Chris Paul is too good to be a New Orleans Hornet.
The photo to the right encapsulates every emotion Chris Paul is feeling at the moment.
Angry and alone.
There are too many reasons for CP3 to feel this way. Peja Stojakovic bricks a three. Bobby Brown tosses up an air ball. David West gets stripped on the block. Emeka Okafor fails to finish at the rim.
These are things that routinely happen on Paul’s watch. While he goes out every night, puts 110% into every dribble he makes and strains his body to the max to put his club in the best chance to win, his teammates fail perform and he suffers devastating loss after devastating loss.
What is it going to take for Paul to salvage what has been a tumultuous start by his standards into a low playoff seed?
Playing their rookies.
Morris Peterson is done as a starting shooting guard in this league. He would have been a nice player to have had he continued to put up the numbers that he did for the Raptors in 2005-2006 (his peak season: 38 minutes and 17 points per game, shot 40% from three), but he isn’t capable of playing at that level anymore. He is shooting 27% from range this season and isn’t getting to the cup at all.
Julian Wright was expected to do huge things fro the Hornets this season. He’s in his third year out of Kansas and he had a good run in the NBA Summer League. However, his production from Las Vegas hasn’t transferred over to the real club, and Wright is only mustering six points and five boards a game as the starter.
James Posey was never a guy you could count on for double-digits every night, but he used to be someone who could explode for 20 points with six threes and defend the other team’s best wing player. He was a vital part of the Celtics championship team two years ago, shooting 36% off the bench from deep and performing at a high level in the post-season. That has all changed since he came to New Orleans. He’s struggled to pick up his stroke and shot 26% from three in the playoffs last season.
Back-up point guard Bobby Brown has not give the Hornets what they need when he replaces Chris Paul as the point guard. He is too quick to shoot and normally sets up the offensive in a set that ends up with him taking an ill-advised 25-footer. He’s shooting 33% this year and while he still has potential as a spot-up three point shooter, the only way to get him to stop overdribbling and taking bad shots is to play him at the same time as Paul. That does the team no good since his role is suppose to be a back-up to Paul that can control the offense when he is off the court rather than someone that needs him on the court to thrive.
I think moving Peja to the bench was a good move for the Hornets. He’s the only one of these shooting guards/small forwards. Stojakovic can’t handle a full NBA season playing 30 minutes a night, but coming off the bench he provides a lethal scoring option that has shot 46% from deep so far this year. When Peja dropped 26 on the Celtics, I got an indication that he would be in for a good season.
So how does Byron Scott replace the rotting careers of Posey and Mo-Pete, reduce Bobby Brown’s role, and make Wright the fifth option when he is on the floor with the starters? Insert Marcus Thorton and Darren Collison.
Thorton is the only guy on the team that can slash to the basket with complete control of his body other than Paul and to an extent Collison. I mean, this kid could be a legitimate 16-20 points per game scorer by year’s end if he had the starting role. What’s better, a 22-year old that has a good mix of mid-range jumpers, three’s, and drives to the basket or Morris Peterson and his horrendous set of offensive skills? Advantage Thorton, and it’s not close. Marcus is a hometown kid and, even though the Hornets were down 20 at the time, the fans in New Orleans gave him a big ovation when he scored his first career bucket in the final minutes against the Raptors.
Why not insert him into the line-up? The fans would love it, Paul could make his game better by osmosis, you can see what you have in a 22-year old rather than constantly seeing what you don’t have in a 32-year old Peterson and a 32-year old James Posey, and you show Chris Paul that you have at least some interest in winning by making moves. It’s win-win situation.
And instead of having a shot-first point guard, which is the type of player that kills this offensive system, come off the bench to replace a game-manager like Paul that can do everything, put Darren Collison in with the second unit instead. Collison was a scorer at UCLA but after an off-season of work with Paul, word is he has shown good passing abilities in practice. Collison puts energy into the second unit, can nail the three ball when it is given to him, which is a trait that Paul has mastered, can get to the rim and shoots well from the free throw line.
Collison isn’t near the defender that Paul is, but you can’t have two CP3′s. What you need out of your back-up point guard, at least when in comes to backing up the best in the game, is someone that can give you at least 50% of what Paul does, and I am not convinced that Brown can do that at this points.
So with a a couple of fresh faces in the rotation for the Hornets, does this team look as bad as they have so far this season? I don’t think so. Paul is putting in 28 points and 10 assists a contest, which is exactly what we know he can do. Add David West’s 16-20 points a night, Emeka Okafor’s 10-12, Marcus Thorton’s potential and a glimpse of brilliance from Julian Wright and you have a relatively young starting five that ranks among the top eight in the West when they aren’t playing down to the competition.
Hopefully a roster change that doesn’t rattle the base of the franchise, which is exactly what I have proposed, can put a jolt into this team that would make Chris Paul proud to say he is a Hornet instead of having his teammates play like D-Leaguers while he plays at an all-world level.
He’s too good to have that happen too him for a whole season.
