I liked what the Hornets did in this draft, as the really set themselves up nicely with their first round picks. Armstrong downlow will be a nice player, like many from this draft, i'm not expecting all star or anything in his future but a solid player that will do what the Hornets need is what he will be. Cedric Simmons gives the Hornets another big body downlow, and having a four man rotation in the low post of Armstrong, West, Simmons, and Brown is not bad all. Considering the troubles they had with big men getting injured last year, i can see why they wanted more big men. I believe this could definately be a playoff team this upcoming year.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (valo35 @ Jun 29 2006, 09:41 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I believe this could definately be a playoff team this upcoming year.</div>I hope you're right, but last I heard, a team has to score point in order to win games. Most analysts seemed to think the Hornets problem was playing undersized at the center position. However, that would really only affect the team defensively, and they ranked 20th in the league defensively. On offense, they were ranked 26th.Having watched their games, two things really hurt the team. Long stretches without scoringFor the season, the Hornets outplayed their opponents in the first, second, and fourth quarters. They won 3/4 of the game, but lost more than half of their games. I'm not sure why it was the third quarter, but the fact was they would go from a large winning margin to a large losing margin and be unable to surmount the hole in the fourth. Had they had a player who could just take it on himself to score, this would not have happened. While Chris Paul is fantastic, his skill is distributing. Inability to make an outside shot.Part of the "long stretches without scoring" problem is related to this. The Hornets killed teams when they went mano-y-mano. When the relaxed into a zone, though, it was ballgame. Not a single player on the team could consistently hit a three pointer. So, the defense would take away the cuts to the basket and coax the Hornets into jacking it up from outside. Sure, they needed some more depth down low. Simmons <u>or</u> Armstrong would have been helpful. With the other first round pick they should have taken someone like Quincy Douby who could make an outside shot and thinks like an alpha-scorer. Marquinhos in the second round may be able to fill that role eventually.
