The NBA announced its "Rising Stars Challenge" roster pool yesterday. Unlike previous iterations, the game will feature 18 players on two teams selected by TNT's Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith. Via SBNation, here are the all eighteen invited participants:

ROOKIES: Kyrie Irving (Cavaliers), Derrick Williams (Timberwolves), Tristan Thompson (Cavaliers), Ricky Rubio (Timberwolves), Brandon Knight (Pistons), Kemba Walker (Bobcats), Markieff Morris (Suns), Kawhi Leonard (Spurs), Marshon Brooks(Nets).

SOPHOMORES: Blake Griffin (Clippers), John Wall (Wizards), Evan Turner (76ers),DeMarcus Cousins (Kings), Greg Monroe (Pistons), Gordon Hayward (Jazz), Paul George (Pacers), Landry Fields (Knicks), Tiago Splitter (Spurs).

The Hornets' Greivis Vasquez, Xavier Henry, and Gustavo Ayon could have theoretically qualified, though it's difficult to imagine either Vasquez or Henry trumping the sophomore list, which features primarily starting level players with significantly better minutes, production, and efficiency.

Gustavo Ayon, meanwhile, has a strong case when only efficiency is considered. Here are the rookie leaders in PER for a minimum 15 games played in 2011-2012:

                                                  
                                      Tota        
Rk             Player  Season Age  Tm    G GS  PER
1        Kyrie Irving 2011-12  19 CLE   23 23 21.6
2        Gustavo Ayon 2011-12  26 NOH   18  1 21.0
3        Jimmy Butler 2011-12  22 CHI   16  0 19.5
4      MarShon Brooks 2011-12  23 NJN   17  9 18.4
5      Nikola Vucevic 2011-12  21 PHI   16  3 18.4
6       Tobias Harris 2011-12  19 MIL   16  0 18.1
7           Jon Leuer 2011-12  22 MIL   23  6 18.1
8         Ricky Rubio 2011-12  21 MIN   25 15 17.2
9         Enes Kanter 2011-12  19 UTA   24  0 15.9
10      Isaiah Thomas 2011-12  22 SAC   24  0 14.9

Ayon's candidacy, though, falls short when considering his overall minutes. Monty Williams has simply not used him in the consistently expanded role many Hornets fans have wanted for him, and as a result, his overall counting stats haven't been nearly as impressive.

Donald Sloan, undrafted out of Texas A&M in 2010, has been signed by the New Orleans Hornets to a 10 day deal. The team announced the contract yesterday. Sloan hails from Shreveport, Louisiana and grew up in Dallas, TX where he attended high school before going onto College Station.

Here's the official announcement on Hornets.com:

The New Orleans Hornets announced today that they have signed guard Donald Sloan to a 10-day contract.

Sloan, a Texas A&M University product, appeared in five regular season games with the Atlanta Hawks this season before being released on January 27. Originally signed by Atlanta on December 9, 2011, Sloan averaged 1.2 points, 1.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 4.0 minutes of play with the Hawks.

The 6'3" guard has played five games (all starts) for the Erie Bayhawks of the NBA D-League this season, averaging 24.8 points, 8.4 assists and 5.2 rebounds in 40.9 minutes of play. Born in Shreveport, Sloan has appeared in 54 games (38 starts) in the D-League, with career averages of 12.0 points and 4.7 assists.

Sloan, who grew up in the Dallas area, was a first-team Big 12 Conference selection his senior season at Texas A&M, averaging 17.8 points.

Good luck to Mr. Sloan.

Recaps of Hornets loss to Bulls...Quotes from the game...Will Ferrell does pregame intros

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Recently, I've been praising Monty Williams for the effort that this Hornets team has shown being in many close games despite being at a severe talent disadvantage every night. This was not one of those games. Tonight we saw what happens when a team that consistently struggles to score goes up against an elite defensive team. The Bulls were not exactly world beaters on offense, but they did not need to be. I'm typing this as of the beginning of the fourth quarter because the only thing yet to be decided is the final score. Chris Kaman will have another strong box score to add to his trade resume, despite taking a ton of shots and 4 turnovers through 3 quarters. Hopefully he can keep this string of seemingly impressive play going, so the Hornets can pry the Knicks' first round pick from Houston in return for his services. Jarrett Jack looked rusty as his normally automatic mid-range game was off. Ariza was active, but terrible. Gustavo Ayon got limited minutes due to Kaman being the only semi-reliable source of offense and Monty Williams insistence on playing a guy on a 10 day contract for 10+ minutes. Belinelli scored on two drives and missed all his jumpers and half his FTs. Xavier Henry was aggressive and sometimes careless and as of now has played half as many minutes as Marco Belinelli. There is no reason for this. Speaking of senseless things, there is now 7min left in the game, the Hornets are down 25 and just-returned Jarrett Jack and starters Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza are still in the game. At least Henry is in. The Hornets also have a guy named Donald Sloan on the bench who is apparently not Jerry's grandson. That's all I have. I'm going to try to write something (using Synergy!) that is not depressing tomorrow. Any ideas?

The tank keeps a rolling.
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UPDATE: I missed this while writing this sad excuse for a recap, but a Belinelli 3 pointer with .5 seconds left prevented the Hornets from achieving their lowest regular season point total in franchise history. Yay?

UPADATE 2: Courtesy of my friend who had the misfortune of using my seat tonight while I recover from knee surgery, here are the (sideways) videos of Will Ferrell's introductions of the Bulls and the Hornets. The Bulls ones are great.

Bulls Intros by Will Ferrell

Hornets Intros by Will Ferrell

2011-12 NBA Regular Season
4-21	vs	21-6
February 7th, 2012
New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, LA
6:00 PM CST
TV: CST, NBALP
Probable starters:
Jarrett Jack (?)	<	Derrick Rose (?)
Marco Belinelli	<	Ronnie Brewer
Trevor Ariza	<	Luol Deng
Gustavo Ayon	<	Carlos Boozer
Emeka Okafor	<	Joakim Noah

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I mentioned in the morning notes today that twelve different Hornets have started a game this season. At first glance, second glance, seventeenth glance, etc, this is pretty ridiculous. Of the current side (accounting for yesterday's cuts of Squeaky Johnson and DaJuan Summers), only Xavier Henry and Lance Thomas are yet to start a game. Every single other player has started at least once, and outside of Gustavo Ayon, every other player has started at least twice.

But! While this season has indeed been absolutely terrible, it's worth reminding ourselves that we lived through something (arguably) worse, a mere six years ago. Indeed, the 2005 Hornets blow away the current "start" count of 12; the year before Chris Paul arrived, New Orleans started 19 different players over the course of the season.

Here in full are the starters from 2005:

Junior Harrington, y'all. Junior Harrington. Stick that in your fancy 2012 e-pipe and smoke it.

Jarrett Jack returns to practice...Hornets request waivers on Squeaky Johnson and DaJuan Summers...Hornets have started 12 different players this season

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Per CBS Sports' Ken Berger, the New Orleans Hornets have waived Squeaky Carldell Johnson and DaJuan Summers.

NBA contracts became fully guaranteed on Friday (a full list of all non-guaranteed players across the NBA can be found on the SBNation NBA page).

Johnson and Summers would have earned a combined $1.3M between the two of them. Summers has been used largely as a utility player till this point, playing at multiple positions and even starting six times due to injuries to other players. While Squeaky had seen increased minutes lately due to the absence of Jarrett Jack, his minutes as a third string point guard had been very inconsistent throughout the year.

That said, both players certainly had clearly defined (if minimal) roles with the team, with very limited financial commitment required to retain them. So the next question, naturally, is whether either move (or both) precedes another transaction, perhaps one involving Chris Kaman.

Including the 10-day contract recently signed by Lance Thomas, the Hornets were at the roster limit of 15 players before today - Jarrett Jack, Greivis Vasquez, Squeaky Johnson, Eric Gordon, Marco Belinelli, Xavier Henry, Trevor Ariza, Al-Farouq Aminu, DaJuan Summers, Carl Landry, Jason Smith, Lance Thomas, Emeka Okafor, Gustavo Ayon, and Chris Kaman.

So the current roster size now falls to 13, allowing the Hornets to potentially take back extra players in a Kaman deal, making something alone the lines of our hypothesized Houston Rockets deals (Jordan Hill, Hasheem Thabeet, draft pick) a possibility. Keep in mind, though, that even if these cuts were made with a trade in mind, we may still be a couple weeks away from a Chris Kaman trade. By cutting Squeaky and Summers today, the Hornets saved themselves at least a little bit of cash, something that can't be underrated for a team that doesn't have an owner.