HoopsAvenue » hornets

Southwest Division Team Previews

HoopsAvenue — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:42:24 +0000

Last week, we gave you team previews for the Atlantic Division. This week, we have the Southwest Division team previews. The Southwest Division is clearly the best division in basketball this season so it should be really interesting to see what is in these previews. The previews are written by a bunch of great NBA bloggers from around the web most of who are local to the team they cover so you can get a lot of insights from them! HoopsAvenue will be chiming in later this month with a Washington Wizards preview so stay tuned.

Dallas Mavericks

Jake Kerr: Mavs Moneyball

Houston Rockets

grungedave and UofTOrange: The Dream Shake

Memphis Grizzlies

Joshua Coleman: 3 Shades of Blue

New Orleans Hornets

Rohan: At the Hive

ticktock6 & mW: Hornets Hype

Ryan Schwan & Ron Hitley: Hornets247.com

San Antonio Spurs

Graydon Gordian: 48 Minutes of Hell

Also see links to all the previews at CelticsBlog.com

Wild Wild West

HoopsAvenue — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 01:40:42 +0000

You may have seen the poll that we’ve been running lately asking who will win the Western Conference. Well, the results are in and they are a bit surprising. The Lakers managed to take home 44% of the vote, followed by the Rockets at 18%, Other at 15%, the Hornets and Spurs at 11%. I presume Other refers to teams like the Jazz, Mavs, Suns, and, of course, homers. Now, it’s not surprising that the Lakers win this poll given they are the defending Western Conference champions, but it is surprising by how much they won. They got more than twice as many votes as the 2nd-place Rockets. So, are they that good with Bynum or are the fans just a bit overly optimistic? Here’s how I rank the top four teams in the West:

1. Lakers – I do give the nod to L.A., but just barely. With a healthy Bynum and the duo of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, there’s no reason for the Lakers to not be competing for the trophy again this season. It won’t be so easy, though, because even though the Lakers should be better, their competition will also be better, and that brings us to #2.

2. Hornets – The Hornets got better this summer by bringing in James Posey from the world champion Celtics. Posey gives New Orleans that defensive stopper they’ll need to get far in the post-season. Chris Paul is still going to give other teams fits and now that the Hornets have some playoff experience, they’ve got a good shot to survive the West.

3. Rockets – The Rockets enter the season with a great upside, but also a great downside after their acquisition of Ron Artest. Artest, a gritty defender and third scorer, looks to be exactly what Houston needs, but he could bring chemistry problems as well. Not to mention, T-Mac and Yao will need to be healthy come playoff time.

4. Spurs – The Spurs are aging and, like the Rockets, they have some questions of their own. They’ll need Manu Ginobili to recover from his ankle injury and come back at full strength. The regular season is not San Antonio’s forte, but they do know how to win in May and June so don’t count them out.

Who do you think will win the West?

Also, check out the new poll which asks who will win the East!

Clippers Desperate? Hornets Destined?

HoopsAvenue — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:00:00 +0000

After losing out on Elton Brand last week, the Clippers finally landed somebody this week picking up Marcus Camby for virtually nothing. It’s usually a good thing to pick up a solid player for virtually nothing, but in the Clippers’ case, they are more or less waving the white flag in the free agency market this summer. Josh Smith is still out there. Emeka Okafor and Andre Iguodala are too. They are all young and will star for your franchise for years to come, but the Clippers instead decided it wasn’t worth the risk of going after a restricted free agent. But, why Camby? What does he add to the Clippers at 35 years old? Don’t get me wrong, Camby is a great rebounder and shot-blocker, but he’s not going to get them to the playoffs.

So, the Clippers, in their ongoing misery, manage to add Baron Davis and get the fanbase excited and then proceed to lose Corey Maggette and Elton Brand. And, now they tie their money up with an aging player? The sad thing is this is par for the course for the Clippers.

On the other side of the spectrum, the New Orleans Hornets are having a great free agency. They signed Chris Paul to an extension which basically guarantees the playoffs for the foreseeable future and they just picked up James Posey who was so important to the Celtics title run. So, the team that was 2nd in the West, just behind the Lakers with youth on their side, now picks up a championship level defender. The Lakers will have Andrew Bynum back next season, but it will be hard not to pick the Hornets to come out of the West. The Hornets definitely will be in the discussion when you talk about Western Conference contenders.