Now, im going to start this with a bit of background just to give you, the discerning readers, an easy way to obliterate anything i write.

So. Here it is: I live in London, England – another foreign basketball fan like one of the esteemed writers of this site, though im not quite dedicated enough to move to New Orleans due to the fact im horrendously in debt and at university (another reason to hate me, is im probably drunk right now with the 18 drinking age, cheap good beer and all…). I try to watch as many NO games as possible though due to being a student (yet another perfect time for this excuse) i cant afford League Pass. So i probably watch about 20 – 30 games a year and so I might have been lucky and seen all of Poseys good games. I didnt, but i might have. My opinion therefore is formed on those games and the write ups on this site and NBA.com.

Finally, i hear you say, here is my uninformed and ill educated view of the hornets and what we should do this offseason. I am going to go about it position by position. Then address trades and the draft briefly at the end and FA not so briefly.

So at PG i believe, as do 99.9% of hornets fans that we are set. Possibly a third string on vets minimum, a la Kevin Ollie with the Thunder style.

At SG i love lil’ buckets, to steal a great name, as the starter. And with the two awesome PGs in the 3 guard rotation a backup would be nice, especially a shooter on vet min, mo Pete will do until then….

Now SF is where we have the most players of any position, it doesnt help that this is also where we need the most help. Peja is a great player to have – on the bench to exploit matchups, Posey is okay occasionally and Juju is unfortunately useless (i had high hopes for last season only to see them crushed by his ineptitude to play team D). So, here is where i think we may spend the MLE on a starter or hopefully trade for, and i will address that later. We are fine on backups and in a stretch starters.

Ill say this first of all. I love D West. I love the fact hes like sheed – DONT GET HIM ANGRY! hell drop 45 on you… and his jumper is pretty. Hes a nice complementary piece to CP3. Songaila is a good backup to have and expiring so no biggie there, and i think Ike will contribute next year, his Per min stats are extraordinary though he is coming off of microfracture. No reinforcements needed here.

I like Emeka but hes no star, i though his ppg would increase to 16ppg or so this year to go with 11 rpg, unfortunately i was wrong though i do believe he will improve next year with a ‘real’ coach, either of the candidates will do (no disrespect to Bower, a v. good gm but only passable as a coach) I like Gray as a situational backup on the min which i think he will get, then a good backup with the MLE or bi annual.

So, heres the brief bit on the draft, I HAVENT A CLUE (though i will inevitably guess later). I have no idea which position Bower will go for at 11 though i have confidence they will do the job well. And in relation to trades, I HAVENT A CLUE. Having no contact with GMs or their staff i have no idea who is avaliable and who isnt, and i dont believe the majority of the media reporte either. No matter how much i want to see  Bosh in NO, it wont happen, and i dont think we will enact in any major changes this offseason, that will come next year if at all. All our trade pieces become useful near the deadline when the majority of salary will have been paid then we have (off the top of my head) about 28 mil in expirings, 16 peja, 4 songaila, 6 Mo Pete, 2 Juju, plus whatever min deals are on the roster. In relation to deadline deals, that again depends on the GMS which i have no idea about, I just hypothesise that if a trade happens it will be to a team not doing well deciding to blow it up so get rid of a good player with a mediocre to bad contract or get rid of after getting someone in that position in the offseason (deng, iguodala maybe just guesses and probably wholly inaccurate)

So onto my hopes for FA….

What i would love to happen this offseason is this –

get the best player avaliable in the draft whatever position (PF, C or SF would be nice though), then, depending on the draft, tackle FA: if C in draft get C on bi annual (sensible help) and sign SF with MLE. if PF (Patterson? he participated in drills….) get a C with MLE and trade for SF and if SF get sf on bi annual and C on MLE.

Sooooooooo, FA targets – heres a list of people avaliable and could help in some way (even if it aint what we need) at C or SF, ill add opinions if i deem them necessary:

SF:

• Matt Barnes (30… bit old?), portion of MLE
• Travis Outlaw, MLE candidate i think.
• Josh Childress, we would be lucky but he would be a big help, MLE
• Linas Kleiza, portion of MLE though i reckon he stays in Greece
• Ronnie Brewer, I LIKE, good D we need that, portion of MLE and hes YOUNG!!!
• Josh Howard, old i know, injured i know, but SO talented, i would say yes to a portion of the MLE or however unlikely the bi annual.
• Mike Miller – Peja lite…. not on a big contract anymore, bi annual? Yes, MLE? NO
• Al harrington – pure scoring no D, not helpful really though i like him
• Q Richardson – not really helpful

Im not going to lie – for Cs it is thin:

• Brendan Haywood maybe? – probably signs somewhere for more than the MLE
• Joe Smith – bi annual, not  a great player, good character guy though
• Shelden Williams…. im running thin i know
• Brad Miller, old but may help….. not really the type of C we need though in fact the polar opposite – we want good D and rebounding….
• Ilgauskas – bet hes a Cav and same as above
• Kwame Brown – big body…… im sorry for even mentioning him.
• Joel Anthony, bi annual?
• O Neal, either of them for part of MLE, possible, however unlikely they would help though
• Milicic? skilled but weak ( i said every option, not just the palatable ones..)
• Mahinmi – ready for bigger role? might get it here and hes athletic – i like him a lot
• Fesenko – purely hypothetical i hope.

I like some more than others but those are just the possibilities i saw and my views on the team as a whole.

So, my article done, I hope you enjoyed the read and any feedback would be greatly appreciated!