The Other Contender: A Look Ahead For The New Orleans Hornets

Spurs-Lakers, Lakers-Spurs; it's all you hear about as far as the heavyweights in the Western Conference.

Everyone seems to agree that the Lakers are the favorites out West after dismantling the "establishment" by dismissing the Spurs in five games this past spring, as they figure to only get better by adding a healthy emerging Andrew Bynum to their cast.  And most people agree that the Spurs, with a healthy Manu Ginobili and possibly a face-lift in their supporting cast, stand to be the biggest obstacle in the way of a Lakers return to the Finals.

After those two teams, everyone agrees that the rest of the West looks fairly tough, but it's clear that many people believe there is a divide between those two teams and the rest of the Conference.

Really, are you still sleeping on the New Orleans Hornets?  Are you still dismissing this last year as them simply "playing over their heads?"

All of last year people were constantly dismissing that the Hornets could possibly be as good as they were playing, and the Hornets kept proving their doubters wrong.  After winning the Southwest division, beating the supposedly "more experienced" Mavericks in the first round, and bringing the vaunted Spurs to their knees before finally falling 4-3 to the defending champs, the Hornets have proved that the top two in the West needs to be expanded to a top three.

While there hasn't been much talk about the Hornets this offseason largely because they haven't done anything yet- and even if they had, I doubt you would have heard about it if it didn't involve Baron Davis, Elton Brand, or Corey Maggette- let's take a look at who the Hornets have coming back next year and what moves they might make to put them over the top.

The Starting Five

Obviously everything begins and ends on this team with point guard Chris Paul.  When he's on the court, the entire offense revolves around him, whether he's creating for himself, playing a two-man game in the pick-and-roll with David West, or driving and dishing out to an open teammate.

In my humble opinion (and with no intent to slight the most talented player on the planet, Kobe Bryant) I believe that Paul was the MVP last year.  When Paul went to the bench in their series against the Spurs, the scoring just stopped; more than any other player, Paul makes his teammates better and facilitates their offense, while also being a force defensively, leading the league in steals.

After Paul, we come to the Hornets' second All-Star and the man I believe is the most underrated player in the league, power forward David West.  West is also fundamental to the Hornets' offense, especially in tandem with Paul, where he practically makes a living making jumpers off of the pick-and-roll.  Though creating his own shot is not his strong suit, he can do that as well to some extent.

The biggest issue for West is developing consistency and confidence playing away from home; while he had two 30-point games at home against the Spurs, including a 38-point 14-rebound explosion in game 5, he had a pair of 10-point 5-rebound games in San Antonio.  This is the kind of progression that naturally comes with experience in the postseason, so don't expect him to have bad games on the road next year in the playoffs.

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