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.

As you've undoubtedly seen by now, the Hornets were unable to agree to a contract extension with Eric Gordon by yesterday's 11:59 EST deadline.

Where do we go from here? It's actually pretty straightforward.

Gordon becomes a restricted free agent when this season ends. At that time, he'll have three options. The first two go as follows:

(1) sign an offer sheet with another team

(2) agree to a new contract with the Hornets

If Gordon signs the offer sheet of another team, the Hornets have full matching rights; if they met the signing team's offer sheet, Gordon becomes a Hornet under the terms of that new deal. This happens relatively often. Most recently, the Golden State Warriors signed DeAndre Jordan to a lucrative offer sheet this past offseason, and the Los Angeles Clippers opted to match.

The maximum number of years another team could offer Eric Gordon is four years, $58M, an important figure. This is lower than the maximum four year salary of $62M New Orleans could have offered yesterday. Additionally, as owners of Gordon's Bird Rights, the Hornets would also have the option of offering the additional fifth year that no other team could. Keep in mind that a team may only offer one five-year deal within the current CBA period which expires in 2017.

Essentially, if Gordon was refusing to sign anything less than the 4 year, $58M figure yesterday, the breakdown in negotiations made perfect sense. The single advantage that negotiating an extension before the deadline provided was the opportunity to sign Gordon for below market value. It would have made minimal sense to offer him more than that, without at least allowing the market to dictate his true price over the summer.

So now we wait.

I'll reiterate once more that yesterday's result should in no way be taken as a sign that Gordon does not want to play in New Orleans long term. He and his agent simply believe that he's worth close to a full max deal (an idea I fully agree with) which is entirely reasonable.

But I'd be remiss to end this without mentioning the final option, of course:

(3) sign a one year qualifying offer with the Hornets, become an unrestricted FA in 2013

In this scenario, Gordon sacrifices millions and millions of dollars and long term financial security to make a mad dash out of the city. If it sounds farfetched, it's because it is. If the Hornets want Gordon this summer (and they will), the two sides will almost assuredly work things out.

Yesterday assured two things: the Hornets won't get a cut-rate deal for Gordon, and we'll have to live with that little lingering uncertainty in the backs of our minds for a bit longer.

As fans of a 3-15 team that has no owner, I have a hunch we'll get by.

Monty Williams revealed earlier today that Xavier Henry will make his season debut against the Spurs this evening.

So, a quick introduction, to Henry, our latest one-lettered dynamo, and a fearless prediction for his season.

Henry's one of those innumerable college players that get caught between a perimeter and slashing game upon arriving in the NBA. He can still drive, no doubt. In a severely injured shortened season in 2010-2011, 26% of Henry's field goal attempts came at the rim. For comparison, Belinelli landed at abut 15% last season and Eric Gordon at 30%. The league's elite drivers (think Tyreke Evans) will take somewhere between 40% and 50% of their looks at the rim, but finishing in the 30% range (somewhere a healthy Henry could certainly land) is very reasonable. To toss in another reference, the league's breakout guard in 2011-2012, James Harden, sits at 33% on the season.

The strange thing with Henry though, and it's a point that becomes immediately apparent on watching footage of his season with the Grizzlies, is that while most young players see their driving percentages lag due to increased defensive athleticism, Henry's dip was equally due to his confidence in his own jump shot. The drives he did make? Strong, assured, often into the body of a defender. But he often eschewed open space in front of him to pop the step back, and over a limited sample size, the step back failed him almost hilariously frequently.

On long twos he shot 33%, and on threes he shot 12%. But this is exactly why Henry was such an excellent pickup.

Putting the injuries aside, Xavier Henry failed in 2011-2012 because in an extremely small sample, he failed to do the very thing (shooting, shooting, shooting) that for 19 years had made him a very good basketball player. Importantly, he didn't fail to do these things because defenders were closing him out too strongly, because he couldn't get open against better defenders, or because he couldn't adapt to the NBA three line. Nope. He just missed shots over and over and over again.

As far as specific skills - look for Henry's jab step, honestly one of the better ones I've seen around the league, as well as his fake chest pass on the perimeter, two moves he used very effectively to open up his jumper last season. There's no question that Henry can create the requisite space to continue to shoot (ostensibly) high percentage looks.

The Xavier era begins tonight in New Orleans. The prediction in this corner, given health for Henry and a lack thereof for Eric Gordon, is, at the very least, a new starter at the two. The Hornets put a 2010 lottery pick, one that had the majority of his rookie season wiped out by injury and is still only 20 years old, on the floor this evening, and we should all be appropriately excited.

The NBA rewards losing.

And it rewards losing like few other sports. The NFL? Sure, a Suck for Luck comes around every few years, but ultimately, there's actually a fair amount of financial downside to getting a high pick. The draft itself is loaded with players for rounds and rounds and rounds. The MLB? It has its occasional Strasburg, but collegiate baseball players have so much to navigate before hitting the big leagues that pushing for, say, a 5th pick over a 9th pick by intentionally easing up during as season is completely ridiculous. And in both leagues, individual impact is capped at a reasonably low level. Got the best pitcher in the AL? Feel free to use him every fifth day. Best running back in the NFC? Good luck building your pass rush.

The NBA requires star players for success, and there are two ways of obtaining them - poach them from their original teams (read: be a big market, or Miami) or draft them. The NBA salary system only exacerbates this; star players produce more wins than they're allowed to be paid by max contracts. So even if a team of average players and a superstar gets you the same number of wins as a team of above average players, you will, by definition, pay less to the team with the superstar.

In fact, it will be prohibitively expensive to pay a team full of 5-6 win share type guys unless you (a) are literally, or at the very least figuratively, made out of money (2011 Dallas Mavericks), or (b) happen to collect multiple inexplicably undervalued players during a transition year for the league (2004 Detroit Pistons). I won't say the Pistons were "lucky" because in a lot of ways they weren't, but their model - 4 to 5 almost equally valuable players - isn't replicable. Nor is the Thunder's "model" for that matter.

The Hornets, on account of being neither a big market nor Miami, need to build through the draft. And to get there, they need to lose. Obviously, this won't sit well with every NBA observer, nor should it. Rewarding losing is counterintuitive, and the NBA is worse off for making it so (even if rewaring losing is ultimately unavoidable because of the way basketball fundamentally works).

There is a distinction to be made here, though. The Hornets aren't intentionally losing; they're just bad. It's a stupid distinction, sure, but it's still one worth making. By rejecting the Lakers' trade and accepting the Clippers', they earned the right to lose without being questioned on a nightly basis. When Monty Williams starts DaJuan Summers for three games, it's because he has few other alternatives. When he experiments with an all-backup front court to close out an entire fourth quarter, it's not particularly "risky" given what the starters would probably accomplish.

The Hornets paid full price for their tank up front; now we simply get to watch it roll.

oh lord how they play and play
for that happy day, for that happy day

Happy New Year, everybody. You guys are the greatest. Much love.

Thanks for reading, thanks for talking, thanks for making this site what it is.

To all, the grandest of years.

Rumors of this deal have been flying around all week, and it looks like they've now come to fruition. The Hornets have traded swingman Quincy Pondexter to the Memphis Grizzlies for point guard Greivis Vasquez.

A quick analysis of the straight swap:

In: Greivis Vasquez, age 24, 6'6", 200, PG
Out: Quincy Pondexter, age 23, 6'6", 225, SF

Before starting, let's briefly address Pondexter's preseason game on Wednesday, where he was extremely active on the glass and, according to most accounts, looked like an improved player. It's preseason. Yes, players improve. Players improve all the time. But Pondexter was an old rookie, and it's unlikely he's suddenly morphed into a rebounding ace. It's understandable that in the face of the team's repeated past failures (J.R. Smith, Brandon Bass, Marcus Thornton) to retain young talent, the loss of Pondexter could sting a little.

Pondexter, though, has a ways to go in his development to stick around even as a rotation guy in the NBA long term. He wasn't quick enough to get past NBA quality defenders regularly, nor was he strong enough to overpower smaller matchups. He became more and more of a spot up option as the season progressed, and while his midrange game is decent enough (45%), it came in a very limited sample size.

Vasquez comes to New Orleans with very similar issues; in many ways, he's the point guard version of Pondexter. He was also old for a rookie (he's more than a year older than Quincy), he struggled with turnovers, and his floor percentages were up and down. Like Pondexter, he flashed his potential often enough. But Pondexter did it in a preseason game while Vasquez did it in the NBA playoffs.

On almost 50 offensive possessions, Vasquez produced 1.17 points per possession in the postseason (or a very effective ORtg of 117). Contrast that with Pondexter's ORtg of 102 during the year (107.3 was league average for the season). And Vasquez's standout playoffs performance came as part of a much improved second half of the year. After shooting 37% overall and 25% from three before the All-Star break, he flipped the script and shot 53% overall and 42% after the break. As Chris Herrington of the Memphis Flyer notes for this year's Basketball Prospectus, Vasquez became more comfortable with the NBA game through the year.

There's a definite upward trend here, something I wouldn't necessarily describe to be a part of Pondexter's year.

Positionally, the deal makes a lot of sense of course. The Hornets are currently starting a fringe starter/backup at the point, and backing him up with a third or fourth string option from the DLeague. Vasquez will at least be able to run the offense adequately off the bench.

Basically, Dell Demps moved a longshot prospect for another longshot prospect that's arguably the better player and definitely the better fit.

Welcome to New Orleans, Greivis, and best of luck in Memphis, Quincy. We'll still be rooting for you.

Opinion on Dell Demps as Hornets' GM, almost out of necessity, has no middle ground.

On the one hand, it's easy to point in hindsight to a number of his moves with a disapproving shake of the head. The Thornton trade. The Collison deal. Even the move for Jarrett Jack. The failed Lakers deal. Each compromised the future of the franchise to varying degrees, and each transaction has been attacked many times in both national and local media. Demps' detractors? They all have a point. In an alternative timeline, the Hornets have quite a few more intriguing pieces right now for their current rebuilding project.

On the other hand, the logic behind each move was definitely apparent when the deals went through. This isn't Otis Smith trading Brandon Bass for Glen Davis territory in the slightest. Monty Williams should take on a lot of the blame for the Marcus Thornton Affair, and Carl Landry was always going to help the 2011 Hornets more than Marcus Thornton. Similarly, the old Trevor Ariza was always going to be more impactful on a Chris Paul-led Hornets side than Darren Collison coming off the bench. Luis Scola, Lamar Odom, and Kevin Martin would have made for a competitive, exciting team in the short term, something that had to have been on Demps' mind given the state of basketball in New Orleans. Dell Demps supporters? They all have a point too - the specter of Chris Paul's departure loomed menacingly over Demps, impacting each of his decisions, and Demps made logical, informed, and highly defensible moves in spite of it.

My aim isn't to settle this debate here, nor do I think there's a meaningful resolution to this at all. Instead, I call attention to the dichotomy of opinion on Demps to point out one thing we should all agree on - Dell Demps' most promising trait is his relentless, unceasing activity in the front office. He's on top of every unheralded unsigned player, he's exploring trade possibilities with every member of his roster, and he isn't afraid in the slightest to move immediately when he thinks he has a move. For a front office that has routinely been lampooned by A. Wojnarowski and Co. for its lack of employees, cubicles, staplers, or whatever else "normal" front offices are equipped with, it comes as a welcome step forward.

The signing of Gustavo Ayon is the latest example of this.

Ayon's a 26 year old power forward/center, hailing from Tepic, Mexico. He signed on with Division 1 San Jose State in 2006, but instead opted to play professionally in his native Mexico. After developing as a player and winning multiple league titles from 2006-2009, Ayon opted to head to Europe the next year, joining Spanish side Baloncesto Fuenlabrada. The Spanish ACB is the best professional league in Europe, edging out Italy and Greece for top honors.

Ayon played a full season of Spanish basketball in 2010-2011, and had played 10 games in the 2011-2012 season before signing with New ORleans. You can see his full stat-line here. Obviously, I haven't seen him play, but his line this year was about 16 points and 8 rebounds (over 3 offensive) on 66% from the floor and over 80% from the foul line. Those numbers came in under 29 minutes a game. It's clear, just from a statistical perspective, that this is a player that can play basketball. And those that have followed his game extensively? They're even more effusive in their praise.

Here are some tweets from Draft Express - perhaps the most respected international scouting service in professional basketball right now - last week:

@DraftExpress: In Spain. Arguably most productive player in league. RT @BKoremenos: Where did Gustavo Ayon play before NO nabbed him?

@DraftExpress: 6-10. Plays his ass off. Smart. Rebounds. Tough. Finds ways to score. Teammate. Perfect rotation big.

@DraftExpress: Most of the NBA was quietly tracking Gustavo Ayon. Everyone wanted to keep him a secret, hence the lack of hype/buzz. Clearly a NBA player.

@DraftExpress: Now its official I can finally say: Gustavo Ayon is a STEAL. Smart, tough, active, athletic 4/5. A young Jeff Foster. Well done New Orleans.

That's... a lot of praise. From the description, is there any question at all that this is the quintessential Monty Williams player?

Dig around a bit more, and you'll find that the Spurs, Lakers, Nuggets, Pacers, and Suns all made overtures for his services. This, according to many analysts, is a guy that could help a good team immediately. That a projected lottery team was able to pull this deal off? That tells me a lot.

Whether Ayon will transition smoothly to the NBA remains to be seen, but the fact remains that this is a smart, cheap, resourceful signing regardless of how it all turns out. You play the odds when you construct a team, and acquiring Ayon is a solid move regardless of the outcome. The Hornets have reportedly been all over him throughout the lockout and will pay his Spanish side $0.75M to extract him from his contract there.

Other vitals on Ayon while we're here:

Height: 6'10"
Weight: 250
Nickname: "The Titan"
Highlights from last month when Ayon was Spanish MVP of November:

The Chris Paul section of Demps' tenure finishes to mixed reviews. There was obviously an argument for going all out and trying to keep Chris Paul in New Orleans long term. It didn't happen, and because of it, the alternative - keeping some pieces for the future on the roster - looks attractive in hindsight. Whichever side of the Demps coin you fall on (I've supported every move he's made thus far, aside from Thornton), it's all in the past now.

The future began last week, and Dell Demps is, swift as ever, off to the races.

We'll surely talk a lot more about Chris Kaman's basketball ability in the coming days* and months, in addition to his value as an expiring contract and so forth. His fit in the front court alongside Emeka Okafor, Carl Landry, and Jason Smith will be interesting to watch. But! Today, let us focus on more important things. Let us talk of the time Chris Kaman created his own trucking company, the time Chris Kaman shot a 1988 Ford Taurus with a .50 caliber rifle, and, indeed, the time Chris Kaman set off $10,000 worth of illegal explosives. Yes, let us do that now, via the medium of video. Hello Youtubes!

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