New Orleans Basketball Has A Chance To Be Special, Too

Just hours ago, the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl.

This title serves as a monumental achievement for not only the Saints franchise, but also the city of New Orleans. Everybody, and I mean everybody, that lives in New Orleans has an emotional connection to the title and, after all they went through during Hurricane Katrina, it was fantastic to see the Saints go out and win the Super Bowl for them.

Some headlines read today the Saints revived the city of New Orleans by fighting for them the past few years and keeping their franchise in town instead of moving elsewhere. This is well deserved praise. I mean, they won the NFL Championship and they did it just years after one of the most devastating natural disasters in the history of the World (and certainly the most devastating of my lifetime, at least in the US).

But, talk to anyone in the city, someone who has been there throughout this entire process of rebuilding their lives, and ask them who they think really saved New Orleans.

Overwhelmingly, I bet, their answer will be Chris Paul.

As a rookie, Paul came into New Orleans fresh off the hurricane when everyone was just getting back to the city to start over again. And then, just like that, Paul went out and had one of the best seasons any point guard has ever had. He was electrifying, terrifying for his opponents and already a (baby) face of the New Orleans community. It was as if the Utah Jazz passed up on the more charismatic and easy-to-love Paul to take Deron Williams just so New Orleans could get someone that could renew their love of basketball and their interest in living in a city that had just been torn from it’s roots.

Paul was always supportive of New Orleans. His work in the community from day one is admirable and his connection to the fans is unparalleled for any other player in the league. And if his ability to completely revive The Big Easy with his personality isn’t enough to deem him more important than the Saints, the fact that he is the best point guard of this generation doesn’t hurt his case.

Yes, four seasons into his basketball career, Chris Paul is the best point guard of this era with perhaps only Magic Johnson standing in front of him on the all-time list. No, at this point in his career, as a 24-year old on a team that hasn’t been filled with upper echelon talent at any point of his tenure in New Orleans (I’m convinced that run in the 2007-2008 season was all Paul. They had virtually the same roster, with the same core, Paul-West-Chandler-Stojakovic, as the past few years but Paul just took it to a new level. The fact that all four of those guys played at least 76 games didn’t hurt, either.), Paul does not have a championship on his resume and it is unlikely that he will ever catch up with Magic’s five titles unless he gets extremely lucky and lands on a team with LeBron James or Dwyane Wade next off-season. But that doesn’t detract from the talent Paul has.

As far as having a skill set goes, Paul may be the most complete player in the league at his position. The qualifier “at his position” removes the like of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James from the discussion as they are two of the most complete players in the history of the game, but, again, that shouldn’t take away from what CP3 is. He’s the best passing point guard in the league, the best defensive point guard in the league (Especially when it comes to anticipating passes and getting into the passing lanes. He’s got unbelievable smarts. Just ask Deron Williams.), the best all-around shooting point guard in the league and easily the best leader in the NBA.

I really believe that. Paul has merged two completely opposite leadership styles to become somewhat of a perfect leader. He’s got that Kobe style attitude towards his teammates at times, getting on his teammates when they don’t get to the right spot or pass up an open look which leads to an empty possession, and he’s got the LeBron/Kevin Durant thing going too, as he mentors his teammates(Mostly rookie Darren Collison) and has fun with his guys at the same time. The difference is that you will never see Paul joking on the sidelines during a game (Unless he is dressed in a suit and tie) and he always has the Kobe scowl on his face and looks generally displeased with life even he’s got 25 points, 14 assists, nine boards and a few steals.

In a way, when you combine his personality, what he has done for New Orleans and his unique set of skills you get the perfect guy.

Though that is exactly what Drew Brees seems like for the Saints, especially now that he has a ring, this is an article on the Hornets and Chris Paul, this I give him the advantage in the hero category.

The question I have for myself to ponder is whether or not Paul can bring the same elated feeling to New Orleans as Brees did yesterday, which would ultimately settle the made up debate I have started between Brees’ and Paul’s effect on the city. I think what Paul has done is good enough, but he will never be looked upon the same way as Brees will now without an NBA Championship.

(As you can tell, I like Chris Paul. I think he is amazing and extremely underrated and overlooked. I also think that what he has done for New Orleans has been just what the doctor ordered.)

Here’s what I think about his ability to do that:

(As you can tell, I like Chris Paul. I think he is amazing and extremely underrated and overlooked. I also think that what he has done for New Orleans has been just what the doctor ordered.)

Earlier this year, I wrote that it was unfair for Paul to be a Hornet because of the futility that was surrounding him. In a nutshell, my point was:

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.

Well, in case you couldn’t tell, my point was that CP3 was too good and put too much hard work into his game to have his teammates under perform night after night, especially when their contracts have put Paul in a terrible position unable to grow with a fellow star because New Orleans has no cap room to get one.

I practically begged for some playing time for the Hornets’ pair of rookies, Darren Collison and Marcus Thorntnon, and asked that the Hornets go away from guys like Bobby and Devin Brown as well as decrease minutes for Peja Stojakovic and Morris Peterson to keep them coming off the bench as gunslingers.

As it turns out, this Hornets team has done just that. Ever since Byron Scott was let go (To be clear, I think Byron was a good coach, but something monumental needed to happen to change the mindset of all of the Hornets not named Paul), the Hornets have been playing much better ball and that comes predominately as a result of the playing time Collison and Thornton got in early in the year when Chris Paul was out.

I have been super impressed with the performances both of these guys have had this season. With Paul out, Collison has simply taken his production that he got off the bench and multiplied it thanks to his added minutes. The funny thing is, he has actually looked better as a starter, even though that means playing more minutes against the opponent’s starting five.

Collison has clearly learned a lot of things from CP3. From Paul’s patented “walking the dog” move (Where Paul allows the ball to roll on the ground on an inbounds pass to conserve time) to becoming one of the better passers in the game as a rookie. While Collison is nowhere near the physical specimen that Paul is, lacking the quickness and thickness Paul has, his development to this point has resembled Paul’s in a way.

Darren is averaging 16 points and eight assists in starts (where he is getting 20 more minutes a game) and has shot 42% from the field 43% from deep and 90% from the line, which compares favorably to Paul’s rookie year when CP3 averaged 16 points and eight assists a game with percentages of 43/22/85. The sample size of these number is definitely varying (13 starts for Collison so far – 78 for Paul in ’05-06), but Collison is definitely showing some great potential.

Nitpicking at his game, the two issues I have seen so far with Collison that show are completely the opposite of CP3 at that age (actually, Collison is younger, but I am speaking in NBA years) are the times he hesitates to drive to the bucket every time he has a lane and his defensive play.

Collison is pretty quick off the dribble (Not CP3 level, but on the third level. Derrick Rose is obviously on the first level alone.) and he routinely gets by his defenders. He is great at finishing at the rim, too, evident by his two crunch time drives against Charlotte, but several times I have seen Collison pull up at eight to 12 feet and take a wide open jumper instead of challenging someone at the rim. Sometimes this is an advantageous move, especially if you have a tear drop in your arsenal, but Collison straight up takes a full motion jump shot that looks uglier than Tim Duncan’s back tattoo and doesn’t go in as often as a lay-up would. Also, why hesitate driving to the hoop when you shoot 90% from the line?

Anyways, defensively, the fundamentals are there, but the execution needs to improve. This is less of an issue than gaining confidence driving to the hoop because I know for sure that Collison knows how to play defense because he went to UCLA.

The Hornets second impactful rookie is hometown product Marcus Thornton (By far the hardest name for me to spell. Everything in my mind tells me to type “Thorton” and that’s the way I think it is pronounced, but it’s “Thornton.”). Just a few weeks ago, I had a column on Thornton’s brand new minutes as Devin Brown was dealt to the Bulls. Here are a couple of paragraphs:

With Brown gone, rookie shooting guard Marcus Thornton got the first start of his NBA career last night against the Portland Trail Blazers. Prior to last night, Thorton’s career high in minutes was 38, which came during the stretch of games that Chris Paul missed, in a game against the Miami Heat. In that game, Thornton hit nine of his 19 shots and five of his seven three point attempts on his way to a career high 24 point performance.

Thornton is now  listed as the #1 shooting guard for New Orleans and I really hope that he is able to keep the spot long enough to prove he can stick in the NBA as a shooter and a scorer, something the Hornets have needed for a while. I can see Jeff Bower coming up with a starting line-up that features CP3 playing alongside another rookie in Darren Collison, who is a better defender than Thornton but is not as good of a shooter, but I think he understands that the offense Marcus brings is something the Paul can maximize with the attention he draws on his drives to the cup, which will open up wide open three’s for Thornton from his favorite spot on the court, the corner three.

Though he has missed the past three games, Thornton has shot 46% from the field since the new year started and has scored 20 points in three of his last four. I like his mid-range game. It clearly isn’t a finished product, but this is the closest thing the Hornets have had to an effective slashing/shooting two-guard since J.R. Smith, and he wasn’t what he is now back then. Continued production from Thornton can really make or break this team.

With the possible exclusion of Thorton, if he can’t seem to find a mid-range shot and starts to dip below the 42% threshold from the field, I have pondered the thought of New Orleans having the best point guard combo in the NBA. I posed the question to my buddy and he couldn’t name a better one. I brought up Chauncey Billups and Ty Lawson but I think the gap between Billups and Paul is pretty big. Russell Westbrook and Eric Maynor also came up, but, in the end, it came down to having the best of the generation combined with someone above average, which I believe Collison is as a rookie, to get the best combo.

What could those two look like as a duo in three years. Paul starts, Collison comes off the bench to lead the second unit and stays on the court in crunch time because he can get to the hoop. Sure, it’s no Joe Johnson (who I think would be an amazing fit in New Orleans if the financials didn’t matter), but at least he is a threat.

Paul could average 25/14/5/2.2 with percentages of 48/42/85 and Collison could get himself 10/5/2/1 off the bench with similar numbers from the field. It’s a perfect match of point guards, especially if Collison continues to work with Paul on his game in the summer.

So far, in a somewhat unorganized picture of the Hornets’ current situation as it pertains to being a contender in the West, I have given you three players I think make up the the core of this team for the years to come. There are two more guys I think could play a role in a possible run: Emeka Okafor and David West.

Because the Hornets don’t look to be contenders for the title this season and are currently more concerned as an organization about avoiding the luxury tax than winning games both Okafor and West have been mentioned in trade rumors. Okafor, who was acquired for Tyson Chandler in the off-season, has been solid this season. Here’s what I said about him when the trade went down.

Okafor now gives the Hornets a very physical worker in the paint, allowing West to stay out on lines with his finesse jump shot instead of forcing him under the basket and out of his comfort zone. Add Thorton will CP3 in the backcourt, and you have four players that can score in double-digits every night.

Though he is averaging a career low in rebounds, Okafor is also getting  the least minutes a game in his career because of the rotation of big men that Jeff Bower uses in New Orleans. Until his recent injury, Chris Paul had just established a blissful relationship with Okafor on the court as he seemingly figured out Okafor’s stride and how he likes the ball in transition.

David West has always been a favorite of mine. He has excellent range, shoots it well from the free throw line and can occasionally drive to the basket if you overplay his shot. The pick-and-pop with him is one of the more effective plays in basketball and it’s a beauty to see just how CP3 plans on getting the ball through two defenders to West after he finds his spot on the court.

As a team, the Hornets have come together and adapted their games to mirror that of Chris Paul’s competitive drive. Don’t let this go over your head, because it’s really one of the more unique things you will ever see. LeBron has sort of had the same thing happen in Cleveland, but now every single player on the Hornets roster, from Paul (when he is healthy) to the last guy off the bench Aaron Gray (acquired from Chicago for Devin Brown) is playing with the same intensity. Flip on a Hornets game on a Tuesday night and I guarantee you will see a team that doesn’t quit and continues to fight back no matter how hard you beat them up.

It rises the teams play to another level that exists even though the talent might not be there. Can you imagine if every single Laker fought as hard as Kobe did every night? I mean, can you really envision just how good that team would be if Lamar Odom wanted every rebound like he wants gummy bears? If Andrew Bynum didn’t play slow and disinterested as if to say “You guys traded for Pau, so you must not need me”? They would be unstoppable.

But they don’t play that way. Kobe plays with the greatest intensity in the history human civilization and the other Lakers play like they are up or down by 30 at all times. The Hornets don’t play like that. Not anymore. Now everyone plays like they are down three with a minute to go even if New Orleans is up 10 with 30 seconds to go. It’s that mentality that has risen this team from an after thought last season a team that has a legit shot to make noise in the playoffs.

I know that this season isn’t the year the Hornets win the NBA Championship. Their best shot to date was in the 2007-2008 season and they fell one game short of making it there. Their roster doesn’t look great right now, filled with some bad contracts and underachievers behind their core.But, I’ll tell you what, the Hornets have the best point guard of this generation, a heck of a lot of heart and desire and the entire city of New Orleans behind them.

(Speaking of the “core”, I think it now consists of Paul-Collison-Okafor-West-Thornton. Thornton is the biggest question mark there. It’s hard to call him a “core guy” but I see the potential. That brings me back to the Joe Johnson comment. Say the Hornets are able to deal Peja and James Posey to separate contenders, can they make a push at JJ? Again money would get in the way but I would love to see a line-up of Paul-Johnson-Julian Wright-West-Okafor line-up with Collison and Thornton leading the second unit. Essentially, that’s a MUCH better team than the one they had in 2007-2008. I know the West is much improved now, with teams like the Thunder and Jazz coming up fast, but there are also teams falling away like San Antonio. I think that team can win the title with one more veteran who will take a reduced salary for a playoff push. Perhaps a guy like Joe Smith. Not Smith himself, but a veteran that plays a role, can defend or eat up fouls on big men and can bring added knowledge to the club overall. Anyways, this is just a fantasy scenario I have. Because of the salary situation the Hornets are in, this has little to no chance of happening.)