Okay, now that we’ve all had a good grumble about the Paul rumors, let’s move on to important things – like who the Hornets be draftin’.  There’s a ton of information floating around out there, and a billion mock drafts that are all complete and total speculation, of course.  Still, there are a few reliable bits of information available out there, and those, combined with some tips we’ve gotten about how the Hornets are thinking, make me feel comfortable declaring the following two pieces of information:

1. If there are no surprise slides, the Hornets have narrowed their list to Aldrich, Henry and Patterson.
Based on the premium the Hornets are placing on hard-working, coachable and intelligent players, it’s likely that Patterson and Henry have the edge over Aldrich.  Both of those guys have had reportedly impressive interviews with the Hornets – and if you watch how they handle tough questions in interviews hosted at places like DraftExpress, you see confident young men who know they have a lot of hard work ahead of them.  It’ll be interesting to see if gravitas trumps need.  For what its worth, Patterson feels like the pick here.  If that happened, I wouldn’t be excited, but I wouldn’t be upset either.  Of course, last year that’s exactly how I felt after the draft,  and we all saw how that turned out, so what the hell do I know?

2. There are a couple trades floating around that might actually impact the Hornets’ Draft Night. 
The Timberwolves have called most of the teams in the later lottery and told them to expect a serious offer if a player is available.  Of course, who that particular player is, and if the “serious offer” amounts to anything is anyones guess.

More interestingly, the Pacers are still in play, hoping to move the #10 for a point guard.  They aren’t going to get one worth anything in this draft, but the Hornets are willing to play if they include some actual talent with the 10th pick for Collison.  Personally, I believe Collison is easily the most palatable of the available point guards, so we’ll see if they give in to Bowers demands.

If both of those trades don’t materialize, then other than the inevitable trades that will bring us LeBron and Dwight Howard, there probably won’t be too much in the way of fireworks for us on draft night.