Sorry about not posting much recently. Things have been a bit busy. What’s the deal with the New Orleans Hornets? Here’s my take:

It’s no secret when I tell you Byron Scott will be fired at some point in this season, it’s just a matter of when. Last night the Hornets dropped yet another loss, this time by the hands of the Phoenix Suns 124-104 in a game that wasn’t even as close as the score indicates. Chris Paul is on a poorly coached team surrounded by scrubs and castoffs that have no true identity and no strengths.

This is not the same team that finished 2nd in the Western Conference just two seasons ago. No, that team is long gone. As is, this is a team that will struggle to reach .500 unless something miraculous happens. What’s that miracle you ask?

Byron Scott being fired!

Go ahead and throw in all those rediculous looking assistant coaches while you’re at it.

This team has reached its peak and now is just free falling to mediocrity.

The team sits 3-6 right now with a mere three players scoring in double figures including 26 from Chris Paul, 15 from David West (down from 20 a year ago) and 11 from Emeka Okafor. After those three, Scott has already tried more line up formations than a down syndrome kid fiddling with a rubrics cube (yeah it’s that bad). Scott is blindly trying to mix and match a lineup that can compete but is failing to realize that the talent he has outside of the top three, is nothing to write home about. They’re bad. Real bad. The worst part about it is there is nothing Scott can do to move any of these guys.

This is how the unmovable salaries are looking for the Hornets:

Morris Peterson- 2 years remaining @ $5.8 million per

Peja Stojakovic- 2 years remaining @ $13.392 million per

James Posey- 2 years remaining @ $6 million per

Darius Songaila- 2 years remaining @ $4.5 million per

Emeka Okafor- 5 years remaining @ $10.797 million per

The rest of the guys on the team are semi-movable but would return no true value. The best trade bait the Hornets have is in David West who is still due three years @ $9 million per, but the Hornets would insist that any team that wants West would have to take on one or two of the guys above. Hilton Armstrong could give a team some cap relief since this is the last year of his deal with a shade under $3 million owed to him. In short, the Hornets hands are tied when it comes to moving most of the guys. They would be reluctant to do anything with West since the team still looks at him as one of the top forwards in the conference. What they fail to realize is that the undersized forward is not among the elite. In fact he’s far from it judging by his play to start this season.

Along with firing Scott, here are some of my ideas towards improving this team in the short term:

First off, package a deal to the Chicago Bulls for Tyrus Thomas. It’s common knowledge the Bulls want to trade Thomas’ expiring contract (worth right at $5 million) and the Bees could stand to get a little bit younger and athletic. The thing is, the Hornets would have to part with West. To make this work the Bees would try to give up Peterson and would have to take on some more salary. That’s where Kirk Hinrich comes in (making $9.5 million for the next 3 years). Hinrich could serve as a great backup point guard and could also see time playing the two-guard along side Chris Paul. The Hornets would shed about $600,000 worth of salary for this season but would save roughly $6 million long term. The trade makes the Hornets instantly better on defense and gives the team two guys that can play substantial minutes by only giving up one guy. I’d pull the trigger on this deal!

Let’s try another trade. This one takes on a tad less talent, but still sheds salary and gives the team more flexibility heading into the ever so important summer of 2010. The Hornets trade West, Posey and Armstrong to the Miami Heat for Udonis Haslem (expiring @ $7 million) and Quinton Richardson (expiring at $8.7 million). The Hornets would have both players off their books by season’s end and would save more than $33 million in the long run. The team would take a hit in the talent category until season’s end, but would have enough money to go out and sign a marquee free agent over the summer like Chris Bosh or Lebron James (I could picture Lebron in a Hornets Jersey, can’t you?). Why would the Heat do this trade? Well it makes the Heat better right now. The Heat weren’t able to land Carlos Boozer or Lamar Odom in the offseason and they know that in order to keep Dwayne Wade happy they have to build a solid team around him. David West might be the guy the Heat need to resign Wade. This one is a little more likely to happen than the first.

Are you starting to see a trend here? We’re going to have to give up players to get players and outside of trading Paul, West is the guy the Hornets must trade in order to compete.

Of course, for any of this to happen the Hornets must rid themselves of Byron Scott. Many people are predicting him to be canned by Thanksgiving. I think it might take a little bit more time than that considering Hornets owner George Shin is illiterate and still doesn’t quite know if we won the game last night or not (we loss George, now go back to sleep). Scott will be out of here by mid-to-late December. Mark it down in the books. The likely replacement will be New Orleans native Avery Johnson (although I would prefer a guy like Brian Shaw).

Let’s make this fun. How about we turn this into a contest? I want YOU to e-mail me the date you think Byron Scott will be fired on or around. If your within 5 days of the date, I’ll mention you in an upcoming sports column in Tiger Weekly. Fair enough?

My e-mail is:   joshssports@gmail.com