The Hornets take on Memphis tonight at the FedEx Forum and are likely to be without David West yet again. The good news, however, is that it looks like newly acquired point guard Curtis Jerrells will be in uniform and available. In addition, the bench will be a little shorter as both Mustafa Shakur and Darryl Watkins were released today.
For those of you counting, that leaves 16 guys on the current roster and most believe that the Hornets will keep at least 14 guys (and possibly 15). Guys like Pops, Alexander, Strawberry, and possibly even Mbenga are fighting for those last 2-3 spots, so you would assume they would go all out in this game.
In addition, expect big minutes again for Q-Pon. It is likely that Monty is trying to assess whether Pondexter should start the season off on the 12 man roster, or if he would be better served in the D-League. Tip off is at 7:00 PM CST.
51 responses to “Game On: Hornets @ Grizzlies”
Will this game be televised on League Pass?
We don’t have many player who can play the 3-spot like Q-Pon, do we? I mean, why would the team send him to the D-League? That’s a bad idea imo.
horrible idea if we send him to d league
Ariza, QPon, Peja and (when small) Belinelli.
…. even though i see Peja getting more and more minutes at the 4 as he ages.
I dont see enough depth to send QPon to the D-League unless he is horrible.
JCS- no League Pass, but you can listen on radio. Sorry.
Stone: Most would say Ariza is a far superior player at the 3-spot and like him or not, Peja will get minutes over Q-Pon up until the point he is traded. I really can’t see a situation where Q-Pon would get regular season minutes unless it was in garbage time. If that is the case, is he better served on the bench or getting minutes in the D-League? Both have their pros and cons.
D-league is fine for Quincy. If someone gets hurt and we need him we can just call him up and use him. Until then, he will barely see the floor so this is a good opportunity for him to improve on his game.
What are the rules about sending someone to D-League? Could someone else snag him? How would he count against cap/tax? Can we get him back immediately or is there some lag besides a flight?
Could we send Joe (Gerrity! kidding)? If you see something in Mr. Alexander, but not enough, why not let him get something done.
Or maybe it’s just a way to accelerate Quincy getting minutes? If we did that would we keep Joe and see if we can get him to develop?
42- If a player is in his first or second season, he can be sent to the D-League. No other team can grab him, he is Hornet property and yes his salary counts. Each team can only send 2 players, so Hornets can actually send Jerrells as well if they like.
A player can be called up immediately. He can have a day game in the D League and be called up that night for an NBA game if need be. Joe Alexander would not be eligible per D- League/ NBA rules. One other rule of note: A player can only be sent down to the D League three times over the course of a season- so you cant just keep putting him down, pulling him up, etc.
Thanks. Good info.
I’d rather the dude playing in the D League than riding the pine. If that’s truly what he’ll be doing. It seems likely with how well our 2’s and 4’s are playing (Smith). With Peja seeing more 3 minutes due to the less 4 minutes, that puts the squeeze on Q.
Since no good deed goes unpunished, I will pelt you with more questions: Since his salary counts, does that mean he counts against the 15-person roster? Can he count as an inactive?
At your convenience.
At the end of the year, his entire salary will count towards the lux tax if he is on the roster- even if he spent the whole year in the D-League. As for our new PG, I dont know how his contract is structured, so I couldn’t tell you- but Q-Pon will count no matter what.
Any playtime he gets to improve his skills is worthwhile I think.
So far while there haven’t been earth shattering improvements lets look at this from the half full point of view:
PG: Chris Paul (enough said), potentially 2 viable backups
SG: Marco is like on a different planet compared to our starting 2 guards for the last however many years >>>>>>> Mo Pete/Butler/Brown (lol), Plus we still have Thornton off the bench (when he brings his brain and body in sync again)
SF: Ariza is a defensive stud and brings something we haven’t had and that we have needed for so many years
PF: David West, Smith has shown he is a taller an better version of Songalia and has a lot more scope for development
C: Emeka, Gray/Mbenga
We are in better shape than we have been for years, including our Western Conference Finals year. What is there not to be excited about this year?
There may or may not be a video stream here once the game starts –> http://channelsurfing.net/watch-nba-3.html
Sometimes it’s only an audio stream.
How many other NBA teams don’t televise their preseason games?
I wondered the same thing and looked the other day. It seems to be the norm.
Ok Pops is playing like a man who WANTS a roster spot, not a bad sign, his super active on the boards and steals and scoring with high percentage shots it seems.
I think Pops should get a roster spot.
CP3 is 0-4. Has 6 assists though.
And then he scores. Haha.
Good end to the half for Marcus. 2 free throws, then a steal and a lay up. Good stuff.
Pops and Smith should be the back up PFs, and use them depending on the situation and matchups
The new PG hasn’t been given any burn at this stage, could be because he hasn’t had a chance to learn the offense and practice with the team perhaps.
We may see Jerrells in the 4th.
On the other games being played today, Heat look like Lebron + Bosh + hacks rofl…. it is truly going to be a 3 man team this year for them, the rest of their team are rubbish. Even without Wade they can’t put away the Bobcats… Lebron’s stats look like a Cavs game from last year rofl…
@winze
The Heat have a pretty solid bench.. Chalmers, Haslem, Big Z, Mike Miller, J. Howard, Magloire, House, etc.
Miller, Big Z, Haslem and Chalmers would start for quite a few teams.
Anyone know why Okafor and Peja aren’t playing? I assume it’s for evaluation purposes, but you never know.
Sean Kelly on the radio said the game is early due to it being for kids or something. They said it would re-air later; I assume that means on CST.
It’d be cool to have it on the radio at work.
I can’t figure out if Chris’ scoring issues are because he wants out of New Orleans or because Deron is better and he’s mad because all the teams are starting rumors about Deron leaving Utah instead of him. Oh, wait, that second part isn’t true. I guess he hates New Orleans. Why would he want to be on a team where the bigs are starting to show some life?
I know Belinelli has been having an impressive preseason but if he keeps chucking up 15-20 shots a night that is going to get really old quick. Pops stat-line is bananas right now.
We were warned about this. Monty will settle him down. He may not improve tonight, but he’s worth the trouble.
Gray 2 fouls in 10 seconds sigh….
He lost his backside but not his downside, I guess.
Doing what he does best…
09:05 Mayo Layup Shot: Missed Block: Paul (1 BLK)
ROFL
@420 – I think CP3 is trying to get everyone involved and developed within the offense or CP is purposefully being unselfish so when they lose games he can point the figure and say “Look, I put these guys in the right spot and they just can’t hack it.” I saw Kobe do the same thing in the playoffs versus the Suns pre-Gasol.
Actually I was being sarcastic.
It sounds like you are actually finding negativity.
It seems to me that Chris’ pattern is to get the the team involved early, then slowly increase his shots.
Paul, Belinelli and Ariza shooting like poo.
Is it me or is Ariza quietly doing, well, really bad on offense?
throughout most of the preseason of course
CP isn’t playing with Meks or D-West and that means there wont be much of a pick and role game going on. Straight up that would take away quite a few lay-ups and fouls from CP. Its annoying to see this absolutely poor shooting from deep if the average amount of these shots were falling this game wouldn’t even be close.
Not liking how many shots cookies is shooting but Im not watching the game and Cp might just be finding him on alot of open shots. I wanna see more CP+Buckets.
Doesn’t seem like Marcus has been getting many minutes with CP3. I don’t know what’s up with that.
Our fg% is poo tonight. Especially on 3 point shots. Ugh.
Welcome to the team Pops! Sorry I underestimated you.
Anybody else have a strange feeling a trade is coming in the next week? Between some strange preseason substitutions, the trade with San Antonio for another PG, and just a general gut feeling, my spidey senses are telling me something is about to go down and it just hasn’t happened yet because a 3rd or 4th team is waiting to be found.
Well it seems Monty wants the win Paul and starters are in.
Yeah I’m surprised. I’d have thought he would have sat Paul out again in the 4th. But I guess it’s time for the guys to start getting accustomed to gaining more minutes since the regular season is near. I wish Emeka and West were playing so we could see more of what our starting lineup will really look like.
Monty said he wanted to get the starters more minutes playing together in the pregame interview.
Pops was bangin’ out there. Nice to see.
If we shot averagely from the field, we win this game. And what, is Thornton in the doghouse? He only gets 9 minutes? What’s up with that?
All of those were in the first half to boot.
And why isn’t he getting any PT with CP3 at all? What’s going on with that?
Pops should make the roster right? He’s shown more than Alexander right?
I’d be stunned and disappointed if Pops didn’t especially if Alexander makes it. Pops should be a shoe in after tonight.
I agree. Not saying he’ll give us a double double off the bench every night but it should be hard to deny the guy after tonight.
I think he’s shown more upside, more consistency (but not a good deal more) and plays a position where the Hornets aren’t stacked, at least in terms of guaranteed deals.
If Mr. McNamara is right about a trade, he may make the team if we send more 3’s out than we get, but I don’t see another way.
@michael- good call saying q pon would get big minutes
Was Jerrell at the point for most of our slide in the 4th?
Although I’m not entirley opposed to trying Thornton out in the starting lineup , but remember Thornton played almost all of last year with out CP3 and seemed to score just fine , so I’m not sure theirs a point A to B argument their. I tend to agree with the poster formerly known as 420ft.jesus, Thornton’s had alot of change to deal with in his young career from being a second round reach to almost the face of the team for a little bit , back to a young role guy forced to earn what was already given to him it would take a huge amount of understanding and patients from anyone , and it may not be in his personality. Regardless though what I don’t understand about Thornton’s troubles is that fundamentally what we want from him on the second unit is what we’ve always wanted BUCKETS.
Pops is an energy guy he will and I think he should make the team, I was waiting for something, their had to be a reason raptors fans liked him ( they don’t like anyone ) could be because he’s a tough euro and no ones ever seen one of those before . But I do think that at the end of the day for every 8 pts 9 reb 2 block games their will be 3 or 4 quick fouls short rest for West games . I do like him though.
I saw someone mention moving Aaron Gray …. the Orlando game man just remember the Orlando game , don’t look at his feet just his hands … great hands.
how does everyone see the PF and C being shared by Pops and Smith