Some preseason prognosticators picked the New Orleans Hornets to emerge from the Eastern Conference playoffs to meet the Western representative for the NBA championship this season. They had All-Star Jamal Mashburn ready for full-time duty, the talented point guard, Baron Davis, to lead the offense, and the Big Cat, Jamaal Magloire, to take care of business around the basket. New coach Tim Floyd installed a ball-movement, New Jersey Nets-kind of offense that the players seemed to like. Everyone in the Big Easy was buzzing optimistically about the Hornets. Then the season started and the Hornets were missing their stinger.
First of all, Mashburn suffered a knee injury in training camp, underwent surgery and missed the first 44 games of the season. Yet the Hornets got off to a reasonably good start at 9-3 and were 17-7 by mid-December. Then the team began to struggle, and going into Wednesday's game with Miami, the Hornets had lost four out of five and were only 8-11 after Mashburn returned to duty.
One recent Hornets' loss, an embarrassing 84-76 defeat at Toronto, was especially distasteful. That day started badly when Davis missed the team breakfast meeting. As a penalty, Floyd started Darrell Armstrong in his place, and when the Hornets were outscored 25-11 in the third period, the coach kept Davis, Mashburn and David Wesley -- who were a combined 9-for-34 from the field -- on the bench for the rest of the game. Afterward, Floyd criticized his team for a "lack of passion and effort."
On the day following the Toronto game, it was announced that Mashburn would sit out at least the next three weeks because of "patella femoral irritation" in his right knee.
Then on Tuesday the team's majority owner, George Shinn, called for a players-only meeting. Shinn addressed the team for about a half hour, and later said that he told the players, "... Everybody's got to step up and do their part and start playing as a team, start being unselfish, start just digging down deep and pulling up that enthusiasm."
New Orleans defeated Miami on Wednesday but it required a come-from-behind effort to do it. Davis led all scorers with 33 points. He also had 10 rebounds and five assists, but was guilty of five turnovers. Then the Hornets lost again on Thursday night, to the Rockets 97-86. A late Davis-led surge may have been the team's only positive for the game.
The Diagnosis
The Hornets are a puzzling team to analyze. Davis is highly skilled, but is more of a two-guard than point play-maker. He does everything -- shoots the long bomb, drives to the hoop, posts up, assists and gets offensive rebounds. But he dominates the ball, takes low-percentage shots (he shoots 39 percent from the field), leads the league in 3-point attempts (506) and is only slightly above 2-to-1 in his assists-to-turnover ratio (7.6/3.2). Wesley is an undersized two-guard and also an erratic shooter (40 percent from the field). Magloire is a horse inside, has good back-to-the basket moves and is strong off the glass (about 10 rebounds a game). But he averages fewer than 10 shots a game. P.J. Brown is a solid defender and can be counted on for 10 points and nine rebounds a game. Without Mashburn (who's averaged 20 points and six rebounds this season), Floyd goes with blue-collar worker George Lynch, who is tough as nails and a team player to the core.
That leaves the charismatic Armstrong, all-purpose Stacey Augmon, veteran 3-point shooter Steve Smith and the massive Robert "Tractor" Traylor as Floyd's choices off the bench. Not bad, but not the bench of a contender.
While Floyd's version of the Princeton offense is similar to that of the Nets, their execution of it pales in comparison with New Jersey's. One difference is that Jason Kidd, who's at the helm of the Nets' attack, is looking primarily to pass; while Davis, who has a similar responsibility for New Orleans, is looking mostly to score.
It also appears that the Hornets fail to take advantage of what Magloire does best. He frequently gets good position in the paint but doesn't get the ball. There is also excessive congestion in the paint due to poor spacing of players who hang in the basket area too long after their rub-off cuts at the high post.
The Hornets turn up their defensive intensity when the game is on the line, rather than exert a constant effort. That often results in wasted catch-up attempts that occurs too late in the game for them to win.
The Cure
It's too late in the season for Tim Floyd to make a drastic changeover with the Hornets. But if they expect to have success in the playoffs, two things must happen: 1) the team defense must tighten up and 2) the offense must have better ball movement that results in higher-percentage shots.
More playing time for Lynch and Augmon will help the defense. Both are tough and aggressive with good individual and team fundamentals. Brown and Magloire are solid, and Traylor adds to the team's size and bulk against big opponents. The guards must pick up their focus with on-the-ball D and increase their presence as lane fillers. The Hornets need a more effective system of handling pick-and-roll plays and general improvement in overall help defense.
On offense, Floyd must find a way to get better shots for Davis, while limiting his low-percentage attempts. Davis averages more than 20 shots per game -- more than twice as many attempts as any other Hornets player. He could score as much or more with 15 quality shots -- and would probably get to the free-throw line with greater frequency. He has a complete arsenal of scoring weapons, but needs to be more selective in squeezing the trigger.
The Hornets' half-court offense needs polishing so that the ball movement is quicker and crisper. Cutters need to go to the perimeter if they don't get the ball, so that the basket area is more open for the big men.
Then the Hornets need a greater emphasis on their inside game. Without Mashburn, Magloire and Davis are their best threats down low. That is not to suggest that they should ignore perimeter shooting, but the 3-point shot is better served as a second option rather than the primary that it often appears to be with this team. (New Orleans ranks 28th in the NBA in 3-point accuracy at 32.1 percent.)
The Hornets, now 34-31, have 17 games left on their schedule. Their next five games are against teams with records below .500 -- and four of them are at home.
It's time to start buzzing.
Dr. Jack Ramsay, an NBA analyst for ESPN, coached the Trail Blazers to the 1977 NBA championship. A member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, he is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. Click here to send a question for Dr. Jack for possible use on ESPNEWS.