New Orleans Hornets Creating a Buzz

That buzzing sound being heard in San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix are not bees, but Hornets...the kind from New Orleans.

That's right; the New Orleans Hornets have planted themselves among the Western elite, as most well-balanced team in the NBA.

With an MVP-like point guard in Chris Paul, two big men down low in David West, the scorer, and Tyson Chandler, the rebounder; and a legitimate outside shooter in Peja Stojakovic, the Hornets are well on their way to challenging for Western Conference supremacy.

After a 12-2 month of January, with convincing wins over San Antonio and Denver, the Hornets find themselves tied with the Dallas Mavericks for the second spot in the loaded West, as well as the Southwest Division lead.

If not for a current three-game losing streak, they might still be number one in the West like they were a couple of weeks ago, or at least tied with the Phoenix Suns for number one. But the question that looms over this team is whether they can win when the pressure is at its highest: in the playoffs.

If the recent history of the past NBA title winners is any indication, then I believe the Hornets have a legitimate chance to make a deep playoff run. Most past title winners all have had one thing in common: They all had strong play from the point guard and center positions.

The Spurs had Tony Parker feeding the ball into Tim Duncan to the tune of three and four rings respectively; the Lakers had Kobe Bryant feeding it into Shaquille O'Neal for three rings, plus another ring for O'Neal with Dwyane Wade while playing for the Miami Heat.

Even though Kobe wasn't a true point guard, he handled most of the point guard duties during that three-peat.

An exception to this is, of course, the Chicago Bulls' dominance in the 1990s.  Then again, Scottie Pippen played a darn good point-forward.

The Hornets have both of those positions playing at high levels this season, with Paul being an MVP candidate, averaging 20.7 ppg, 10.9 apg and 2.5 spg; and West and Chandler anchoring the middle, averaging a combined 31.7 ppg, 21.6 rpg and 2.3 bpg.

Not only do the Hornets have strong play at the guard and center positions, they also have a coach who led his New Jersey Nets to the NBA Finals two years in a row in 2002 and 2003.

Although he lost both of those finals matchups, he no doubt gained tremendous experience to pass along to this young Hornets team. The Hornets are a respectable 4-2 against the West power triumvirate of Dallas, San Antonio, and Phoenix. 

If the playoffs started today, the Hornets would face San Antonio in the first round and have home field advantage. The Hornets are 16-8 at home and, for a young team like this, it will be imperative that, in their first round matchup, they play four games at New Orleans Arena.

We saw last year what a young and inexperienced team can do on their home court when the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors upset the one-seeded Dallas Mavericks. 

With the head coach, point guard, and center positions all excelling, that leaves one last important part of a deep playoff run: defense.

The Hornets rank fourth in the NBA in opponents' points per game, allowing 93.4 ppg. They are allowing opponents to shoot 34 percent from three-point range, with a 45 percent field goal percentage.

Both marks are highly impressive for such a young team who no one thought would be making this much noise at this point in the season.

The three Western powers are hearing the faint buzz of the Hornets coming west along  Interstate 10, and as that noise is getting louder and louder, they're starting to take notice.