Wake Up Mr. West

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Published: December 4, 2009

For some reason, David West changed his theme song this year. His old one, a three second snip by Kanye West, told him to “Wake up Mr. West.”

It’s time for D-West to bring back the classic old song, because his alarm clock isn’t doing its job.

In the past five season David West has gone from an 18th round pick, averaging only four points and two boards in his rookie year, all the way to two NBA All-Star games.

His hard work and dedication to improving himself have allowed him to go from an unknown, to underrated, to an all star, all in his first six years in the league.

An owner and fan favorite, David West has averaged 21 points and nine rebounds over the last two season while becoming Chris Paul’s favorite target on the offensive end.

It’s because of this that we in New Orleans have looked past his struggles on the defensive end against larger, more athletic power forwards.

Unfortunately for him, Hornets fans won’t continue to look past the struggles that have come into the forefront recently.

Prior to Paul’s absence, West was stinking it up, but it had only been a few games, and the rest of the team was, too. I, like many others, including David West, blamed Byron Scott for the team’s lack of offense.

After Paul was injured, Hornets Nation assumed that in the absence of CP3, the other all star, West, would step it up and lead. David apparently never got the memo.

In the five games after Chris Paul’s injury, the Hornets won three, not because of David West, but in spite of him.

In the five games he averaged only 12.6 points per game on 35 percent shooting.

On defense he missed rotations, was beat one on one and was generally abused by anyone who doesn’t call themselves a Clipper.

To top it off, West found himself with the ball in one crucial moment. Against the Heat, coach called a set play for West. With time winding down, West was at the top of the key, ball in hand with only Udonis Haslem in between he and victory. Despite there being only eleven seconds on the clock, he took nine to launch an unbalanced seventeen-foot brick.

He took so long in fact, that the Hornets, down only one, didn’t even have time to foul or go for a rebound.

This from a guy nicknamed the 17-Foot Assassin.

Despite his ineptitude this year, West is not in a state of panic. He thinks the shooting slump will end soon because he is getting open looks.

“My confidence is always going to be where it is supposed to be, ” West said. “I’m not scoring to the numbers that I’m accustomed to, but I’m not worried. We’re trying to do some different things, but from a team standpoint, I’m more concerned about us moving closer in the right direction.

“In terms of my scoring,  I hadn’t looked to be aggressive enough, ” West said. “But I probably did too much deferring,  relying on other guys. But in the last week or so,  I have targeted on being aggressive and taking shots. You know teams make adjustments,  but I hope in terms of shots that it starts to fall. The shots that I’m getting,  I should be making them.”

Bower added “His shots will fall, and, he’ll get into a flow.” “I think it’s more of an indication of the amount of defense that has been shifted to him with Chris’ absence.”

This explanation would fly with me if West were a good defensive player, but he’s merely average. His biggest contributions need to come on the offensive end for this low powered team to be successful. He’s the number two scoring option and 15 points on 45 percent shooting isn’t going to do it.

Let’s hope he can turn it around in a big way because so far this season, the 17-Foot Assassin has been killing his team.

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