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Hornets preview review – looking back at preseason expectations
Before we get completely consumed by the NBA Playoffs, just gonna pause a second to look back at the predictions I made for the Hornets at the beginning of the season.
As you may know, all us bloggers get together at a super-secret virtual location in October and preview the teams we know best. You can read my season preview here, and Ryan's is still alive over at his old blog. A week or so ago, before the regular season ended, I was asked to look back and see just how wrong I was in my predictions. Here goes…
I anticipated great things for the Hornets, on the one condition that they could stay healthy. So far so good, with the starters having missed just a combined 22 games this season, compared to 133 in 2006-07. And hey, look! We're atop the Western Conference, having already surpassed my predicted 48 wins. Can't say I expected the Hornets to be this good this soon, but I'm happy to be proved wrong.
I expected more running and gunning from this team, but New Orleans ranks bottom five in pace this season. I also predicted improved bench play, but the second unit has been pretty inconsistent, especially on offense. As for Chris Paul, I didn't foresee him playing like some kind of demigod and competing for MVP. His first All-Star appearance was predictable, but no way did I think folks would be declaring him the best point guard in the game by season's end.
I had hoped that the Hornets would win the fans back in New Orleans, and after a slow start it seems they've done just that, selling out 11 of their past 16 games at the Arena. It's all come together nicely, and just in time for the Playoffs.
The lesson here is that I'm not entirely good at predicting the future, so don't pay much attention to what I say. Unless of course I'm talking about making sandwiches, because I do excel at that. But then sandwich-making has little to do with predicting the future, so this whole paragraph makes little sense.
Let's move on…
Season previews for every NBA team are listed over at CelticsBlog. You can also read the preview reviews over there, by division…
Playoff talk resumes in the morning.