In this episode Michael and I welcome Roger Mason to the team, talk about what we expect from him, and how worried we are about the Hornets wing players. Oh, and then we talk Dell Demps and Monty Williams. Should the Hornets extend them, and at what price?
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24 responses to “In the NO Podcast Episode 81: Do you trust in Demps?”
Hello. Has this podcast works? Cause I cannot hear what Michael and Ryan prepeared for us…
It’s really hard to judge Monty/Dell, like you guys said. I don’t know if Monty will ever be the tactician that Pop is, but I will say this.. I think we are building a unique product. During Ryan Anderson’s official interview, he said the final stamp on New Orleans was his talk w/ Monty about faith, and said how refreshing and unexpected it was to have that kind of talk with a head coach. Faith will likely have little to do with NBA players’ team preferences, but it points to the fact that Monty is differentiating himself from the majority of NBA coaches, and I think that’s what we need: a culture that is just a little different from the rest. Miami, Los Angeles, and New York will always be hot spots for marquee free agents. But for the players living in smaller laps of luxury, any tiebreaker we have becomes important; I think it helps even more that we lucked into what we think will be a unique superstar (Davis) that looks to fit the mold of Monty’s ideal player.
Would Phil Jackson have won a single title if he hadn’t gotten MJ, Pippen, Kobe, or Shaq? I don’t know, just like I don’t know how many those guys could’ve won without Phil Jackson. The players and Phil just produced. I’m crossing my fingers that Monty fits like that, because there are only a handful of superstars like Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, and hopefully, Anthony Davis. No-nonsense, humble superstars. You guys said it before: Monty/Dell aren’t the kind of people to coddle someone (like Gordon wanted), and I hope they can find the players that like that style and have the ability to bring back some championships.
I don’t know if they could’ve [won that many championships] without Phil Jackson*****
Whether or not extend these contracts shouldn’t even be up for discussion.. A more important question is how much… The real question is finding out whether Monty Williams is as good a coach as everyone thnks…
Last season there was a serious effort to coach up a bunch of young players… but he did a great job if you saw the games… The record was unimportant considering the lack of scoring from our supposed scores i.e. Ariza and Belinelli.. just wasn’t there consistent enough to win games…
Plus Mr. Okafor seems to be developing a midrange shot before injury… but just dropping last year’s starter’s contracts was a breath of fresh air… If we can keep the energy coming off the bench and the teamwork… We will be fine…
We can begin where we left off with Vasquez and EG in the backcourt.. Lopez, Smith, Anderson, and Anthony Davis make us pretty long… it will be intresting to watch what Williams does with this group….
Hmmm that was pretty unexpected but those points are all fair. I think it’s obvious that Dell has rushed some decisions, they werent bad but hindsight shows that he could’ve waited for better deals. I think thats excusable when you consider that Dell has not had much job security yet and has just tried to make his team as competitive as possible. I’d say his done great for his first 2 years ever running the full time GM spot for a NBA team.
The same can be said for Monty he does have some fair excuses but I guess you guys weren’t denying that, you were just simply saying he has not shown anything that’s concrete about proving his an elite coach. Monty’s lack of experience, talent levels, shortened season (in which he said he did more teaching then coaching) are all excuses people will quickly bring up in defense of Monty.
But I would say his biggest proven credential to date would be his defensive success. I remember a past article on this site which showed according to defensive statistics that Monty improvement of this teams defense from 2009-10 to 2010-11 was historically the best improvement over the course of just one year. He actually got Mek and D.West to function adequately on the defensive end when many people including the writers here thought that was impossible. I don’t think he has ever underachieved and I sure as heck believe you can have alot worser coaches. Lets see what he can do with his most dynamic team his had to date.
UP the Hornets!!!
Just one question about grading the big CP3 Trade – How much does getting Anthony Davis count for the Eric Gordon trade being such a good trade? Because the way I see it, directly after that trade, the Hornets have maybe a 10% chance of getting the top pick, since if Gordon is healthy (or plays like 40-50 games), I see their record being much better, and maybe being like 11th or so in the West, and looking at closer to a No. 11 pick or something.
In that case, does this trade – getting Gordon (now with a potentially overpaid contract) 10th pick (the Minnesota pick being into nearly as valuable as thought) and Aminu and ending up with a late lottery player like Leonard/Lamb, really come that far ahead of the Lakers/Rockets trade which, while not building towards a contender, would still be able to push for the playoffs?
Just wondering what you guys think, because I can’t really see the Gordon trade as particularly good, definitely not a home-run type move.
An expiring Gordon contract, ripe to be overpaid in his next contract, Aminu, and a 10th pick. Not all too exciting to be honest, except for the fact that Gordon’s injury let us tank our way into the monobrow sweepstakes
I agree with most of the podcast.
I have a problem with counting the proposed (but never happened) CP3 trade against Dell because, if he had an owner, he might have had the trade vetoed internally and so much less publically. And I believe it would have been another rumor that we dismissed.
If you look at Dell’s actual trades the only questionable one is the sequence 1st Rounder for Bayless and Bayless for Jack. The reason being we dumped Jack for nothing. The only way the Jack dump is good is if you say we did it to get the cap space to get Miller to get Lopez, which may be true. (But that 1st rounder could have been Denver’s Faried.)
The only other potential problem for Dell is resigning often injured Eric Gordon (and possibly drafting Rivers).
Where can we find YOUR minutes that you expected?
Great podcast as usual but I had hoped that you guys would’ve touched in the wwl situation a little. A lot of us would love to know the status of Gerry V since John Deshaziar took his job.
For once the Hornets are on solid footing. We’ve actually given ourselves the ability to improve. None of this would have happened without Demps. We were heavy laden with declining players, bad contracts and constant benchmarks to meet. Let’s also remember that the Hornets league-wide reputation is not stellar so he is changing a culture to attract upper tier players as well. It’s easy to say that we could have gotten better contracts but we don’t know that for sure because of all the behind-the-scenes things that happen. Monty took players with a lot to prove and made them play as a unit. But in spite of that, I feel that he is a good coach that will only get better. Ten thousand season ticket holders will demand a quality product but managing expectations is warranted. I cannot see a valid reason for not extending the contracts of Demps and Williams. If we do not, I see that as a setback to this club for the next three to four years. I am nervous about the Rivers Project but I have confidence that neither Monty or Demps will allow it to derail the team. I’m excited for the season to begin but I’m keeping my emotions middle the track because I realize that it could go either way.
We already have an enforcer on the team…
SMITH!!! Take that, Blake!
I can see what they were talking about with Ivan though. Gotta love those players in the “Old Celtics” mold, always sticking up for the team.
my starters….
c-Lopez
pf-Davis
sf-Anderson
sg-Gordon
pg-Vasquez
Backups
C- Smith
PF- Thomas/Warrick
SF- Aminu/Miller/Henry
SG- Mason
PG- Rivers
I say if Aminu/Henry doesn’t improve we package them in a deal for a DECENT SF. I can understand waiting a bit for Miller, being a rookie.
Still nervous about the PG “experiment”. Wonder how long Monty gives it before throwing Austin in at SG.
OUR starters.
Didn’t you hear any of the previous podcast? Anderson, though being a capable outside scorer, cannot play the 3. Most of the SF in the league would blow right past him. I agree with the rest of your lineup, but I would actually have Anderson at the 5 and start Aminu. We would have to double the more dominant post scorers and Anderson would be a match up nightmare on offense.
*was replying to jay breez’s post not nate
I can see Anderson(3)/Davis(4) on offense, then Anderson(4)/Davis(3) on defense.
Flippity-Floppity-Floo!
This Year can be be our year to make some noise as long as we stay headland hungry for more wins. I see us the most at 4th seed the worst 11th in the western conference. If we blow this it won’t be a Big deal b/c ppl expect us not to make the playoffs this year and all I want is for the HORNETS to prove ppl wrong. As. Long as we focus on balance instead of defense all the team I’ll like Monty no matter what?
JONNY FLYNN! LETS GET HIM!
I like both Demps and Williams, but am NOT in favor of offering extensions to either just yet.
* Monty Williams
I know Eric Gordon was out for almost the entire season and we no longer had CP3, but we were the third worst team in the NBA last season. You don’t reward a coach for having one of the worst records in the league whether he has excuses for the record or not. I think the players love Monty and he’s going to be one of the NBA’s great coaches before it is all said and done. I also hope we extend Monty after this season, but why extend him when he hasn’t earned it yet?? You can talk about player development all you want and I will agree, but show me the wins and I will show you the money.
*Dell Demps
Before we praise every move he’s made in the offseason, lets see how some of them pan out before we give him more money and more years.
Before I get slammed, these are purely hypothetical:
1.) What if the Austin Rivers at PG experiment fails?
2.) What if Robin Lopez is a complete bust and just wastes away on our bench the next 3 years?
3.) What if Gordon is goes out for the season early again and he becomes such a liability to the team that he can’t move him?
4.) What if Ryan Anderson can’t guard anyone and his PER drops significantly this year?
Purely hypothetical, but if 2-3 of the 4 above end up happening do you still think Demps is worth the extension? I ask because while you might think these moves look great on paper, we haven’t seen this team in action and there are a lot of questions still. Also, what if we are still one of the worst 5 teams in the league? I know we are young, but extensions should be given for results.
I LIKE BOTH Demps and Williams A LOT and I am in favor of extending them……when the time is right. We aren’t in jeopardy of losing either one of them right now. We have nothing to lose by waiting to see how the season goes. Some will say that this isn’t a one year experiment. I agree. I’m not saying this year decides everything, but it will provide us with more information on the offseason moves we are all happy about.
Thanks for the podcast.
Monty and Dell are great. Dell always wins the trades he makes. Monty is a great teacher that gets the most from his players.
Monty is undoubtedly one of the best coaches for developing young players. Every time we get someone, he seems maximize their talents. Marco Belinelli, Greivis Vasquez, Jason Smith, have greatly improved.
I can’t judge Dell on the nixed trade because we will never know if he would have flipped those pieces. He would have traded Lamar Odom to New Jersey at the deadline (I know they’re Brooklyn now). We would have received 2-3 first-round picks from that trade (after the Odom trade).
I think that Dell tried his best to get Gordon and Minnesota’s first-rounder, but the Clippers said that they would never do that (remember how Gordon was shocked when traded). I think that Stern really wanted those two pieces and knew he could find a way to get them. So, I believe that Stern told the Clippers something like this:”Hey, I’ll give you one more shot. If you give us both, you can have Chris. If not, see ya.” I really think that the Clippers ultimately accepted the trade because Stern put his foot down and wanted what he wanted really badly (He is the commissioner.).
Jimmer Fredette Jimmer Fredette Jimmer Fredette Jimmer Fredette should be the next move!