Redemption

By:
Published: December 2, 2012

Revenge
I’m screaming revenge again
Wrong
I’ve been wrong for far too long
Been constantly so frustrated
I’ve moved mountains with less
When I channel my hate to productive
I don’t find it hard to impress
Bones in traction
Hands break to hone raw energy
Bold and disastrous
My ears can’t hear what you say to me
Hold your mouth for the war
Use it for what it’s for
Speak the truth about me
Determined

— Pantera, Mouth for War

Sports

The Hornets went 1-3 since the last weekly summary, dropping their record from 3-8 to 4-11, but it’s really all the same. It all amounts to 1 in 4 games being a win. More telling is that the team was 3-5 with Davis and has gone 1-6 without him. With him expected to miss all four of the games before next Sunday (at this point), the latter will end up being 1-10, 2-9. Those games are against the Bucks, Lakers, Grizzlies, and Heat, two of whom are the best in each conference and the two best in the NBA, and the lowest ranked team is the Lakers. Brutal, with or without Davis.

The bright spot here is not the win itself, but that it was a win over the Clippers and the fashion in which it happened. Despite the 3-pt assault continuing against the Hornets, the balls were falling for New Orleans and they were able to stay in the game and withstand a push at the end. Also, Clippers forward Blake Griffin was held to a career low of 4 points (2 from the field) before fouling out (intentionally) after nearly 35m of action. After the tensions between he and Jason Smith, this was extremely satisfying, especially with such an outstanding performance by the fan favorite forward for New Orleans.

The party didn’t last as the team dropped a pair to the Jazz and the Thunder. These games were marred by terrible shooting by the Hornets, especially from the outside. Bad nights happen, and the losses should be placed upon the shoulders of said shooters. Rather, this team is not build (at present) to compensate when their few good skills are not `clicking’ on a given night. Keep in mind, winning three of four games is quite a feat in the NBA. This sets an expectation of at least one in four games or so to be substandard in some aspect. The trick is being able to compensate. With the salary restrictions and injuries, this team just can not recover from these random fluctuations not lining up in their favor.

News

Davis’ ankle injuries started against the Thunder on Friday, November 16. Then, he had 2 other issues with it between then and Monday, all associated with intense activity. Finally, on November 20, it was disclosed that he has a stress reaction in that ankle, summarized here. It’s also pointed out that he sprained that ankle in an early workout with the team. These should not be directly related as the one was a soft, connective issue injury and the other is an issue with bone.

Davis believed the issue was fine on November 19, but was held out starting the next day.

Just 5 days later, it was indicated that the time frame was one to two weeks after having been listed as day-to-day. This timeframe was upheld as of the most recent Thunder game.

It was reported that the boot was off, but the context was temporary . . . it was off at that moment. There was no intense weight being put on that ankle, just his normal weight. Davis wore the boot Saturday night at the Thunder game.

So, the no big deal was downgraded to day-to-day, and this was further downgraded to 1-2 weeks out, and one week has passed with no evidence of a return to the complete range of physical activity needed to compete in an NBA game. So far, the most pessimistic outlook based on the team’s reports is about 3 weeks from the start of treatment. Typical ranges for healing this kind of injury start around 8 weeks, but this can depend on a number of factors unknown to Hornets247 at this time.

Also Jim Eichenhofer has this from Monty:

At least a week away from us even thinking about ramping up his conditioning, let alone playing

which bolsters the above. As noted in the link above, the training regimen increasing at an appropriate rate, once the patient is to a certain point, is key. This is starting to look more `typical’ than the hoped for two weeks.

The other major injury this team is facing is that to Eric Gordon. Gordon joined the team while they were Los Angeles to face the Clippers. He’re what we learned there:

Something is missing. When something does not make sense, it could be that some facts are incorrect, but it could be that some are missing, and this seems like the latter is at least partially to blame.

Consider that Monty Williams talked to Chris Paul for months (at least) after he was dealt to the Clippers when they worked together for only a season. Why is this star player with the same amount of common employment any different? Why did I have to say common employment and not “working together?”

Consider that the bench Eric Gordon did not go is where he works. That’s his place of employment. Then consider that he did not sit there for nearly half a quarter. As exciting as a game is, it should not be surprising that he was excited at the end of an exciting game. What is surprising it that he didn’t join his coworkers while they were working, and held himself apart. That is, it’s surprising until you realize we may be missing some information. Then, that act itself becomes information.

The 4-6 week time frame for Gordon’s return has been entered. If one interprets 4 weeks to be a month and 6 weeks to be one-and-a-half months, then the clock has just started ticking. But wait! Just one week ago, there was no timetable for the return? Really? It’s not 1-3 weeks?

Again, there is something missing here.

Business

Both large video screens are up on the chamfered edges of the Arena facing the highway (to maximize efficacy). So far, I’ve just seen ads for stuff at the Arena, like Hornets games. That’s nice, but that’s not going to bring in big money. We need to see some real ads up there.

Before this season got underway, we had a point v. counterpoint about attendance. The question, which was, essentially, will attendance be the best ever now that the uncertainly about the team’s future here in the city has stabilized, has effectively been answered.

As noted in the counterpoint, light could be shed on the subject in the first few week of the season. It’s been just over 4 weeks.

With 9 home games in the books, the Hornets have had a total of 124,111 in attendance (tickets paid for plus free tickets that were actually used), making for a average of 13,790. The highest attendance was 15,458, and their lowest was 10,693. Packing in 17,500 for the rest of the season (unlikely) would give the Hornets a total attendance of 684,111, which is 11,616 short of the 695,727 mark set in the 2008-2009 season.

As noted, attendance is far less directly important than it was when it was referenced in the Hornets’ lease on the Arena. This is just some information to follow-up and stamp case closed on the issue.

Lifestyle

Mrs. Gayle Benson indicated that the preferred colors for the rebranded team are red, gold, and navy blue, changed from red, gold, and black. This could indicate a few things, including nothing. The case for Pelicans has been made, but other theories are out there.

Tom Benson attended St. Aloysius here in New Orleans, which became Brother Martin after a merger with Cor Jesu. Their team name is the Crusaders, and their colors are crimson and gold. Crusaders has the negative of being associated with the sacking of a region for centuries, but it can also be phonetically shortened to Cru, a homophone of Krewe, a popular rebrand idea among fans and a cultural staple of New Orleans. This is also not a “New Orleans” name on its face, a stated goal. Others point out that the could point to Voodoo, with purple being dropped and some slight color modification. The downside of that theory is . . . why? Why make those changes? Why not just take what the Voodoo have, which Tom Benson put together (or approved of in 2004 and later), lock, stock, and barrel?

Around the Site

The biggest change, of course, is the redesign. There are always issues to be worked through that can’t be fully corrected by an outfit like ours in the testing we can do without user help. We’ll get there.

One of the issues with IE9 can be resolved by disengaging the compatibility mode, we are told. Try that.

Keep telling us of your issues; we’ll work them. Leave these in comments or write to admin.

As far as content goes, Royce Young from Daily Thunder and CBS joined Ryan and Michael on In the NO. They were then joined by Jason Smith just after this tremendous Clippers game from the 100th episode of the podcast.

Then, Friday was Ryan Anderson day, with a Beneath the Screen focusing on his shooting followed by the debut of a recurring piece on his performance while not playing with Dwight Howard, something that worried some.

`Voices’ of the People

This is a great assessment of the kid but its called a learning curve.. He is not the only alpha dog in this hunt.. In sum, based on the author’s viewpoint we can say that Mr. Rivers will be just fine… especially for a 19 year old one year out of high school…

David

whatever will be the name….pelicans,krewe or voodoo..i will support this team whatever happens..thru ups and down…win or lose….i love this team..i know everyone is with me…..

mojart

What a night! Watched till 68-63 and had to go to the delivery room to have my first son, and found out later the L streak was over winning the game i wanted the most. Life’s good!

Nithenz

Hornets Society

A special thanks to voopster who attended a Chalk Talk with Dell Demps, a little group Q&A session with Dell (in this case) extended as a benefit to season ticket holders, Saturday prior to the Thunder game. Here is his report (from memory):

They are testing Davis ankle every 3 days, but before that Dell stated he would be out 3-4 weeks…first I heard of that

He said that Gordon’s quad was at 10% strength on the affected knee when he practiced with the team and was contemplating starting the season. He said EG10 went to LA to get the full attention to rehab where training staff had to attend the others on the roster. He stated the quad is now about 65% and they won’t play him until he is all the way back.

Now how is quad was at 10% when he had no training camp and was presumably getting conditioning and rehab for all of that time is beyond me. What his quad strength was he was competing for Olympic tryouts or with the Spurs for 10 days was not made clear.

He said CP was similar quad problem after his knee surgery while with Hornets and he is thankful to the staff for the treatment to build it back…Dell said this was stated to the Hornets attending the Olympic tryouts — voopster

Anyone else got notes from this or another chalk talk?

A few things. I’m wondering when the clock starts on the 3-4 weeks. We’ll see if we can find out, but if it was measured from that night, it puts the total time at 5-6 weeks, which is approaching that typical window that starts at 8 weeks. Also, if Gordon had 90% of the way to go in 4-6 weeks, and went 55% in 4 weeks, then it would seem 2-4 weeks more is necessary. Of course, these numbers are quantitatively meaningless, but from a `feel’ or qualitative perspective, this is reasonable. We shall see.

42 sense

Sometimes the discussion of rebounding needs some additional context.

First, comparing team A’s offensive rebounds to team B’s offensive rebounds is pointless in most cases. It’s ok for determining if a team is underperforming or overperforming to an extent, but without comparing this to the competing defensive rebounds, it lacks some key contrast.

For example, in the Saturday loss to the Thunder, the Hornets had 16 offensive rebounds. This is above the NBA average for a game, which is about 11.5. The argument can be made, however, that the Hornets poor shooting (37% overall, 25% from deep) inflated this number, making it a lazy or lucky 16.

When factoring in the 34 defensive rebounds the Thunder got, which represent more opportunities for the Hornets to have rebounded the ball offensively, we see that their offensive rebound rate was 32%, as shown in the box score. This is very good and does not suffer from the same sorts of vulnerability to the charges of laziness or luckiness being a large factor. This so-called advanced stat is very useful in these contexts.

Of course, the Thunder’s offensive rebound rate approached 29% and shot over 50% and nearly 43% from deep, so perhaps they were more energetic, but that does not mean the Hornets were lazy.

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