New Orleans Hornets 2011-12 Power Rankings, V.11

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Published: March 25, 2012

After a bad loss to Golden State, the Hornets bounced back with a big win over the Clippers before falling to San Antonio on Saturday night.

Despite his ill-advised foul, Jason Smith played a very impressive couple of games this week.

Only 3 games this week (all at home) in which the Hornets went 1-2, but they got the one that everybody in this city certainly wanted when they beat Chris Paul and the Clippers on Thursday night. Take a look and see how those games affected the power rankings this week.

1. Jarrett Jack, PG: 41 GP, 34.4 MPG, 15.6 PPG, 46.0 FG%, 6.2 APG, 3.9 RPG, 17.9 PER

His first career triple-double on Wednesday, a win against Chris Paul on Thursday, and his second highest single-game point total of the season on Saturday. In those three games, he shot 55% and averaged over 20 points, over 8 assists, and 7 rebounds. Yep, I’d say Jack had a pretty solid week.

2. Gustavo Ayon, C: 40 GP, 21.2 MPG, 6.5 PPG, 55.6 FG%, 4.8 RPG, 17.1 PER

Overall, Gustavo had a pretty mediocre week. He started off with a decent showing against Golden State, followed it up with a pretty ineffective night against the Clippers, and then played pretty well against the Spurs despite a 4-12 shooting line. Due to Kaman sitting out the final game, Ayon started at center and logged a season-high 39 minutes, grabbing 13 rebounds and dishing out 5 assists as well. He always seems to know what to do with the ball and has great passing ability for a big man, but his ceiling will likely always be limited due to a lack of athleticism.

3. Emeka Okafor, C: 27 GP, 28.9 MPG, 9.9 PPG, 53.7 FG%, 7.9 RPG, 1.0 BPG, 15.6 PER

Another week of DNPs for Okafor finally starts to move him down the rankings.

4. Trevor Ariza, SF: 37 GP, 33.9 MPG, 11.2 PPG, 41.4 FG%, 5.6 RPG, 3.5 APG, 14.6 PER

Quiet week for Trevor, playing sparingly after injuring his ankle during the game against the Clippers and then sitting out on Saturday night to rest it. The injury doesn’t seem too serious, but at this point, the team has no reason to rush him back.

5. Chris Kaman, C: 39 GP, 29.3 MPG, 13.3 PPG, 43.5 FG%, 8.1 RPG, 1.4 BPG, 15.0 PER

Despite recording 11 turnovers, Kaman played very well in his 2 games this week before missing Saturday night’s game with an illness. He made over half of his shots, averaged 9.5 rebounds, and most importantly, stepped up on both sides of the ball in the Hornets’ win over his former team, the Clippers. He constantly made Blake Griffin work for his shots, who was unable to get into any sort of offensive rhythm as a result.

6. Greivis Vasquez, PG: 48 GP. 23.6 MPG, 8.1 PPG, 42.3 FG%, 4.9 APG, 14.6 PER

Pretty quiet week for Greivis, taking a back seat to Jack’s stellar play all week long. Vasquez has made me question his decision-making ability a little more on offense recently with some ill-advised passes, but he’s still in just his second NBA season and should improve in that area with time. At 6’6″, it sure would be nice to see him get a few more rebounds as well; his rebound rate is lower than every Hornets player besides Belinelli.

7. Carl Landry, PF: 25 GP, 24.1 MPG, 11.6 PPG, 47.3 FG%, 4.4 RPG, 16.1 PER

Landry finally made his return to action on Saturday night against the Spurs, contributing a strong 15 points on just 8 shots, but also turned the ball over 5 times, indicating that he may be a bit rusty after the long layoff.

8: Jason Smith, PF: 24 GP, 22 MPG, 8.7 PPG, 48.0 FG%, 4.2 RPG, 1.0 BPG, 14.1 PER

Jason had an incredibly impressive two-game stretch this week before getting suspended for his check on Blake Griffin in the 4th quarter on Thursday night. In those two, he totaled 29 points on 22 shots to go along with 15 rebounds in 54 total minutes. His flagrant II on Griffin was nasty and the resulting suspension was well-deserved, but his play easily trumps one poor decision this week.

9: Marco Belinelli, SG: 48 GP, 30.3 MPG, 11.4 PPG, 41.5 FG%, 36.0 3P%, 2.7 RPG, 11.0 PER

Another standard week for Marco; underwhelming in every possible stat category. Not much more to add.

10. Lance Thomas, PF: 26 GP, 13.2 MPG, 4.3 PPG, 48.8 FG%, 2.9 RPG, 12.1 PER

Thomas again did a good job of taking care of the ball, working hard for rebounds, and attempting smart shots. It’s hard to argue with anything that he has done in his limited minutes.

11. Xavier Henry, SG: 28 GP, 15.2 MPG, 5.3 PPG, 39.7 FG%, 2.0 RPG, 10.4 PER

Xavier played one poor game, one average game, and one good game this week. He was pretty ineffective vs. San Antonio, provided some scoring (though somewhat inefficiently) against Golden State, and put up 12 points on just 4 shots against Los Angeles. Games like his effort against the Clippers are what make me so excited about what I believe that Henry is capable of; if he can get to the line with that sort of regularity, he’ll be a successful player in this league.

12. Al-Farouq Aminu, SF: 48 GP, 19.2 MPG, 5.0 PPG, 38.6 FG%, 4.2 RPG, 9.6 PER

Not a bad week for Aminu; he kept his offensive blunders to a minimum, and gave solid contributions on defense and on the glass. He achieved a career high 4 blocks against Golden State (all coming in the first half), but also committed 4 turnovers. At this point in the season, the Hornets are best served by continuing to give him minutes and hoping he starts to figure things out.

Incomplete: Eric Gordon, SG; Chris Johnson, C

Player Power Rankings is a weekly piece that you can find every Sunday only on Hornets247.com. For past rankings, click here.

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  1. Pingback: Hornets Head Into Clippers Rematch, Final Four Comes to New Orleans, and Other Monday Stories | Daily Internet News

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