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With the Hornets off to their worst start since 2005-2006, many NBA analysts started the stopwatch on Byron Scott's employment.
Those of you who had Nov. 12 in the pool are the big winners.
The Hornets relieved Scott of his head coaching duties Thursday and replaced him with the guy who bought the groceries for him, general manager Jeff Bower.
"I want to thank Byron for the hard work he has put in during his time with the Hornets," Hornets owner George Shinn said. "I've hired Jeff Bower to take over the coaching reigns. He knows this team better than anyone, has the respect of the players and in basketball circles, is regarded as one of the best basketball minds in the business. This is our best opportunity to reach our goals this season."
Simply put, Scott had clearly lost his team with the roots of his downfall growing late last season.
Certainly the talent assembled by Bower should be better than 3-6 but that kind of start can be overcome. However, if you look back to last season, Scott's Hornets won only three of their last 14 games and were often blown out during that stretch, being outscored by nearly 170 points, about 12 points per game. As a comparison, the Sacramento Kings, the NBA's worst team last season, were outscored by less than nine points a contest.
 clearly lost his team. |
Paul is arguably the third best player in basketball, behind only LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, and he's producing, netting 26.1 points and 9.3 assists per game. CP3 has also shown an improved work ethic on the defensive end and is one of the league's true lockdown defenders.
Depth has never been a staple in New Orleans but it's not like Paul has no help. Bower's big offseason splash was sending enigmatic center Tyson Chandler to Charlotte for Emeka Okafor. On paper, that means more offense with a little less defensive presence but Okafor, despite missing all of the preseason, is playing well at both ends, averaging 11.1 points, 9.8 boards, and 2.0 blocks per game.
Meanwhile, All-Star forward David West is still on the wing and veteran sharp- shooter Peja Stojakovic can still knock down threes,
So what gives?
For one, considering his job was clearly on the line, Scott's rotation was far too long. The veteran coach knows better than anyone that he lacked depth but gave players like Julian Wright, Darius Songaila, Hilton Armstrong and Bobby Brown far too many minutes.
Meanwhile, Stojakovic and veteran James Posey have had rocky starts.
Scott, an ex-Laker, also took a Phil Jackson approach to coaching, letting huge runs by the opposition pass without trying to stem the tide by calling timeouts. That tactic is fine when you can point to 10 championship rings. For a coach like Scott. it's tantamount to raising the white flag.
Finally, the loss of "glue guy" Rasual Butler can't be underestimated. After the Hornets thought they had plenty of bodies to replace Butler they traded him to the LA Clippers, but rookies Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton have offered virtually nothing.
The personnel problems won't change under Bower but it's hard to imagine the results staying the same. New Orleans is just too talented a team to keep playing this poorly and that's what this move was about.
"Accountability was our theme this past summer," said Hornets vice president of Basketball Chad Shinn. "We talked about the fact that everyone on our staff is held to a certain standard of performance and we didn't feel this was happening at the head coach level."
Bower was accountable for building this roster. Now it's time to cook dinner.
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