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.

The news is coming fast and furious now that draft workouts have begun. Jim Eichenhofer has some great question and answers with yesterday's participants. I found this response by Arkansas G Sonny Weems particularly funny:

Q: Which players do you compare yourself to in the NBA in terms of your style of play?
A: Probably Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers). The way he runs the floor and defends and rebounds. But I think I can probably dribble a little bit better than he can and shoot a little bit better than he can.

Somewhere, Iggy is laughing. Then again, Weems can fly just as high as Andre.

Taking a break from workouts, it appears that LAC guard Shaun Livingston will not be given a qualifying offer from the Clips. HoopsWorld breaks it down:

This means Livingston will be free to sign with whomever he likes, though considering he is still recovering from that horrible knee injury it's doubtful teams will be lining up to offer him big money. Or maybe any money.

So, a very young guard (22) that can be had cheaply. Granted, he's frail as a toothpick (6'7", 182), but he'll be cheap as dirt. A former 4th overall pick, he's certainly worth a look.

Workouts again. Jeremy Pargo was one of the five players brought into Hornets' facilities yesterday. Initially, I thought Pargo was going to withdraw his name if he wasn't a definite draft pick. Now, WWL is reporting that he will withdraw if he isn't a definite first round pick.

Jeremy Pargo worked out for the Hornets Tuesday as his brother watched... Is Jannero giving Jeremy any hints to prepare him for workouts and a professional future? "He didn’t," Pargo said. "He knows I understand what I have to do and the things that come along with it from watching him. He leads by example."

Shan Foster impressed during his workout. The Vandy guard is originally from Louisiana (Harvey) and was the SEC Player of the Year. The Times-Pic has the details:

Foster' perimeter shooting caught Hornets Coach Byron Scott's attention... "We think (starter) Mo Peterson did a heck of a job, but we really need a shooting guard that's really athletic and can get up and down the floor," Scott said.  "He can flat out shoot it, and he moves extremely well without the ball."

That same article also had a quote from Byron Scott about Jeremy Pargo:

"(Jeremy) is stronger and more explosive than (Jannero)," Scott said. "Jeremy is going to dunk it; Jannero is going to lay it up."

Lots of Pargo news today, but this last one is probably the most important. Same article:

Jannero Pargo said he will opt out of his contract to enter free agency July 1, but he is hoping to get a long-term deal to remain in New Orleans.

Same deal as last year. Not entirely unexpected, but it obviously would have been a ot nicer if he picked up his option.

Hornets.com's Jim Eichenhofer writes a piece for his former employer, the Finger Lakes Times. It's primarily about the numerous perks he gets as the main writer for the Hornets. Coincidentally, it's also about the numerous perks that we Hornets bloggers don't get. /Sad Face

Two tickets to every home game. Replica jerseys. Game shorts. T-shirts. Free dinners. Bobblehead dolls. Team posters. When I accepted this job in the fall of 2005, I figured there might be a few unforeseen perks to working full-time for a professional sports team. I had no idea how lengthy the list of items would actually be.

The Hornets won't be the only people giving Chris Paul some big money this summer. Deodorant company RightGuard has signed CP3 as well, reports AdAge.

A forthcoming TV spot starring Mr. Paul shows a series of his on-court highlights, backed by a voice-over: "The game has gotten faster, the players, bigger, and the armpits, well ... looks like we got here just in time."

CP has also made his second career SLAM cover. And the picture of him driving looks pretty cool. Currently, it's only out in New York City, but they say it should be out nation-wide over the weekend. An excerpt:

By the time the season ended last month, virtually every game was sold out, people were rocking Hornets gear all over the city and everywhere I went, people only wanted to talk about one topic: Chris Paul. A few things happened in between—such as the Crescent City hosting the All-Star Game and the Hornets becoming a legit contender—but without a doubt, the transformation of fans into devotees, casual fans into fanatics, apathetic non-fans into casual fans and a national audience into true believers was due to CP3.

The workouts continue today, with potential draftees probably working out right now as I type. Jim Eichenhofer delivers the details one more time; coming in today: Mark Tyndale, Wayne Ellington, Lester Hudson, Patrick Ewing Jr., Josh Duncan, and Keith Brumbaugh. And by the way... Josh Duncan is a 6'9" power forward from Xavier, "has decent range on his jump shot, has a high basketball IQ and is an above-average free throw shooter (85% over four seasons)." Hmmm.

Finally, my favorite article of the day, about Julian Wright returning "home" to Kansas. KUSports has some great insight into how Wright developed as a player during the season, what the Hornets got him for Christmas, and even an Adam Haluska mention. I'll finish with some quotes from JuJu himself:

“What happened is David West was hurt and I was having a good stretch of practices. I got confidence from playing in practice. I finally started to understand defensive schemes which is what he (Scott) was looking for. That’s what keeps you on the floor... There’s a lot of turnover in coaches in the league. The fact [Coach Scott]’ll be there ... I can get established in the Hornets’ system and thrive in it."