The Hornets

["j.hironaka" <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Thanks for all the great posts on this list. It does sound like Boston will 
need to smooth out some rough edges in practice today prior to their 
opening 2001-2002 exhibition game Wednesday against the great Paul Silas 
and the Hornets. I hope its a good game.

The Hornets won 52 games last year including a dangerous playoff run 
(sweeping the Heat and taking the Bucks to seven games).

With Paul Silas as coach, Charlotte ranked a franchise-best 7th overall in 
rebounding. Veterans Elden Cambell and PJ Brown did decent board work, but 
the whole starting five contributed to the teams success. According to 
ESPN, David Wesley was one of only five NBA guards to average over 5 boards 
and 5 assists.

That's obviously something (team rebounding) the Celtics will hope to learn 
from this year...If they are successful, this could well make the same kind 
of impact in our won-loss record.

The Hornets road their talented starting five into the playoffs. Obviously 
the Hornets are Baron Davis' team, but Jamal Mashburn averaged 25ppg in the 
playoffs and had his best all-around regular season as a pro.

The Hornets are a streaky team that last year got out of the gates quickly 
(so we may expect them to be in good shape on Wednesday). They started out 
20-9 to lead the Central last fall, then they faded, then off again they 
went on another 15-3 run after the All Star break. The Hornets have 
something to build on from last year's playoffs, but then again they don't 
have much fan sympathy in Charlotte and I'd imagine that might cause a 
letdown this year.

Despite their success last year, the Hornets have several weaknesses.

The Hornets are not a great shooting team. No starter shot better than PJ 
Brown's .444FG%, and he's not much of a scorer. Eldon Cambell and Derek 
Coleman both shot poorly as well, and Jamal Mashburn was his usual .413.

The curious thing about it is that the Hornets last year attempted only 
12.0 three-point attempts PER GAME as a team, the very opposite of Boston's 
approach.

The Hornets bench is weak. According to ESPN, the top four bench players 
look to be Jamaal Magliore and newcomers Stacey Augmon, Bryce Drew and Matt 
Bullard. FWIW, they still have talented headcase Derrick Coleman on the 
roster, but he shot .380 from the field and Silas clearly has no use for him.

Our Celts will most likely counter with a 6 through 12 of  Joe Johnson, 
Tony Battie, Milt Palacio, Kedrick Brown, Vitaly Potapenko and Joe Forte 
(plus Walter and Herren). This may not sound that great yet, but at least 
we're finally talking about guys with NBA starting experience coming off 
the bench (that's something new), not to mention (best case scenario, of 
course) a couple of future NBA starters or even stars among our three rookies.

Go Celts!

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