To say the Hornets have stumbled out of the gates is something of an understatement. We've been handled by the Hawks, Lakers, and Rockets thus far. It's a long season, and things will surely start to even out a little as we get into December and January. That said, this team could use a little shake up. Some thoughts on our problems and some potential solutions:

Peja Stojakovic

He's one of the game's best pure shooters, nobody denies that. His biggest challenge is facing off against physical opponents. We've seen tough defenders throw him off time and time again- Bruce Bowen blasted him to smithereens in the playoffs last year, and Ron Artest did it again on Saturday. All that leads me to postulate: why not start James Posey against the more physical perimeter defenders?

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Tomorrow should be the game of the year (so far), and as such, it deserves a slightly more in depth preview than normal. Tomorrow morning, Kurt from Forum Blue and Gold will help break down the Lakers' strong side zone defense. Below, Adam from the great new Lakers blog Lake Show Life talks a little about what makes the Lakers' bench special this season.

Everyone rambles on and on about 2008 NBA MVP Kobe Bryant, his new partner in grind Pau Gasol and the return of "Diaper" Drew Bynum, but what really gives the Lakers the chance to be special -- and I'm talking pushing 70 wins special here, folks -- is the Lakers' second unit. This unit basically consists of four players:

Lamar Odom - Sixth-man extraordinaire. How many other NBA teams have an All-Star coming off of their bench? What I like abut having him be the main man for the second unit is that it allows either he or Kobe to facilitate the offense for basically the entire 48 minutes. He's a Jack of all trades, master of none, which works wonderfully off the bench because the Purple and Gold don't need him to be a master of anything in that role. Well, except making things happen, which he does more often than not. You also have to love his attitude. How many young All-Stars would accept coming off the bench in a contract year without griping?

Continue reading this post »

J.R. Smith back to the Hornets? Hoopsworld reported it first. I dismissed it myself before I talked to someone who confirmed it. An excerpt of HW's article:

[J.R.'s] turnaround has reportedly caught the attention of the Smith's former team, the New Orleans Hornets, although they already acquired reserve swingman James Posey this summer. Oklahoma City could also be in the mix for Smith, but the Nuggets still have a hold on his rights.

I know, I know. Nobody likes J.R. But take a step back before letting the hate flow forth. The man has improved his 3P% and eFG% substantially for three straight years. That's hard work and nothing else, something we didn't see during his New Orleans years. Smith at 2/3, Wright at 3, and Posey at 3/4? That'd be a terrific look for our bench. By the way, if it happens, it'll be a S&T (probably M. James and a '10 first rounder).

Sort of Hornets-related, if you squint and turn your head sideways: Knicks trade Renaldo Balkman.

The Denver Nuggets have acquired forward Renaldo Balkman from the New York Knicks in exchange for guard Taurean Green, forward Bobby Jones and a second-round draft pick in 2010.

The Knicks are expected to waive Green and Jones at a savings of about $2 million. Both players have non-guaranteed contracts.

The thing I'm looking at is Bobby Jones. He was purported to be a defensive stopper of Bruce Bowen's caliber when he was drafted. A smart move might be signing him at the minimum to fill out the roster. 3436384279

A Boston Celtic fan gives his take on James Posey's departure to the Hornets. He finds himself wondering why Posey hasn't been vilified like other Boston sports heroes that bolted for big money (Johnny Damon):

It's taken me thirty years to realize this, but sometimes a player can leave a team and there are no bad guys.

Would I have liked to see James Posey on the 2008-09 Celtics? Absolutely. But I'm happy for him that he was able to get the contract he wanted.

I'm happy that he'll get to play with a great player like CP3. I'm even happy for the city of New Orleans, who just got themselves one heck of a clutch basketball player.

Julian Wright and Hilton Armstrong's Vegas summer league play made Byron Scott... happy? Yes, indeed. The Times-Pic reports. Also, in that article Jeff Bower talks about Bobby Brown:

"Bobby did a real good job throughout the whole league, and obviously all the other teams took notice," Bower said. "He was one of the biggest surprises throughout the summer league with his play. We had a chance to measure him against the other notable rookies, which was a good measuring stick for him. We were real happy he was able to come in there and perform well."

Still wish we could've nabbed him.

This link session started with one flashy former Hornet SG/SF, so it's only right it ends with another (albeit not as flashy). Devin Brown could end up back in New Orleans according to Hoopsworld:

Among the teams showing interest in former Cavs guard Devin Brown are Dallas, New Orleans, Denver and Atlanta. To a lesser extent, both Miami and Washington have made contact with Brown's representatives.

I enjoyed Devin's last stop in New Orleans- when he averaged career highs in points, rebounds, assists, and steals- and wouldn't mind him back.

[UPDATE: by atthehive]: I forgot to mention that Denver signed swingman Dahntay Jones to a contract last week. Here's one opinion of why Jones makes J.R. expendable in Denver.

Bobby Brown's been lighting up the summer league. (Note: Let it be known that I was/am the first official member of the Bobby Brown bandwagon). And now, he may end up getting an NBA or overseas gig for the upcoming season. Marc Stein of ESPN has more details:

Though he's not a pure point and frequently has to be reminded by coaches to be more vocal, Brown has become an NBA player. And that's according to numerous expert witnesses in Vegas as opposed to a shameless rooter like me...

...Consider, for example, that my Maccabi Tel-Aviv is suddenly trying to lure Brown to Israel as a marquee foreign signing. That's a big step up from where Brown was last season, helping Germany's Alba Berlin win the Bundesliga title.

But Brown's also getting enough NBA interest now to conceivably land the guaranteed deal that would enable him to stay home. New Orleans wants to bring him to training camp and had Chris Paul call Brown to invite him to compete for minutes as CP3's backup. I'm hearing that the Warriors like him just as much, if not more, which must be why Nelson could be spotted at most of Brown's games.

Come on, Jeff Bower/George Shinn! You're gonna be paying the luxury next year unless you cut some salary. Here's a fantastic opportunity staring you right in the face- let Pargo walk and let Brown be the 3rd string point. Please. Please. Please.

Speaking of Brown, HoopsWorld's Bill Ingram has a video interview with him.

And speaking of video interviews with Bill Ingram, here's one of Hilton Armstrong.

Back to the same Stein article: he also chimes in on the James Posey deal:

...[D]on't look for me to join the chorus of concern that the Hornets overextended themselves to sign the 31-year-old to a four-year deal worth about $25 million. I love the move.

I can't deny that I was not-so-secretly expecting owner George Shinn to make his checkbook hard to find after the Hornets re-signed Paul to a max contract extension earlier this month. But showing an immediate willingness to spend some more to get Posey as the lead acquisition to address their leadership and depth shortcomings suggests that Shinn isn't satisfied with one breakthrough season.

And one last tidbit from Stein:

In New Orleans, though, it's hard to top Byron Scott's ambition. The NBA's reigning Coach of the Year shared that he hopes to eventually develop young (and long) swingman Julian Wright into a backup for Paul at the point. Pretty interesting if it actually happens someday.

Ha ha ha.

Charley Rosen's Q&A piece for FOX Sports is pretty interesting. He starts with some Posey (mostly Celtics related) stuff before delving into the nuances of the following question:

After watching Tyson Chandler have so much success in slapping the ball back to Chris Paul, this seems like a highly effective maneuver. What do you think? Also, if he does tip the ball to a teammate, does Chandler get credit for a rebound?

NBA players will take on professional bowlers in October in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Hmm. NBA players who like to bowl, hailing from Winston-Salem... oh yeah, that Chris guy. The Mount Airy News explains:

The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) and Paul's CP3 Foundation announced today the creation of the inaugural Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational presented by the brands of Ebonite International which will be televised on ESPN.

The Invitational will take place at the AMF Major League Lanes in Winston-Salem on Sept. 20 taped for broadcast on ESPN, airing on Oct. 19...

“I am thrilled to have a PBA event be a major part of my charity weekend and bring some of the best bowlers in the world to Winston-Salem,” said Paul. “I always tell people that I am a bowler first and a basketball player second, so I know this event will be an ultimate test of my bowling skills.”

The Hornets Report Boards have the low-down on next year's new jerseys. As bonitapplebum87 says:

If I could post the pics I would guys but I don't wanna get in trouble. Anyway, my friend Soso on the first page gave you an accurate description except it should be a little more like this:

Home:
White with creole blue and purple pinstripes going through the jersey. Name and number is in creole blue.

Away:
Creole blue with purple and gold pinstripes going through the jersey. Name and number is in gold.

*Both jerseys have New Orleans across the chest. Unless there are last minute changes I won't be aware of, there will be no NOLA on the jersey. However, there is a very cool new logo with NOLA coming out of a trumpet...I thought it was pretty dope.

I haven't seen the actual jersey, just pics.

Thanks for the neat info!

Moving on to the big Posey signing and various internet reactions- Hoops World tracked down Julian Wright and got his thoughts on the signing:

"I think he's going to be a great add," Julian Wright told HOOPSWORLD at the Las Vegas Summer League. "He obviously has a lot of playoff experience, a lot of experience period, and that's what the Hornets have been looking for."

Posey joins the Hornets bench as Wright is working to earn more minutes as a role player. However Wright sees his new teammate as a contributor, not competition to his game. Posey is an outside shooting, perimeter defender whereas Wright has been asked by Bower and Scott to become a more aggressive offensive playmaker.

Indeed. The more I think about it, the more I realize how well the two complement each other. In some ways, Posey is an "old" JuJu, but in many other ways, they're very different players.

Check out this comments section on the Lakers' blog Forum Blue and Gold. The general consensus among L.A. fans is that the Posey signing is a great fit for the Hornets and that New Orleans and the Lakeshow will be duking it out for a Finals appearance next year. As reader and Laker fan Darius says:

I’m sorry to say this, but the Hornets are stacked. They have scorers at almost every position, they have interior and perimeter defenders, they have post offense, and they have Chris Paul and that deadly high P&R. Can you imagine a crunch time line up of Paul, Posey, Peja, West, and Chandler? Who do you leave to stop penetration? I understand that Peja and Paul aren’t the best defenders (understatement, I know) but West is decent and Posey/Chandler are pretty strong for their positions. I’m not shaking in my boots or anything, but those guys are (mostly) young, hungry players that just got a ton of experience in a brutal conference and have a lot of confidence based off of last season.

Good to see that our opponents respect the move.

FOX Sports' Mike Kahn discusses the "Horry aura" surrounding James Posey and ponders whether the deal was worth it. In the end, he comes to this conclusion:

All things being equal, Posey will be a factor for the Hornets because of his experience and ability to maximize his impact in a limited amount of minutes... But he won't be the difference. So the rest of the Hornets better had better grow up over the next two seasons, or they'll regret those third and fourth years of the contract sooner than later.

I couldn't have put it better myself.

FOX, hate as I must your news station, your sports analysis is actually kind of good.

Meanwhile, if you're wondering why SI has been slipping in popularity recently, look no further.

After taking on and losing to the Grizzlies, the Baby Hornets (Bats? Yes, Bats it is) faced off against the Kittens of Charlotte. My game notes:

• In terms of NBA-ready talent, I thought this game would be far more boring than the Grizzlies one. Instead, it was a lot easier/more fun to watch.
• The feed was surprisingly better than the Grizzlies feed. In fact, at some points it was basically equivalent in clarity to the regular season League Pass feeds. So if you were scared away by the terrible quality on Friday, fear no more!
• Charlotte's three lottery picks- D.J. Augustin, Kyle Weaver, and Alexis Ajinca- all started for the 'Cats. I learned that Ajinca's first name is pronounced Alexee... so if you ever meet him, you know what to say.
• Hilton Armstrong struggled mightily at setting picks. That's something he was bad at during the season too- it looks like he gets scared of contact as the opposing player rams into him. That's fine if you're setting a pick to clear Baron Davis or Chauncey Billups. But shying away from screening 5'11" D.J. Augustin?
  
• Having said that, Augustin certainly packs a punch for his size. He flat out leveled the Hornets' Brandon Bowman in the third on a drive to the hoop.
• Throughout the game, there was a guy who kept yelling things at the top of his lungs. Like "OH MY GOODNESS!!!!", "TERRIBLE!!!!" and "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!!!!!!!" And the dude had a sidekick who would make a less charged remark immediately after, stuff like "you gotta work at both ends." I couldn't tell if they were Charlotte coaches or just Charlotte fans.
• The Charlotte coach was wearing shorts and kept getting up and sitting down. Would've been funnier if it was Larry Brown.
  
• ticktock6 mentioned on HornetsHype that most of the arena music was 90's rap in Game One. This time, it was mostly 90's rock/hip-hop. So they stopped poisoning our eyes (with those horrible feeds) in favor of poisoning our ears. Terrific.
• D.J. Augustin sure looked good. He didn't have too many assists, but his passes were crisp and direct. I didn't like the Augustin pick at #9, but he could sure make me change my mind. He also has great handles. From what I saw, his biggest weakness is running the pick and roll; he just couldn't make the right read often enough. Obviously, that's something that can be easily coached.
  
• Wright's and Armstrong's minutes were definitely toned down today. JuJu hardly played in the 3rd, while (I may be wrong on this) Armstrong didn't play at all in the 3rd period. Not sure as to the reasons behind this.
  
• The game went into a mad fast-break frenzy at the start of the 4th that included a huge wind-up dunk from Jemareo Davidson and an alley-oop throwdown from the Bats' Derrick Byars.
  
• A huge decrease in fouls from the first game.
  
• Alexis Ajinca- Consider me impressed. Ajinca was one of the guys I wanted the Hornets to draft with the 27th pick. AA moves extremely well for a 7 footer, has a great free throw stroke, and uses his long arms well on defense. His biggest issue would probably be banging inside; his frame isn't filled out. Still, I think Charlotte got a steal in him.
  
• Adam Haluska- An afternoon to forget. Not only did he have a terrible day shooting, he had a couple of turnovers and a bone-headed foul on a 3 pointer in a crucial stretch of the 4th quarter.
  
• Bobby Brown (Bats)- He didn't shoot well, but I liked his aggressiveness. He went to the line a ton and attacked the rim real well. Some have mentioned that Brown has an outside chance of getting a training camp invite, and today he justified that. He spent most of the game going one-on-one with Augustin, including spewing some audible trash talk at the soft-spoken D.J. The 6'2" guard from Oregon has some legit talent.
• This game got crazy down the stretch. Everybody was screaming, the players were going wild... and Hilton Armstrong won it with a clutch free throw line jumper and then a slam dunk (by the way, JuJu assisted both). Great to see Hilton step it up down the stretch; he finished with 14 points on 4-8 shooting. JuJu and Hilton combined for 8 of the Bats' last 10.
  

We won! We won! The Bats picked up their second summer league win in 4 years at the expense of the Kittens. The contest got about as intense as a summer league game is ever going to get.

I mentioned in my notes that there were less foul calls... I just checked the box score and apparently there were actually 57 fouls, or 1 more than yesterday. Ha ha. Anyways, that's it for today. The Bats take on the Baby Spurs (The Childrens' Size Boots?) on Tuesday and then the Young Clippers (not even gonna try) on Thursday, both of which I'll probably miss.

The Hornets got summer league action started today versus the Memphis Grizzlies. I caught NBA.com's (highly grainy) footage of the game. Some assorted thoughts:

• I made a note to watch Hilton closely. Byron Scott apparently told him that with his talent, he should "dominate the summer league."
• Pretty large crowd. All the sideline rows I could see (10 or so) looked full.
• Most of that, I'm sure, had to do with the presence of one Ovington J'Anthony Mayo. Other notable Grizzlies: Mike Conley Jr., and Hornets' 27th pick Darrell Arthur.
• For the Hornets, Adam Haluska and Julian Wright were the two other notables.
• Very slow start for New Orleans, with the Grizzlies taking an early 11-1 lead. Adam Haluska had quite a few open looks that he passed up. He did convert a nice three-point play. 
• These dudes looked downright scared to shoot threes. If only some team had thought to invite Antoine Walker to summer league.
• Some of the guys were just horrible. The Hornets #5 (haven't looked him up yet) dribbled off his foot and lost the ball out of bounds because of a little ball pressure from Mayo. Turnovers all over the place in general.
  
• One of the very cool things about summer league- you can hear the players talking to each other. So you can "see" plays developing before they happen, etc.
• Hilton Armstrong was all over the place, snatching boards, pushing off guys on the offensive glass, contesting shots. The Hornets even used him as a "point center" for one stretch, giving him the ball top of the key. Still, there was excessive, unfocused motion throughout. A moving screen, a loose ball foul, losing the ball on a drive. You could tell through video that Armstrong was much better than any of the other Vegas players. It's hard to tell that from the stat-sheet though. Simply put, his skill/effort didn't translate into great numbers.
  
• I should probably mention that the refs avoided foul calls like the plague. Hilton got smashed on at least 5 FGA with no call. So his numbers would have been better in "real life."
• A funny sequence in the 2nd quarter: O.J. Mayo appointed himself the official full-court press guy. He gave three different Hornet ball-handlers some problems bringing it up. Next play, JuJu gets a defensive board, starts up court. Mayo sprints over from half-court to pressure him. If he's successfully pressed three guards, what's a forward, right? Wright jukes, crosses left, goes behind the back right, leaving O.J. standing flat-footed at half court.
• Fouls! These Vegas Leaguers hack like crazy! Hilton Armstrong may have finished with 9 fouls, but he was one of the more mild-mannered at the beginning. As he kept getting hacked with no result, he turned up the juice on the other end.
  
• Darrell Arthur "led" Memphis with 9 fouls. There were a total of 56 foul calls. And that's with a ton of missed and no calls.
  
• The #5 that I bashed earlier hit a couple of threes with pretty smooth-looking release. Name still unknown however.
• Darrell Arthur- don't make too much of his 18 points. Most were on really easy buckets, near the hoop, or off good assists. Didn't see much that makes me regret our trade with Portland.
• OJ Mayo- I wasn't his biggest fan in college. I thought he was overhyped for sure. If anything, though, the dude is as smooth as they come. Everything he does happens in one fluid motion. Just poking around the internet, I've seen a couple sites raving about his slam on Hilton. Unfortunately (fortunately?) my internet died for a few minutes and I missed the dunk.
  
• And lastly, Julian Wright- if it's any consolation, it didn't seem like JuJu had 11 turnovers or 13 missed shots. Some of that has to be due to the fact that I didn't know who 80% of the players were 90% of the time. But he was definitely trying to be flashier than normal with no-looks, behind-the-backs, wrap-arounds, etc. For example, on the play I mentioned earlier (where he crossed Mayo), he finished by driving to the hoop. He had a point blank look at the rim. Instead of taking the layup, he spun, and tossed a no-look over the shoulder pass to the other team.
  

Make sure to check out mW's Game 1 recap at HornetsHype. It's, uh, slightly more insightful/extremely less rambling than this one. He even figured out who #5 is!

Here's a real fun stat to end things: guess how many victories the Hornets have in summer league play in their last 16 games (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)?

One! That's right. We're 1-15 since '05. 2005 we went 0-5, 2006 1-4, 2007 0-5, and we're 0-1 this year. I'm kind of hoping we go 0-5 again just to keep up the streak..

Let's start off with Jarvis Hayes. Rumored to be one of the Hornets' top targets for the offseason, the New Jersey Nets snapped him up yesterday. Yahoo! Sports has the report:

Hayes met with New Jersey management in Orlando, Fla., on Thursday and left confident that he’ll sign for the bi-annual exception that would pay him $4 million over two seasons. Once the San Antonio Spurs agreed to terms with Roger Mason Jr., on Wednesday, the Nets became a logical destination for Hayes, who is leaving the Detroit Pistons.

I feel kind of stupid for not mentioning the bi-annual exception. Still, Hayes doesn't really do anything for me, and I don't mind that we didn't get him.

James Posey, our other big target, is supposedly going to make his decision today or tomorrow. As reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Free agent forward James Posey of Twinsburg is likely to sign a multi-year deal in "a day or two," agent Mark Bartelstein said Wednesday evening.

Asked if the Cavaliers were still in the mix, Bartelstein said, "We're still talking."

I'm disappointed by how infrequently the Hornets are mentioned in these Posey reports. The main players seem to be the Celtics and Cavs, with New Orleans thrown in as an afterthought. Interestingly enough, I've seen a couple reports about both Boston and Cleveland being unwilling to offer the full mid-level. In fact, Boston's initial reported offer was 3 years/12 million, significantly lower than the almost $6 mil. midlevel. Another nugget from that same article:

The Cleveland native is also drawing interest from the Cavaliers, Washington, New Orleans, Detroit, and the Lakers, but no one seems willing to offer the full mid-level exception ($5.5 million).

Boston, fine, they're giving out significant money to the Big 3. Washington can't give the midlevel without exceeding the luxury. Ditto for Los Angeles. Cleveland's already well over the luxury tax, so they won't offer the full midlevel either. Detroit probably doesn't value Posey's D as much, given their current roster. Wouldn't that make New Orleans the best combination financially, and competitively? It makes you question how much the Hornets actually want Posey.

Here's a curveball from left field. Apparently, the Hornets may be taken to court in the near future. Forbes has the details, and the clever title 'Hornets lose in 'OT'.'

Former Hornets employees who claim they were coerced into working overtime without being paid for it or were unfairly denied commissions may bring the NBA team to trial, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

There are 16 plaintiffs in the case - all former team employees whose duties entailed selling and processing tickets.

Julian Wright, Hilton Armstrong, and Adam Haluska will all be playing summer league ball this offseason. The Times-Pic has more:

"I'm trying to get back into the flow of playing 5-on-5," Wright said. "I worked out a lot since mid-June to make sure that I was in tip-top shape. When I come to training camp, I want to be in better shape than last season."

Armstrong also needs to show improvement, Scott said. Since his rookie season in 2006-07, Armstrong has struggled to be a consistent performer.

"Hilton has to be very assertive out there every single game," Scott said. "He can't have the lulls like he had during the season. I told him that with his talent, he should be able to dominate in summer league."

I wish they had more on Haluska. So far I've read a wide range of reports on him- some saying New Orleans expects him to fill the void at back-up wing next year and others saying he won't make the full-time roster.

A rookie and a veteran were called upon to man the shooting guard position. They did it well. A game-by-game look at Mo-Pete and JuJu, using Hollinger Game score. Yellow line's 5 game moving average, and there's some other cool numbers on top. Click for larger:

Best Game: November 14th vs. PHI. Peterson poured in 27 points on 6 of 9 threes along with 6 rebounds. It was easily his best scoring game of the season, and it was part of a 5 game winning streak for the Bees. The Phila game also followed a tough road contest at New Jersey where Peterson completed a clutch four point play, one of two he had on the year.

Trends: Inconsistency to the max, and much of it is due to how the Hornets used him offensively. Some great +15 Game Scores stand out in the graph, but there's an equal number of sub-zero Game Scores. That's what happens when your role is as hazy as Peterson's was.

Best Game: March 7th vs. NJN. JuJu's breakout game also happened to be his best. Isn't it staggering how many of these "best games" occurred in either March or November? Weird. Anyway, Wright scored 20 points that night on 8 for 9 shooting with a variety of pull up jumpers and drives to the hoop.

Trends: As the minutes went up, so did Flight 32's play. He peaked in March, then had a rough stretch, but recovered extremely well in time for the playoffs. His average Game Score finished at 5.4 and certainly would have been higher with more regular playing time. Plus, his standard deviation of 4.8 was much smaller than Mo-Pete's 6.0, implying more regular quality performances.

Well, the end of the How'd He Do series is imminent. All the major players are in the books, with only Ryan Bowen, Rasual Butler, Chris Andersen, and Mike James left to review. So this is probably a good time to stop and check out what's gone down thus far. Thanks to all of you that voted, you've helped create the first ever batch of Hornet approval ratings!

• Melvin Ely (41%)
• Morris Peterson (67%)
• David West (95%)
• Bonzi Wells (58%)
• Peja Stojakovic (91%)
• Jannero Pargo (70%)
• Hilton Armstrong (34%)
• Tyson Chandler (97%)
• Julian Wright
• Chris Paul (100%)
  

As I mentioned in some of the comments, I removed '1' ratings for a few players. Seriously, Peja did not have a 1 season. Neither did David West or Tyson Chandler. Get over New Orleans' success, bitter fans of other teams.

The top 3 were CP (duh), TC, and DX in that order. Peja was 4th, and General Pargo overtook Mo-Pete for the 5th spot. Bonzi probably caused the most division. Some people (myself) had him high, while others pegged him as a 1. Ely and Armstrong didn't score well, but hopefully they will both rebound excellently. Finally, I'm surprised that Tyson finished higher than DX. Interesting.

The How'd He Do is the first part of @tH's player review series for the summer. Next up are some funky graphs and a best game thingamabob (huh, the spell check recognizes this??). The draft can't come soon enough...

Touted as a top-10 draft pick last summer, Julian Wright somehow fell into our hands at #13 where we gladly snapped him up. One year of Flight 32 is in the books... How'd He Do?

via www.nba.com

Positives: Breathtaking athleticism, crazy dunking ability, surprising touch from deep in small sample size (42% on 24 trifectas), good handles (15.1 TOV%), good court vision, excellent one-on-one defender, virtually same PER as ROY Kevin Durant (15.8 to 15.4)

Negatives: Tendency to pass up open jumpers, terrible FT shooter in small sample size (64%)

My Grade: 4, Explanation: Sky's the limit with JuJu. Last year, I was most excited about his defensive ability. So every time he hit a three or threw one down, it just felt like icing on the cake. Wright has the potential to be an extremely good one-on-one offensive player. If he does put the work into his game to make it happen, Chris Paul and David West will become that much better.

My vision of Wright, 2 or 3 years down the road? Bruce Bowen, with Stephen Jackson-like offensive ability (hopefully not the jacking up threes wildly part), and without the dirty mindset. We definitely got one of the gems of the '07 draft class.