The New Orleans Hornets announced today that they have released guard Jannero Pargo, leaving the training camp roster at 16 players.
“We want to thank Jannero for his effort and time here in New Orleans during camp,” General Manager Dell Demps said. “Unfortunately, he is not operating at full speed due to a pre-existing injury. To his credit, Jannero tried to come back ahead of schedule, but after talking with him and our medical staff, we feel that it is in Jannero’s best interest that he completes his rehab.”
Apparently his wasn’t guaranteed. It never made a whole lot of sense signing Pargo, anyway, considering that the team has so many other options at back up point guard. Oh, and he’s remarkably inefficient. In the end the whole situation probably wouldn’t have happened if not for Pargo’s friendship with Chris Paul.
What this means is that either Tupac Mustafa Shakur or D.J. Strawberry is going to get a roster spot. The battle continues tomorrow.
8 responses to “Hornets Release Jannero Pargo”
This is not at all surprising to me, given the way he looked at the open practice. It was clear from the beginning, in the dynamic warmups, that he was not physically up to par.
¡Ay, caramba Joe Gerrity! How could this be? Is Demps thinking he could move more jerseys with buzz names like Shakur and Strawberry?
I’m going to find myself a Shakur jersey if he makes the team.
So does this mean you’ll start ending your blog entries with “Can I liiivvvee” and “It’s just me against the world baby…”
The door was left open for him to return post-rehab. We’ll see, I suppose, but I’m not holding my breath. That’s not saying I want him here, I’m just saying the door is open. It sounds to me like they are letting him down easy and with leaving him some dignity saying it’s the injury and not his potential, probably both publicly and in conversations with him, which is nice.
Of note is we’ve brought in and let go a couple of folks who were later let go due to medical concerns. The theory was floated before that the it was a tactic to back out of a contract in the Head case. Does anyone think that to be the case here? If so, do you think we’ve gone to the well too often?
The toe issue was used to rescind the Tyson-OKC deal (on their end), but I’m wondering if our medical folks are poor evaluators. Regardless, have these guys been turned over during the regime change?
My personal thoughts after following Head, and seeing Pargo not do much in the practice Saturday is that both evaluations are correct and it’s a matter of living with someone rehabbing or not. The Hornets said no in both cases.
It seems Head got a contract in Sacramento, but one that is not guaranteed, at least that’s what I gather from here:
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/10/kings-cut-training-campers-donald-sloan-and-jr-giddens.php
These guy seem to think Head is at least 50-50 to make the team, so he shouldn’t have a guaranteed deal, right? And maybe his performance is suffering as well. Also, I haven’t heard anything about papers filed in court by Head about the Hornets on any grounds, which was a hinted reaction due to the allegedly baseless statements justifying pulling the contract that was offered.
42(0)- You’re right about the physicals. The teams always weigh the risk of signing a player. Even if a player “passes” a physical the team still has the right not to take on what could be an injury risk (Chandler’s toe in 08). What the Hornets did to Head was not wrong or illegal. Like you said, if the reaction was anything more than grandstanding by Bartelstein, the Hornets would have had a lawsuit on their hands.
In a fantasy, if the Hornets could have 20 guys on the team, Pargo would be a good energy guy. But in reality this is one move I’ve been waiting for. I’m more intersted in the potential of a hungry Tupac, and I’m actually happy to see Green on board as a proven vet. Pargo just isn’t that good. You have to find a balance between competition for minutes and players knowing their roll, and eventually set rotations. Green backs up Paul. Belli backs up Thornton. Tupac is insurance/hungry practice player/garbage time all-star.
[…] Weaknesses:…is unfortunately in Utah, where Jazz fits right in with the conservative culture of Salt Lake City. Keeping point guards. […]