Hornets Beat the Clippers, Spend from the Tank Account

Chris Paul returned to New Orleans last night, and the scene was charged. Much unlike your average Hornets game, the arena was packed and pulsating.

The crowd was rewarded with a victory that ultimately did not help New Orleans in any literal sense. Their season is done, has been done. In theory, they should be tanking hard for a top pick at this point.

So is this a "bad" win, as emotionally fulfilling as it was? Rohan Cruyff of the "At the Hive" blog would disagree, and he offers some pretty fair points.

At 11-35 before last night, a loss would have given the awful Hornets only a roughly .1 percent better chance at Davis than they've already earned. I say "earned," because New Orleans has prudently pre-tanked the season. From Rohan:

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The Hornets aren't intentionally losing; they're just bad. It's a stupid distinction, sure, but it's still one worth making. By rejecting the Lakers' trade and accepting the Clippers', they earned the right to lose without being questioned on a nightly basis. When Monty Williams starts DaJuan Summers for three games, it's because he has few other alternatives. When he experiments with an all-backup front court to close out an entire fourth quarter, it's not particularly "risky" given what the starters would probably accomplish.

The Hornets paid full price for their tank up front; now we simply get to watch it roll.

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New Orleans acquired a year of badness and now have so much saved in the tank account that spending on a symbolic win is acceptable. Late-tanking teams like Portland and Golden State can afford no such frivolities if they want a top pick.