On the NBA schedule, this game simply reads as Hornets @ Pacers, but nearly every Hornet fan will be watching the battle between point guards Darren Collison and Chris Paul. To get some insight as to how DC has faired in his first season in Indiana, along with tidbits on Posey, and other insights on tonight’s opponent, I caught up with Tom Donahue of 8 Points, 9 Seconds.
Hornets 24/7: The Pacers seem thrilled to have nabbed their PG of the future this summer, yet in several games TJ Ford has been on the court in crunch time instead of Darren Collison. What has Jim O’Brian said about that and how do fans feel on the subject?
Tim Donahue: O’Brien has mentioned that Collison is only a second-year player and needs to grow into the position. He is struggling with O’Brien’s offensive system, but the bigger problems have been at the defensive end, where Ford has been clearly superior — if you can believe that.
Many fans are displeased with this development, as they feel it impedes Collison’s development. There has not been a happy history for point guards here under Jim O’Brien, and the fan base is clearly siding with Collison here.
24/7: James Posey was thought of as a throw in or a salary dump, yet he has been a key part of Indiana’s rotation. What are the feelings about Posey in Indiana?
Tim Donahue: The feelings have been mixed. He has earned praise for his defense and veteran play, but most fans view him as taking playing time away from Josh McRoberts and, especially, Tyler Hansbrough. He’s played all but about 15 minutes this at the four position and that feeds into a pre-existing prejudice against “stretch 4’s†that dates back to when Troy Murphy was here.
Overall, he has helped the defense but hurt the offense (aside from a few quarters during which he got hot from behind the arc). He’s been a good presence, but with the 2-6 start to December, he has become a target for criticism – less because of him personally and more because of the history with O’Brien and “power†forwards here in recent years.
24/7: Dahntay Jones was signed to a reasonable contract last year, and he was supposed to be a defensive stopper and key rotation piece, yet he has only gotten 56 minutes of playing time this entire season. What has happened?
Tim Donahue: Well, the defensive stopper thing was oversold – I don’t know any real defensive stopper you can get for less than $3 mil per annum – but mostly the problem is that there are three wings (Danny Granger, Brandon Rush and Mike Dunleavy) who are clearly better than him. Throw in a first-round pick (Paul George) who needs to get at least spot minutes to begin his NBA development, and there just isn’t much time leftover.
Dahntay is an OK defender, but he kills the offense. The shorthand answer around here is that he doesn’t “space the floor,†which means he doesn’t shoot threes. That’s part of it, but the bigger problem is that he’s just an inveterate ball stopper whose only offensive skill is his willingness to attack the paint like a bull in China shop — and get similar results. The Pacers offense is predicated on motion and ball movement, and Dahntay is anathema to both.
24/7: Tyler Hansbrough was a lottery pick by Larry Bird while Josh McRoberts was a 2nd round pick, thought to be a journeyman by most, yet McRoberts is starting at power forward and providing a spark for that team. Is it possible McRoberts, not Hansbrough, is the future at power forward for the Pacers?
Tim Donahue: No. Well, maybe not a definite no, but it’s really, really unlikely that McRoberts is the future at power forward. He is a good athlete and does some things relatively well, but he’s a limited player. And it’s beginning to show more and more. The big area of concern at the moment is rebounding, something he has never been all that great at.
It’s an open question as to where Tyler fits. He does some good things, and I think he’s more likely to be a bigger part of the future than McRoberts. But I’m not sure he’s ever going to be a big-time starter. The future of the power forward position is a great big question mark for the Pacers right now.
24/7: You are the Pacers GM and the Hornets are on the phone. We already made one deal this summer, make me another offer that benefits both teams.
Tim Donahue: We give you Conseco Fieldhouse to play in. We get Chris Paul. We’ll even deliver.
Other News and Notes:
– You realize how unimportant the game of basketball is on days like today, on days when tragedy strikes. Willie Green’s sister and cousin were killed in a car accident after last night’s game, driving home after watching Willie play. Horrible tragedy and I wish Willie all the best. Tragic.
– Can’t really say anything to follow that. Does anybody want to organize some kind of Best Wishes card for Willie? Post a journal on the site and we will all sign the comments section and get it to him- something like that? Or if anybody else has an idea, go for it. It would be a great way to come together as a community for a good guy who is going through hell.
92 responses to “Game On: Hornets @ Pacers”
What about contacting someone at the Hornets and having a table inside the Arena where people can sign a HUGE condolences card for Willie at the game on Wednesday?
We will look into that, and if we hear that they are doing something like that, we will let you all know ASAP. Many Hornets fans are outta state (or country) however, so they can’t sign something like that even if we can get that done. But keep the ideas coming!
Geaux Hornets!!!
[…] is perfect timing considering the trade proposal that 8 Points, 9 Seconds recently proposed to a Hornets 24/7 blogger during a game preview Q&A. 24/7: You are the Pacers GM and the Hornets are on the phone. We already made one deal this […]
Vote your Hornets to be All-Stars!
I’ve been voting CP, West, and Emeka nonstop. Moving forward I’ll write in Willie G. Furthermore, I send my condolences to him and his family. I hope they stay well.
A standing ovation when he enters would be nice.
Wil-lie G! Chant to go along with it?
He won’t see anything we put on the screens, I think.
We don’t want to `remind him’, just support him, right?
He might not play vs the Nets, but he should play for the Hawks if he doesn’t.
Maybe before the game, after the intros but before the tip. We’ll have ample time then. It won’t last that long if we do it a quick sub.
Firstly heartfelt condolences to Willie Green and his family
As for tonight really looking forward to seeing Dc near a hornets jersey again lol always going to have a serious soft spot for the guy, and hope he has a good game, although not to good 😀
Well back to the game, I believe Marcus Thornton will be a huge factor for the Hornets tonight
How horrible is this cst commercial with the mardi gras indians and the terrible jazz musicians with the rhymes i think he ripped off of a 4 year old? i cant take it, i have to mute it every time. it honestly makes me embarrassed to be a hornets fan. Anybody know anyone in the marketing or advertising cuz that shits gotta go
Ok I’ve had enough of Ariza handling the ball and shooting already….
aiight ariza stop shooting and play d.
I think Ariza’s body language after that last missed three says it all, he just doesn’t care.
I think he wanted a foul call…. maybe…
god damnit ariza sucks. poor defense on granger. poor shot selection. poor decision to even shoot the ball.
Please for the love of God trade Ariza and get Wallace. Take all the bad contracts you need to get the deal done. Willie + Ariza for Wallace and use the TPE and Banks to take a bad contract or two.
Half time statline for Ariza:
15 minutes, 1 – 7 FG, 0 – 2 3pt, 4 reb, 2 pts
We should’ve just held on to Collison and waited for a situation like the one Charlotte is having.
really Dell wat r u waitng for? TRADE ARIZA he is useless to us and we need a starting 3guard which he trevor is not
why the hell is west not taking these wide out shots
why does posey still have the gold and blue mouth piece
Posey showing hes ready to come back and stunt. pose 4 life
STOP SHOOTING ARIZA. 1 – 10 tonight.
WHY DOES ARIZA CONTINUE TO SHOOT THE EFFING BALL WITH MARCUS AND MARCO ON THE FLOOR????
Marco 0-4 from the stripe. that’s great.
And another Ariza brick. Thanks Trevor!
did a bunch of people from everyones favorite hornets forums come over tonight? sure are alot of complaints
Ariza is 1/8 FG WTF??? Stop shooting already.
Sorry 1/12. Oh man!!
This guy is giving away the game to the enemy…
I honestly can’t fathom what value Ariza brings being on the floor tonight. He continues to let it fly and drive into trouble both with beyond terrible results. His defense has been nothing special as he seems completely disinterested in preventing Granger from filling it up.
I’d much rather see Pondexter out there right now, at least he’d give some hustle.
can somebody stop DG?
Meks awesome tonight.
PLEASE can u give some of ariza’s minutes to Q-Pon
Pay david whatever he wants, just don’t let him leave.
I really hope we survive the “Ariza nightmare”.
Posey is killing us!!!
of course….
James Posey 4 life.
the better question is who and the fuck is telling ariza to keep shooting
Oh my god F**K James Posey. That bum never did this for us.
yes he did.
for a second i thought monty was having ariza inbound the ball again…if pacers win ariza will be their mvp
DWest is a BEAST.
DEFENSE!!!
i hope they dont give it to posey, hes too clutch.
I speak for everybody when I say f**k this
OFFENSIVE INTERFERENCE YOU MUTHER FU**ERS!!!!!!!!!!
ya i don’t really see how that wasn’t but then again cp3 didn’t even try boxing dunleavy out. way to waste a great clutch performance by dwest
wow we got boned
wow….
GOD DAMNIT
This one is a heartbreaker. “Thank you Trevor Ariza. Well done.” – Pacers
Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s over there high-fiving them post game. Why Monty didn’t shorten the leash on him amazes me, what bit he contributed on the boards was entirely negated by his shot selection and ho-hum defense. Terrible shots are just as bad as turnovers.
can the Hornets win on the road? No. You cannot lose to the Pistons and Pacers back-to-back… how sad
Fu*king refs… Didnt they know that was an offensive interference?
I don’t even know what to say about that, ball still seemed to be on the rim to me.
It was on the rim. I don’t care what anyone says, the Hornets were cheated out of this one. F Stern and his imcompetent ass officials. If that were the Hornets they wouldn’t have given that to them. They would have called ball still on the rim.
Was anyone confident that we were going to get a stop at all in those last 30 seconds?
I wouldn’t be confident even if the Pacers or any other team had the ball with 1 second left and had to go the full length of the floor
No Sh*t. Our defense overall sucks. But we did’nt deserve to lose this game.
yeah.. the Pacers got lucky, Dunleavy is so good, I can’t believe how good he is.
Is it offensive interference? maybe so. But facts are facts the ball did leave the inside part of the cylinder and not one hornet jumped at it. You always have to finish these final plays, ask OKC about their elimination from last years playoffs.
Still idk what to say it’s been a terrible two nights that is for sure.
how the hell does ariza justify taking the second most shots in this game? wow that 7.5% FG is just pathetic they need to leave his ass in indiana and not let him back into the state of louisiana.
also if they’re paying him 6.5 mill they should make him be a ball boy when he’s not playing, carry the teams luggage, clean the practice facilities, be the team mascot, sell peanuts and beer and just anything else besides basketball so that way the hornets at least get something for the 6.5 mill. hell if peja was still around ariza wouldn’t even be fit to carry around a peja head.
idc what Demps has to do Ariza has to go ASAP … he provides this team with nothing he cant shot period! ..has no control when he drives in the lane an plays defense about every fifth game. Theres no reason for your startting 2 to go 1-12 from the field ..WTF
srry this might sound like a dumb ? but im new to this whole commenting thing what does your comment is awaiting moderation mean bc i think i followed all the guidelines of what i can or cant say
You have to have one comment approved before they automatically show up. No issues.
Welcome.
i hate this team. how do you go 0-2 on this EASY stretch of games? screw this team.
Monty is now certified as a ROOKIE COACH. I dont think he’s an X’s and O’s kind of coach. Losing two freakin close games in as many nights is just a coach fault. He needs to re-evaluate his players. Some of them are playing poorly but he keeps playing them. So sad.
Aren’t these the games this team are supposed to win? Low scoring affairs? Especially against teams that we are OBVIOUSLY better than?
This team shows flashes of a brilliance of a solid overall team and then they lose back-to-back games against teams like the Pistons & Pacers…never know what teams gonna show up
amd didnt we have a foul to give
if thats true there will be a dent in my wall tonight:P
Dont shoot the messager but yes we had 1 foul to give
*Speechless*
We should have a spin off of Monday Night Football’s “C’mon Man” for Monty Williams’ coaching right now.
One blunder of a coach.
But the last thing you wanna do is try to foul a guy like Granger who can turn it into a shot and then there is free throws to be had after bailing out a bad situation. I think a foul to give is best used with around four seconds left so there not looking to shoot. Make the last shot harder and less set up.
I might be wrong and if so Monty ain’t a good coach
We had a foul to give. That fact is painful. I’m not sure when the coaches wouldn’t have drilled that in time out: foul before the act of shooting.
ariza 3 of his last 24 in these 2 games. Start q-pon, play marcus and willie more, hell do something but I’m tired of him. He is far worse than in Houston, hell Posey, not even tonight’s Posey, seems more appealing than ariza
“hell Posey, not even tonight’s Posey, seems more appealing than ariza”
Wow. And we all know Posey would NOT be doing what he did tonight if he were still a Hornet. We were all too ready to get rid of his arse. He’d still be doing this….
Just go ahead and scroll to the 1:55 mark.
http://www.nba.com/games/20100303/MEMNOH/gameinfo.html#
Between him and Ariza, right now it seems we’ve gone from the frying pan to the skillet. LOL.
@Queenbee- lmao I may have exaggerated a bittttt much. I forgot about all the terrible Posey plays like that, a season like this will do that to a person. But my point being I would take almost anyone over Ariza right now.
I really hate being a pessimist but all the optimism this team inspired and built up at the beginning of the season has all eroded for me. As of late I’d be hard to put any confidence into saying the Hornets were favorites over any of the teams in the league.
Something needs to jolt this team quick or I fear they’ll be on the wrong side of .500 by the new year.
Face. In. Palm. 2.0
Still scratchin my head. Rest of my day is ruined. Oh well try to move on to the next game. ARRGH!!!
I know the Pacers beat the Lakers a little while ago, but they shouldn’t have won this d*mn game. Not like that. I hope each and everyone of those refs tires blow out in their cars tonight. No injuries, just blow the eff out.
Just “wow” at that game. Cp3 had 4 ast!! and 6turnovers, really? If it wasn’t for Meka, we would had lost badly. I guess it could had been worse, the Pacers made 11 3pters (almost 50%), and we shoot 4 of 15 from 3. Sigh. Next practice, learn to box out or go for a rebound at the end of the game. Geez. Trevor either has a great game, or a horrible (should be kicked out the NBA) game, 1 of 13, give me a break. I guess he did atleast get 9 rebounds….whatever..
I really like Meka but there is instances that you wish you had TC back. Im reminded of that the most when I see Meka go for a two handed dunk and a guard fouls him slightly on the arm and he completely misses it. Then goes to a line to make it one point play where with TC it could have been at least 2 with a alot better chance of a 3 point play.
It happened twice tonight that I thought that and well, that could have been the difference.
Yeah, Chris was not on.
So what were the officials pretending to be reviewing at the end?
my guess is that goal tending and offensive interference cant be reviewed. chances are they were just seeing if he offensively interfered in time to beat the clock which he clearly did
I think you are exactly right on what they were reviewing.
The radio said they thought it had just fallen off the rim when it was hit, but it was close. I didn’t see it.
trade ariza quickly please.
Options:
Gwallce – Ariza & Green / Wallace & Derrick Brown
Rip – Ariza & Green / Rip & Tmac or Summers or Terrico
Iggy – Ariza, Bellinelli & Banks / Iggy (Deadline Deal)
Dorrell Wright – Ariza & Smith / D Wright & B Wright
Dalembert / Thompson – Ariza, Green, Smith / Dalembert or Thompson, D Greene, J Taylor
How big was that seemingly hogwash 24 second violation early on when Marco scored by putting back his own miss off the rim?