’t they? It is reasonable to think that by placing players in a system where he is comfortable will make him better. Yes?

This endless question on the value of a head coach is quite similar to the question of nurture versus nature. And there have been numerous articles regarding this topic. And it has been suggested that like managers in firms and corporations, managers are nothing more than “principal clerks”. That is what managers do with respect to the “inspection and direction” of a firm is essentially the same for all firms, and consequently managers can’t have much impact on the success or failure of an organization. (Stumbling on Wins).

Does that mean coaches are insignificant? Does that mean coaches are basically just dolls placed beside players to make it seem like there is a system in place? Are coaches basically replaceable by deck chairs and dummies?

No, what evidence suggests is not a comparison between a team’s performance with and without a coach. No. What the studies have shown is that, there are few coaches that could actually alter player performance and that most coaches are ,in actuality, at the mercy of the talent on the roster. Vinny Del Negro said it best:

"Everybody runs the same stuff," Del Negro said. "I would say 80 percent. Everyone tries the post-up guys. Everyone runs isolations. Everyone runs pick-and-rolls. It's all the same stuff; they just have different visuals for it. We call something horns -- it's an elbow set. They call it 54. Everyone runs ... we call it floppy, single-double -- other teams call it power or they call it 2-chest."

Del Negro said there's little variance in the schematics of NBA teams, with very few exceptions.

"Most of the stuff is very similar,” he said. “Angle pick-and-roll, high pick-and-roll. Everyone runs those. Other than probably the old Utah stuff -- the UCLA stuff, which we run, which other teams run -- or the triangle offense, which only the Lakers used to run, everyone runs pretty much very similar stuff."

Del Negro said he believes that execution far outweighs design on the basketball court. On Friday, he said he calls only about 50 percent of the Clippers' half-court sets from the sidelines. As a coach, he's not there to put his stylistic imprint on his team or to wow the league with his tactical prowess. He's in Los Angeles to inspire basketball players to play basketball. Give him quality players, and he'll give you a quality product. This is the Vinny Del Negro brand. (TrueHoop network: The Clippers’ efficient Woody Allen offense by Kevin Arnovitz)

Now you may ask, what then is the purpose of a coach who doesn’t actually alter player performance unlike Phil Jackson or Gregg Popovich? (both improve their teams expected wins by 17.1 and 15.9 wins just by adding the coach).

What a coach does is, like the manager of a firm, he manages the team. He keeps them motivated. He keeps them pushing, keeps them working. No matter if the players are productive or unproductive what matters is that he keeps them working. Mostly, it is up to the players to be productive or be unproductive.

Monty as a coach succeeds in this regard. It’s been well documented how players appreciated Monty as a coach. CP3 said it. David West said it. Landry said it. JSmith said it. Heck, even Kaman said it (even only after 1 month with the coaching staff). There have been numerous accounts where players who played for Monty responded to his “call to work”.

Does that mean Monty is off the hook? Does that mean he doesn’t deserve criticisms that question his offensive and defensive systems? Heck no. What was quoted was that there are few coaches that can alter player performance. That doesn’t mean only they can. Life is all about improvement. We strive for perfection. And in the process, we better ourselves, continuously learn and evolve. Socrates said it best:

“I know one thing, that I know nothing.”

Is Monty growing as a head coach? Does his work continually evoke that spirit of paradoxical search for wisdom?

The answer to that question varies from person to person. And like any mathematical pursuit, the answer lies somewhere there. There are an infinite number of answer to be had ranging from “HE SUCKS A$$. Let’s start a trend #FireMonty” to “OMG, Monty is the best coach i can’t believe your questioning him”. Somewhere between that is the answer we seek.

With all that in mind, remember that basketball is, unlike baseball, a team sport. And as such, it is very difficult to put basketball in a scale of black and white. There are grey areas, areas where nobody has ever conclusively answered yet. And as such, it is important to know everything and at the same time know nothing in order for each and every one of us to help find the answer to those grey areas. Think of every scenario, think of every possibility, of all options before making an answer. Think of the players, think of the coach, think of the franchise, think about the coaching market, about the fans, about the other team’s fans/franchise about all the other effects the answer can get. Then ask yourself, is Monty still the right coach?

[As we get closer to the draft, the Davis-Drummond-Robinson-Sullinger-Jones debate will start to heat up. I like those players in that order, but today, in the FanPosts, usnfish explains why he thinks Sullinger should be the top choice. - R]

It is generally accepted that the Power Forward position is the deepest in this draft. Andre Drummond (FR-Connecticut), Anthony Davis (FR-Kentucky), Jared Sullinger (SO-Ohio State), Perry Jones III (SO-Baylor) and Thomas Robinson (JR-Kansas) are all expected to go in the lottery. This is convenient since the Hornets do not have a PF of starting quality signed next year while GM Dell Demps has the other four positions solidified with Jarrett Jack, Eric Gordon (Hornets' fans hope), Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor under contract in 2012-2013. So which power forward is the best? And (this is important), which power forward fits the needs of the Hornets best? I think the answer to each question is different and will attempt to explain.

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[Editor's note: Hahaha -R]

Your illustrious leader, Rohan, and myself have gotten into this bad habit of betting on the outcomes of various sporting events. It started innocently enough when the Mavericks faced the Hornets back on January 7th. Neither team was doing particularly well, so our bet was that the WINNER of the game would have to buy the other dinner. Keep in mind we live on opposite sides of the country, so this may or may not ever happen. Assuming it does, I owe Rohan one dinner. Not being a complete sucker, I decided to switch up the terms for our most recent game on Saturday. It was close- for a minute I thought I was going to end up being his sugar mama if we ever meet, owing him all kinds of dinners and whatnot. But thanks to Mr. Jack, now I am owed a dinner in return.

The point of all this is that I now have a gambling problem.

Whilst watching the second playoff game yesterday, we placed another bet. I was cheering for San Francisco and Rohan for the Giants, which is INSANELY weird because he's from the Bay area and I just moved back to NYC. That being said, clearly I am terrible at betting because now I am here, forced to stare at these, um, terrifying pictures of one of your beloved Hornets: Chris Kaman.

Mavs fans are very familiar with the former Clipper turned Hornet thanks to his appearances with our big German, Dirk Nowitzki, on the German National Team. It's hard to imagine a more awkward pair, amIright?

Anyhoo, the terms of our bet were something along the lines of-- loser has to post some sort of bio-piece on the other team's German Hair. Or something. I'm taking a bit of liberty with this one because I have no idea how to describe these pictures other than truly life-altering. Follow the jump at your own risk...

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Came across this today on Hoopsworld:

NBA commissioner David Stern has hinted a few times that deal could happen in the first part of 2012, and Sperling agrees that’s a possible time line.

"It’s realistic that we will have a deal done by the end of June," explained Sperling. "We’re still aiming for that. These transactions have a life of their own and they move at their own pace.

"Sometimes transactions get done quickly and yet it still takes some time to close it. Sometimes it takes a long time to announce it but they close quickly. Every transaction’s a little different, but I think the timeframe that the commissioner has outlined is still the timeframe we’re shooting for."

The Hornets have the basic outline of a new long-term lease all but done. That deal would likely lock the franchise in New Orleans through 2025. The new agreement would include upgrades on New Orleans Arena and additional revenue streams for the team. There is talk that a new TV deal also awaits a new owner – one that would almost triple TV revenue.

Combined with a better labor agreement, the Hornets are no longer bad business and it seems as many as nine different suitors see the team the same way.

"When you put all of those pieces together there is a great opportunity here for a buyer," explained Sperling. "I think that’s why we’ve had so much interest from buyers.

"We’ve had a lot of levels of interest in this franchise. I think these are people who live in New Orleans or people who have connections here, and there are also potential buyers who don’t have connections here but who understand that this franchise is going to stay here."

The only thing that remains is to announce who it’s going to be…

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I am a Minnesota Timberwolves fan. Both us Minnesota fans and you New Orleans fans are on the verge of having great home teams to cheer for. However, both of our teams have some minor issues. I have a solution to propose. I would like your feedback.

Center Position: Minnesota: Darko Milicic, Solid scorer; He scored a point and a half less per game than Okafor last season in seven and a half less minutes. He is a better passer than Okafor, with a better assist average. He also averaged more blocks per game in less minutes than Okafor. The problem for us, is that he is a low block/ high block, run your offense through him type center. We have Kevin Love to do that. We need a go get it on alley-oops, finish at the rim center. Which is what Okafor is.

New Orleans: You have 27 million dollars wrapped up in two starter-level players at the center position. Which is forcing your team to have sub-par bench players.

Small Forward: Minnesota: We have two starters at that position. We are absolutely going to keep Derrick Williams. Which means Beasley is the starter to go.

New Orleans: You are getting back-up play at this position. Trevor Ariza is a solid player, but he does not produce starters numbers.

Shooting Guard: Minnesota: Wesley Johnson and Wayne Ellington will both be good eventually. But they are both adjusting to the NBA game slower than expected. We need more production in that area.

New Orleans: Once again, you have a log jam at this position. Gordon, Belinelli and now Xavier Henry, who is also a very solid player. I know that noone in New Orleans wants Gordon to go anywhere. Belinelli is slumping, but his numbers are still better than what we are getting at that position.

Point Guard: Minnesota: We have the log jam at this position with Rubio, Barea, Ridnour, and Malcolm Lee.

New Orleans: Jarrett Jack is great. However, Vasquez is still a work in progress. He is promising. But he should be third string right now. Who is Carldell Johnson? Has he even earned a roster spot. I don't think so. But, with 27 Million wrapped up at center, it's the best you can afford right now.

I propose we make a trade that will solve all of this.

We give your team Darko Milicic to back up Chris Kaman, which saves you 9 million per year.

We give you Michael Beasley, which improves your starting production at the small forward position, and you still have Ariza to back him up.

We give you Luke Ridnour to back up Jack and push Vasquez to third string and Carldell back to bagging groceries.

We get Okafor, giving us our athletic center who can score at the rim.

We get Belinelli, giving us our scoring, at the 2 spot, that we need until our youngsters get their game right.

If you like you can even send us another salary eatting, non producing player (Aminu), so that you can free up more salary. We can still Amnesty a player.

Your Team would look like.... Kaman, Landry, Beasley, Gordon and Jack followed by Darko, Smith, Ariza, Xavier Henry, Luke Ridnour. With Ayon, Summers, Trey Johnson and Vasquez on the bench. Not too shabby.

What do you say Hive? Would you do it?

I just finished making a highlight video on YouTube of the Hornet's newly acquired guard Eric Gordon. Please watch this and tell me what you think of it. I think Gordon has a bright future in New Orleans and with the help of a few other scorers, he can lead this team to a well-deserved NBA championship. The team still has a lot of growing to do to get to that point, but they certainly have the potential to do so. Below I have posted a link to the video, or you can just click on the words, "Highlight Video".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re1aIxdgUlU

Highlight Video

[Bumped from the FanPosts. I've obviously been on record as supporting the current rebuilding plan; 504life provides a great opposing viewpoint here, both in terms of short and long term implications. - Rohan]

Remember back in the fourth grade how there was that one dorky kid, a loner, and completely awkward with pretty much everything? Then, as you began to grow up and progress through each and every school year and witness certain changes in your body, voice, and hormones, you also witnessed that dorky kid hit a serious growth spurt over the summer, and he had apparently started working out, not to mention he ditched the glasses for contacts, rediscovered styling gel, and recently got his braces removed. Everyone was pretty shocked on the first day of school to see this "new" guy. He was still not totally different, as there were some nuances with his personality that may or may work themselves out, but on the whole, he was a drastically different person on the outside. That guy is the Minnesota Timberwolves.

It's interesting to see a team that had been a joke for the last few years finally start to turn it around, and the Wolves are apparently doing just that. Paying top dollar to land Rick Adelman was perhaps GM David Kahn's best move, and at last, there's someone in the coaching position who has the ability to get the young talent of the Timberwolves to mesh together into a totally cohesive unit in all phases of the game. The franchise is renewing trends it hasn't seen since the prime days of Kevin Garnett when he sported a Minnesota jersey. The experienced coach Rick Adelman has a fantastically talented group of players in their youth who have shown incredible promise for the future. Kevin Love is playing like a top five NBA player; he simply does it all, from everywhere. No one in the league now rebounds like he does night in and night out, and it's a shocker when he DOESN'T rip down at least fifteen boards a game. Ricky Rubio has at long last made his triumphant arrival to the NBA where he has thus far dazzled columnists, bloggers (I'm looking at you Zach Harper, with your puppy breath and cinnamon hashtags), and spectators alike with his smoothness on the court as well as his antics off of it that let the media and all who watch him fall in love.

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Dear Hornets Fans,

Losing a superstar sucks.

What is even worse is the time spent walking the NBA wilderness in search of the magical thing known as "potential". When things are going great with a CP3 or a KG in tow, it's easy to forget that there simply aren't that many people on planet earth who are super tall, super athletic, super coordinated, and who can throw a little orange ball through a hoop with amazing efficiency. Finding these sorts of creatures with a GPS and the intertronz can be a sticky wicket. Throwing a lottery and a draft into the mix lowers the odds to even murkier depths.

As amazing as it is to think about how Anthony Davis would look in a home NOLA uniform, or as fun as it is to create draft board after draft board after draft board, the truth is that far more often than not those real losses turn into real final records which turn into real lottery balls that turn into actual draft positions who turn into Baby Bulls, Syracuse Duos, Adam Morrisons, and, if you're really lucky, Jerry Stackhouse-level players.

You were dealt a bad hand with Chris Paul leaving town. The cards played by David Stern were even more brutal. Instead of fielding a team based around Goran Dragic, Kevin Martin, Lamar Odom, Luis Scola, and Emeka Okafor, you have been asked to participate in sports austerity so that a super-rich and potentially local owner (who probably does not exist at the moment) can feel like his (or her) up-front investment can pave the way for massive profit based on franchise valuation. (This is a fun cheer at home games: "Go Valuation!")

You are being asked to get excited about equally non-existent things like cap space and future draft picks. Eventually the potential of these things will become reality and, chances are, that reality will, in no way, shape, or form, be worth what you think it one day could have been. This isn't something you want to wear at a home game:

Your favorite team was offered a middle class existence that would have made its fans happy in the present. The league decided that they needed to live in poverty for a while so that some rich (and yet to be discovered) a-hole can buy the team for a big tax write-off before he (or she) heads on over to Baton Rouge to ask for money for a new arena.

The league won't tell you this, but for the vast majority of fans, the NBA really isn't about winning it all. That requires luck, and luck is above and beyond the control of even the best GMs. Sam Presti isn't Sam Presti without Portland getting itself Pritch Slapped (is Sam Presti the new Kevin Pritchard or is Kevin Pritchard the first Sam Presti?). The Bulls drafted 2 top picks before having to wait another 7 years for Derrick Rose. They may have even had a Rose-esque player in Jay Williams before he got stupid on a motorcycle. The point here is that finding a player who can take you to the 1 place in the world that every other pro team wants to get to is 100% dependent on things that are out of your (and your team's) control.

Instead, this league is, for most of us, about simple entertainment. It is about getting your money's worth on the same night as the date on that $30 ticket you just handed to the guy/gal at the gate. It isn't about cap space, trade exceptions and caches of 1st round picks that hopefully/maybe/someday will give you a shot at the title. That's just the nonsense that the league will sell you while they keep costs as low as possible for the still-imaginary rich person that will eventually ask you for more tax dollars for a new arena.

As bad as things might seem right now, and as much as you are being asked to suffer while waiting for magic to happen at income levels well beyond the bills in your wallet and with numbers beyond what you can dial, you still have things to legitimately be hopeful for. You have a good GM in Dell Demps (when the league actually allows him to do his job), you still have average-to-above-average professional players (Eric Gordon, Emeka Okafor, Carl Landry, and hopefully Chris Kaman and Trevor Ariza), and you appear to have a really good coach.

As a fan of a team that went through 7 straight 1-and-done post seasons before coming within a Sam Cassel injury of winning it all, and who has spent the last 7 years rooting for some of the worst basketball that you can possibly imagine watching, I can honestly tell you that there is nothing wrong with being just good enough to have the chance to watch an extra 7 games a year. Those extra 7 games are a much more likely possibility for entertainment than is landing the transcendent player who can take you the distance. You had that guy. He's gone. Things can still be good. Things can still be entertaining.

One of the things we joke about over at Canis Hoopus is that someday, all of the losing will be worth it--someday, all the suffering and money and dashed draft hopes will pay off in an amazing title run (they're going to be the league's first 80-win team). Someday, the payoff for all of this crap is going to be worth...well, the truth is that a team built around Kevin Love, Al Jefferson, and, had they drafted well, Steph Curry or Ty Lawson, has the same "upside" as a team built around Kevin Love, Derrick Williams, and Ricky Rubio. Future assets are rarely worth what you have to deal with in the meantime. The seas are always stormy. Make the most of what you have in the here and now instead of filling the books with "assets" that will turn into gold after (insert magic here). Denver seems to be the only team in recent memory that realizes currently good players > "assets".

Don't buy into potential picks, cap space, trade exceptions or any of the other nonsense your ticket reps, the league, and (eventually) your front office will approach you with. Demand a good product on the date of your ticket. You don't deserve and should not accept anything less. The NBA middle class (even the upper-lower-middle-class) is nothing to turn up your nose at, and the chances of these austere measures being for the benefit of anybody but a super rich owner are slim.

I hope you find an owner and I hope that owner realizes that those top picks can best be spent on landing more above average players to put around Eric Gordon, Emeka Okafor, and Carl Landry so that you can win 50 games and get to the playoffs a hell of a lot quicker than you can when Anthony Davis and whoever Eric Gordon is flipped for wins 50 games. Oh, you'll have to cross your fingers a whole lot with that 2nd option.

Good luck and live in the now.

PS: I'll leave you with the following updated FDR quote:

But while they prate of economic laws draft picks and cap space, men and women are starving fans are suffering and increasingly apathetic. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws rebuilding rules are not made by nature. They are made by human beings owners who want you to continue to pay for a bad product when you shouldn't have to.