With a new GM and Head Coach in the fold (Dell Demps and Monty Williams respectfully) the franchise is hoping to keep both David West and Chris Paul on the team while trying to rebuild around them without calling it rebuilding. "When you have Chris Paul and David West, you are not rebuilding," said Williams, formerly an assistant with the Trail Blazers and the Spurs. "I don't feel like we're in the rebuilding stage, but I don't think we are a step away from winning a championship, either."
The emphasis will be on defense for the Hornets this season. With both Demps and Williams hailing from the Spurs organization, you can be sure that defense will be scrutinized. "We're going to make sure we keep defense at the forefront," Williams said. "We have to become a better defensive team. If we don't, we're not going to be as good as we can be."
After winning the 2007/08 NBA Coach of the year, Coach Byron Scott was fired on November 12, 2009 and GM Jeff Bower took over and is still in that duel role. After acquiring Emeka Okafor for Tyson Chandler, the team then went out and signed Ike Diogu. In the draft, the Hornets picked up Darren Collison with the 21st overall pick of the 2009 draft. The team then traded to future 2nd round picks to the Heat for the 43rd pick of the draft, Marcus Thornton.
The team is sitting at 11-13 and the team is still trying to jell into a formidable force. Get on out and get your tickets and watch as your New Orleans Hornets, led by Chris Paul, Emeka Okafor, David West, James Posey and the rest of the Hornets.
The Hornets franchise began life in the city of Charlotte. After the team owner George Shinn put the city on notice that his team would leave if a new arena was not built for his team at no cost to the franchise, the city at first refused. Then under pressure from Shinn, the city balked and included a new arena package in Uptown on a non binding referendum. Shinn withdrew his petition to leave from the NBA but then the unthinkable happened. Then Mayor Pat McCrory vetoed a living wage ordinance that would have given city employees a boost in pay. This one event led to the coordination of the city’s black ministers who, en mass, went to the streets to oppose the new arena citing that it was immoral for the city to build a new arena when it couldn’t pay its city workers a fair and decent wage.
The team would relocate after the end of the 2001/02 season moving into the New Orleans Arena, next to the Louisiana Superdome. The team would continue to grow and build its fan base when in Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29th, 2005. The destruction forced the franchise to temporarily relocate to Oklahoma City where the fans welcomed the team with open arms.
It would not be until the 2007-08 season that the team would move back to Louisiana much to the relief and delight of the citizens of New Orleans who were already flirting with losing their professional NFL team.
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