As Mike Seely pointed out earlier today, the New Orleans Hornets are struggling to get fans in their arena despite having a winning record (not to mention the the best point guard in basketball–more on that in a minute), thus eliciting whispers of a potential relocation to Oklahoma City. And as John Hollinger points out (though it requires an ESPN Insider password, unfortunately), Chris Paul is having one of the best seasons ever by a player under 6′3″. Yet, even for their road game (the Hornets beat the Sonics 107-93), attendance was spotty, though the fans who showed up certainly were vocal.

Of course, the empty seats might have something to do with the home team’s winning percentage, which is barely in respectable batting average range. It also might have something to do with the coach’s rotation. Carlesimo claims to experiment and to go with what’s working, but a lot of it just doesn’t make any sense. Consider the following:

-Jeff Green and Kevin Durant, the pillars of the franchise, played a total of 10:08 together. Is it really that important to have the veteran leadership (i.e. ballhogging) of Wilkins or Szczerbiak on the floor with the rooks? Can’t Durant and Green be trusted on together? Is there a better defensive combo than those two? Wouldn’t it make sense to allow them to develop some chemistry?

-After Durant began to heat up in the third quarter (10 points in 9 minutes), PJ sat him for the next 9:13. Because it was really important to get Damien Wilkins some more time on the floor, so he could shoot 4-15. We were also treated, in this time, to Wally Szczerbiak chewing up about 7 seconds of shot clock jab stepping out of a triple threat as though he were Kobe Bryant. News flash, Wally: The only way your name and “Iso” should appear in the same sentence is if you’re getting a Christmas gift from Dan Marino.

There were a few positives for the Sonics: Durant added four rebounds, five assists, and zero turnovers to his 18 points, and also used his left hand nicely throughout the game; Jeff Green indulged in some un-Jeff-Green showtime when he pulled off a fast break, behind-the-back dribble and no-look pass to an open Ridnour, who knocked down a three; Nick Collison had a solid game working the boards and scoring inside; and Szczerbiak, who takes a lot of shots in these pages, must be given credit for a decent shooting night and an uncharacteristic six rebounds in 26 minutes.

But the real story was Chris Paul, who, like Dwight Howard a couple weeks ago, dominated the Sonics in cartoonish fashion. He got wherever he wanted off the dribble, making Watson (once a feared defender) and Ridnour (never a feared defender) look like a JV scout team. Globetrotters vs. Generals came to mind. No one could stay in front of him. It was as though he was looking for new, fun ways to create shots for himself and others. My favorite was when he’d jitterbug into the “painted area” (I love how announcers are calling it that now, the old term, “the paint,” being insufficiently descriptive), draw three Sonics, and lob a pass to Tyson Chandler who’d finish with the big dunk.

You Hornets fans are lucky. You should go to your games and save your team from rumors of relocation.

You know what? Scratch that. George Shinn’s an asshole. Don’t support him. Stay at home. Or go out on the town. New Orleans is a fun town. At least it was. I bet there’s still some excitement to be found. Just stay away from the arena.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 12:52 am and is filed under Supersonics, Roundball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.