This year, there’s no spark in his game. He’s to timid to attack the post, and he’s constantly being outrebounded by his man.

I think West is having one of the most disappointing seasons of any star in the league, even though his numbers look alright.

I disagree.

Bill Simmons’ article about a rift between CP3 and Byron Scott was a fabrication.

I agree that the Hornets are an emotional team. But I haven’t seen anything suggesting that their emotion has an effect on team chemistry.

In fact, Ian Thompson of SI.com penned an article on the subject recently. I linked to it in my Fundamentals:

Ian Thomsen of CNNSI.com: “This image of the two stars yelling at one another led a reporter to ask West after the game if his relationship with Paul was in trouble. ‘No, it’s nothing,’ West recalled saying. ‘I was just on him about missing a free throw when we were trying to put the team away, and things happen like that.’ Said Hornets coach Byron Scott: ‘On the court, people probably would misconstrue their conversations because they are screaming and yelling.’ Scott said this because he himself has misconstrued those arguments. ‘I asked them a couple of years ago if they were having problems,’ the coach said. ‘Because I didn’t know. I’m looking at them screaming at each other, and I had to pull them to the side individually and say, ‘CP, are you having a problem with D-West?’ ‘D-West, are you having a problem with CP?’ And they’re like, ‘No, coach, we’re cool.’ And I’m like, ‘Are you sure? Because I see you guys screaming and yelling.’ But they both said, ‘Coach, we’re just trying to win.’”

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/ian_thomsen/12/17/paul.west.hornets/?bcnn=yes

Nearly every great player in NBA history has played with an emotional edge. Bird and McHale were far from friends. The same goes for Magic and Kareem. Jordan was a tyrant. Emotion is a good thing. There’s a line to cross of course, but I haven’t seen the Hornets cross that line.

New Orleans needs to innovate offensively. I love Hartnett’s comparison of New Orleans and Phoenix.

The Suns are still searching for a backup point guard for Steve Nash. I hope N.O. figures something out soon because CP3 is shouldering too much of the workload right now. CP3’s young, but I think much of Steve Nash’s decline is the result of the toll he’s taken over the last four seasons. I’d hate to see history repeat itself with Chris Paul.

There has been reports of the team not liking Byron Scott and all that. I remember last year the Hornets used Rafer Alston’s comment about Yao Ming being a SUPER SUPER STAR and David West just being a Star to get all fired up. I remember at the time thinking…um, Chris…Rafer’s absolutely right…Yao Ming is a superstar and David West is a solid starter…

So…it seems to me that team doesn’t have the poise to do it when the going gets tough.