Longtime Hornets power forward and current free agent, David West, is the 45th ranked NBA player according to ESPN’s team of basketball writers. ESPN recently asked every NBA writer they have at their disposal to rank every single NBA player in the game. Ryan and I both participated, and the results have been tallied and announced gradually both on Twitter and on ESPN.

Before suffering a season ending torn ACL, David West was performing at one of the highest levels of his career. In the 70 games before the injury he recorded career highs in PER (20.51) and steals, while shooting over 50% from the field for only the third time in his career. While 7.4 rebounds in 35 minutes isn’t anything to write home about, West did deliver 18.9 points on only 14.9 shots per game.

In the end, though, West’s season will be remembered most as the moment when all hope was lost. I was not alone in thinking the Hornets could have done some real damage in the postseason had Chris Paul’s favorite dance partner found a way to avoid injury. If he had, there’s no telling what the Hornets would have been able to pull out of their stingers.  They took the Lakers to 6 without him, and I can’t help but think that the Hornets would have gotten past Kobe and company with a healthy West on the floor and Paul playing the way he did.

As it stands now, here are how players on the Hornets team at year end have fared so far:

Still to come– Chris Paul

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