In this edition of Hornets Beat we discuss bad teams, Monty Williams, Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, and the Mardi Gras Baby, and are joined by the temporarily gimpy Will Hibert.

Jeff Teague and the Mardi Gras Baby haunt my dreams

1. We’re not great, but we’re not the worst NBA team. Who is?

Will Hibert (At The Hive): It’s a tight race, but I’ll got with the Washington Wizards. They may get a few wins off the firing of Flip Saunders, but that team has a real “inmates running the asylum” thing about them.Very entertaining, and very bad.

James Grayson: The Hornets are definitely not the worst team in the league. I’d have to say that it’s either the Bobcats or my personal favorite the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons have lost a lot of games, but the strange thing is they seem to have some solid players to build around. That’s why it’s strange to see them suck so much.

Mason Ginsberg: The Bobcats. I said the Wizards when asked the same question in my ESPN 5-on-5 debut last week, but since then, Washington has beaten Charlotte not once, but twice, including a 17-point blowout in DC. Hard to argue with such painfully obvious results.

Chris Trew: I believe that if I continue to claim it’s the Tumblewolves then it will eventually be the Tumblewolves. The Tumblewolves.

Joe Gerrity: The Bobcats get a win (if you can call it that) in this category. They are abysmal on both sides of the ball and don’t have a single player with a PER of even 17.

2. What is something new you’ve learned about Monty Williams this year?

Will: He’s going to have guys playing hard. The Hornets have lost a ton of games this year and will lose a ton more, but I haven’t seen any quit in this team thus far. For a team that is consistently out-gunned, they are not losing due to a lack of effort. Half of the battle of an NBA coach is being an effective motivator, and Monty seems to have that part down.

James: How hard he really works. It’s easy to say, “he works hard,” when you have the best point-guard in the league on your roster. Now that he has a team that’s lacking in All-Star talent it’s great to see him still trying to improve himself and the team.

Mason: That he is everything that Byron Scott wasn’t. I’m not trying to say that he’s the best coach in the league by any stretch, but his willingness to play young guys who have earned a chance to show what they can do is refreshing. Of course, one could argue that his hand is relatively forced to do so this season.

Chris: That maybe he’s not the coach of the future. The jury is still out, but there’s already some #FireMonty business starting up on the Twitters. If he plays the young’ins more I think we’ll all feel better about our record.

Joe: He’s not scared to upset veterans. I get the feeling he had his hand in the decision to shelve Kaman, and he’s barely played Landry a few times. The guys don’t seem to have lost respect for him as a result, either.

3. How concerned are you about Gordon’s future with the team after he and the team failed to come to terms on an extension?

Will: Not very worried. Sure, it would have been spectacular had an agreement been reached, but it did not make a lot of sense for either side to rush into a deal. Odds are Gordon will get what he wants this summer and the Hornets will need to match the market value for his services, if they want to retain him.

James: Not worried, just disappointed. It would have been a huge statement for this organization to get him under contract. Gordon was asking for 55 million and the Hornets were only willing to part with 50. He’s restricted so the Hornets will match whatever is thrown his way.

Mason: Not concerned at all. For more on this, check out my answer to the third question in last week’s episode of Dunk That Sh!T (I’m a self-promoting linking machine today, aren’t I?).

Chris: I try my best to not worry about things I can’t control so I’ll say “not very.” I’d rather focus my attentions on the Tumblewolves’ record which I still believe I have an outside chance of controlling. Pleas, nobody tell me otherwise.

Joe: The only thing that concerns me is that in the past year almost everything that has seemed predictable has wound up being anything but.

4. What will Chris Kaman miss the most about New Orleans?

Will: The outdoors stuff or the food, I’d assume. He did have very little time to enjoy himself here, which is a shame, because I can think of very few NBA players who would enjoy it more.

James: Playing with Legos on Bourbon Street while hunting deer.

Mason: To keep with my linking theme – shooting things out behind the Alario Center on the Westbank, apparently.

Chris: Some combination of hunting furry things and the sound of furry things every time he scores.

Joe: From what I can tell, he’s going to miss feeling like he can call his NBA city his home. He was a Clipper for a long time and when he became a Hornet he really tried to make this where he lived. He bought king cake, tried to hunt, and ate the local cuisine. Now he’ll be heading to his third team in less than three months, and making a true home in any NBA city may seem a bit more far-fetched than it did a year ago. Big men who get injured a fair amount tend to head all over the place late in their careers.

5. That Mardi Gras Baby _______.

Mardi Gras Baby

Will: needs to figure out how to not take such a wide turn in the race.

James: will not get into any day-care center I know of.

Mason: would give the NBA’s version of Big Baby a run for his money in a game of 1-on-1.

Chris: is my son.

Joe: haunts my dreams.

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