I'm not going to lie; I thought Melvin Ely would be much better than he was this year, and I thought David West would be a little bit worse. Both players defied my expectations. One was an All-Star, and one registered a -3 +/- score in game that he played exactly 1 second. Here's a game-by-game look at the two Hornet power forwards, again using Hollinger's Game Score (individual game PER). At the top again, are the high GS, low GS, average GS and standard deviation. The yellow line is a 5 game moving average. Click either graph for bigger.

Best Game: January 28 vs. DEN. Ely missed 12 consecutive games in December and January with a broken eyesocket, courtesy of the Nuggets' Kenyon Martin. So it was especially satisfying to see him go off against Martin and Co. to the tune of 16 and 9 on 7 for 9 shooting. He played 22 minutes in his best game of the year, slightly better than a start at Detroit.

Trends: Really nothing spectacular, and not too much to draw from the graph. The trend line is all over the place. Interestingly, he was playing some of his worst basketball going into the playoffs. He peaked early in the year, and never reached that level after his injury.

Best Game: DX had quite a few excellent games during his first All-Star campaign. But I think all Hornets fans will agree that one stood out more than the rest: March 22nd. West poured in 37 points against Defensive Player of the Year Kevin Garnett, unafraid of KG's menacing glares or incessant floor pounding. He not only had those 37 points, he also had the flexing pose of the year, perhaps topping Tyson Chandler's swagger off the court in January.

Trends: The consistency you would expect from an All-Star is surprisingly lacking; even watching every game during the regular season, that didn't seem to be the case to me. But it is. West seems to take a few games to recover from a single bad game, which is the opposite of what the media kept reporting during the playoffs. But still, a 15.3 Game Score average? Nothing to sneeze at...

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And One!

The Hornets weren't too deep in the frontcourt, but they definitely had good size in their centers. A quick game-by-game look at how Tyson Chandler and Hilton Armstrong did this year using John Hollinger's Game Score (essentially an individual game version of PER). Included on top are Chandler and Armstrong's best game, worst game, average Game Score, and standard deviation. The yellow line is a 5-game moving average to give you a feel for how segments of the player's season went. As always, click the graphs for larger images.

Best Game: January 4th @ Golden State. TC went off for a huge 20-20 (22 and 22 to be precise) and missed just two field goals as the Hornets defeated the Warriors by 12. Andris Biedrins and the rest of the starved-for-size Dubs stood no chance against the rampaging Chandler. He fueled the first half of an impressive sweep of a road back-to-back versus the Dubs and Suns. 

Trends: Chandler recovered nicely from an early season slump and probably played his best basketball in the month leading up to the All Star break. The second half saw him slump a little bit, but he picked up his play for the stretch run.

Best Game: February 6th @ Phoenix. While this game wasn't statistically his best, it was my favorite Hilt game of the year. He showed some flashes, knocking down a mid-range jumper off glass and throwing down a big dunk and one. Oh, and he yelled after the dunk. He finished that game with 6 and 7 and followed it up with a season high 11 his next time out.

Trends: Hilton's graphs are marked by prolonged slumps that just don't seem to end very quickly. Many Hornets fans astutely remarked that Hilton's biggest problem is confidence, and these trends confirm that. Seems like he just gets down on himself and can't break out of slumps (or get the minutes needed to do so). Interesting little detail: Armstrong's best game (9.2) is more than 2 points lower than Tyson's average (11.9). That has to change if Armstrong is going to be the back-up center of the future.

Feel free to leave your comments on the draft here. Using my crystal ball, I predict that the Hornets draft Courtney Lee.

Or CDR. Bill Walker even. But one of those three, for sure.

Well, the end of the How'd He Do series is imminent. All the major players are in the books, with only Ryan Bowen, Rasual Butler, Chris Andersen, and Mike James left to review. So this is probably a good time to stop and check out what's gone down thus far. Thanks to all of you that voted, you've helped create the first ever batch of Hornet approval ratings!

• Melvin Ely (41%)
• Morris Peterson (67%)
• David West (95%)
• Bonzi Wells (58%)
• Peja Stojakovic (91%)
• Jannero Pargo (70%)
• Hilton Armstrong (34%)
• Tyson Chandler (97%)
• Julian Wright
• Chris Paul (100%)
  

As I mentioned in some of the comments, I removed '1' ratings for a few players. Seriously, Peja did not have a 1 season. Neither did David West or Tyson Chandler. Get over New Orleans' success, bitter fans of other teams.

The top 3 were CP (duh), TC, and DX in that order. Peja was 4th, and General Pargo overtook Mo-Pete for the 5th spot. Bonzi probably caused the most division. Some people (myself) had him high, while others pegged him as a 1. Ely and Armstrong didn't score well, but hopefully they will both rebound excellently. Finally, I'm surprised that Tyson finished higher than DX. Interesting.

The How'd He Do is the first part of @tH's player review series for the summer. Next up are some funky graphs and a best game thingamabob (huh, the spell check recognizes this??). The draft can't come soon enough...

Player reviews are winding down at last, and today, we get to take a look at #3. Chris Paul stepped up his game to a ridiculous level this year. Last year, it was the chic thing to call Utah's Deron Williams a better point guard than Paul just because he advanced to the Conference Finals. That line of thought left out two critical points: (a) Paul played through injury for numerous games last year, and (b) Paul actually had a significantly better season statistically than Williams despite those injuries. So while the national media went goo-goo-ga-ga over D-Will, and while it stung a little bit to hear analysts call Williams the "right decision" over CP, Hornet fans knew the best was yet to come for Paul. And, oh man, we couldn't have been more right.

via assets.espn.go.com

Positives: Where do I start? Most durable season of career (80 games), huge leap in shooting range and eFG% (nearly 60 points!), career best and NBA high 3.9 STL%, career low turnovers, 3rd lowest TOV% among point guards (Iverson, Davis), career high usage rate (25.1%),  first 20 point/10 assist player since Tim Hardaway, AST% of 52 highest in NBA history by any player not named Stockton, PER of 28.3 highest in NBA history by a point guard

Negatives: Gambling defensive style, and uhh... ... ...  hmmm. 37% three point shooting?

My Grade: 5, Explanation: There's really not much to explain. CP is hands down the best player to ever put on the Teal. People have long criticized his shooting. This year, he shot the three better than Kobe (who was invited to the 3-Pt Shootout). Yes, he struggles against Deron Williams. When Jazz fans compare the two, they always point to the head-to-head, and conveniently ignore the other 78 or so games. I don't think there's even a shadow of a doubt as to the best point guard in the League.

He has the kind of worth ethic that makes you believe he will improve his defense. His range and shooting ability will only continue to improve. His fouls/minute have decreased significantly year by year.

In many ways, Paul is the perfect basketball player. He's as good in the community as he is on the court, he motivates his teammates constantly, and he has an intense competitive spirit when playing. No, he doesn't  D-Will's crossover or three point stroke. But the way things are going, it's not Deron that CP should be compared to; it's Magic and Oscar.

Touted as a top-10 draft pick last summer, Julian Wright somehow fell into our hands at #13 where we gladly snapped him up. One year of Flight 32 is in the books... How'd He Do?

via www.nba.com

Positives: Breathtaking athleticism, crazy dunking ability, surprising touch from deep in small sample size (42% on 24 trifectas), good handles (15.1 TOV%), good court vision, excellent one-on-one defender, virtually same PER as ROY Kevin Durant (15.8 to 15.4)

Negatives: Tendency to pass up open jumpers, terrible FT shooter in small sample size (64%)

My Grade: 4, Explanation: Sky's the limit with JuJu. Last year, I was most excited about his defensive ability. So every time he hit a three or threw one down, it just felt like icing on the cake. Wright has the potential to be an extremely good one-on-one offensive player. If he does put the work into his game to make it happen, Chris Paul and David West will become that much better.

My vision of Wright, 2 or 3 years down the road? Bruce Bowen, with Stephen Jackson-like offensive ability (hopefully not the jacking up threes wildly part), and without the dirty mindset. We definitely got one of the gems of the '07 draft class.

Welcome to #29 of the 30 Greatest Hornets of All-Time. It is part of an ongoing series in the summer of '08 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Hornet franchise. Today's contribution by junsier. Today's references: Roto Evil (image). Enjoy!

As an avid card collector through the early nineties, I found that one of the more common Hornets' cards was that of Mike Gminski. It seemed like every other pack had the 6'11" "G Man" striking lanky rebounding positions with his short shorts.

Mike came to the Hornets midway through the '90-'91 season, which was the Hornets third season. At that time I didn't really knew who he was, just that he played for the Sixers and Nets before Charlotte. But Mike did have an exceptional career back in Duke as well; he's currently in the ACC Hall of Fame and averaged a double-double for two straight years. He was pretty good on the Nets too, drafted 7th overall; he averaged 16.5 points and a little under 9 rebounds per game. So this was a solid acquisition for the Hornets when they got him in the trade from Philly.

One thing to remember well was his free-throw shooting. He was a career 84.3% shooter, not too bad for a guy his size. Like I said before, he did have a fairly decent jump shot, which stretched out the D and opened things offensively for the whole team. Mike himself played great defense (playing under Coach K in Duke), and he was the kind of lock-down defender down low that the Bees could count on- a post player that could clean the glass, play solid defense, and score when given the oppurtunity.

All in all, "Big G" was the kind of role-player you might forget after a few seasons, a solid player but not memorable enough to worship. Ironically, he'd be the perfect addition in the low post for the Hornets this summer.

An interesting ending note, currently Big Mike has his own website and blog as a respected analyst of ACC basketball. In addition, Mike is now a passionate cook, wine-taster, marathon biker, and philanthropist. Read about his "personal note" about his life after the NBA.

Teal Tallies: 43rd in Points (940), 31st in Rebounds (643), 29th in Blocks (60), 30th in FT% (79%), Total Salary of $4, 915, 000 from the Hornets