HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

Sometimes certain NBA franchises just seem to be cursed. The injury curses haunting the Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers are so prevalent that those stories have almost become ho-hum, but they are nothing like what the New Orleans Hornets have had to deal with over the last four or five seasons. Their tumultuous ownership situation is just the latest in a series of most unfortunate events, which really began when the team moved out of Charlotte under challenging conditions.

"What I will tell you is that I get a lot of confidence from our staff," Hornets President Hugh Weber tells HOOPSWORLD. "You know we have 135 people working directly for the team, who get their paychecks and support their families directly off this team. I met with them as soon as the news came to me, gathered them all in a room, and it made me think about how much this group has been through over the last five years. Whether it was the relocation (to Oklahoma City and back, due to Hurricane Katrina), the attendance issues the first year back, having a good team on the court and watching it explode . . .my point is, this is a battle-tested organization. They’ve been through so many things and really worked through and come out on the other side pretty well. I have a lot of faith in our group that we’re going to do everything one day at a time, and that’s going to give us the best chance of success."

Hornets fans have already gone through a great deal this season, and season ticket holders weren’t particularly enthused by the complete overhaul of the team’s leadership over the summer. The ownership issue was one thing, but replacing long-time GM Jeff Bower and the team’s coaching staff (again) with younger and seemingly unproven leaders didn’t inspire confidence. . .or ticket sales. Insiders know new head coach Monty Williams and Dell Demps well, and thought those were solid choices. Casual NBA fans, not so much.

"As we go out and talk to season ticket holders who dropped this year we hear a pretty common thread," Weber explains. "They talk about this summer, where we hired a new coach, a new GM, an ownership issue that hasn’t been resolved, there’s some confusion about Chris Paul’s future, and you guys have been good for four and a half weeks. We’re getting back on board, we’re not going to panic yet. We were 1-7 in preseason, no one expected this, and it will take some time, but I think that there is still a real engagement with people. They love this team. Our TV ratings are up 83% over prior year, people who have tickets are showing up to the games . . .it’s just a matter of getting those folks who fell off the radar last summer back on.

"We could have picked a name coach or a name GM or, you know, sexy picks here and there, but we really looked at who we needed to build the right culture for the long term," Weber continues. "The fact that we’ve had some short-term success, probably a little bit ahead of the pace, just galvanizes the culture and the support of the fans a little bit faster because they see that this team is having some success early on. The fact of the matter is, we’re not judging our success on Dell and Monty after 15 or 18 games. This is something we’re going to judge over many seasons and we’re very confident in both the people we’ve hired and the system we’ve built. It’s not just the two of them; they’ll tell you that we have 24 new people in basketball operations and this was a ground-up rebuilding. That’s different than what most teams do, but it was something that we felt was needed after 22 years in this organization."

As for the ownership question, this latest news that present owner George Shinn and minority owner Gary Chouest wanted out before the end of the year came as a bit of a surprise, and is apparently driven by some urgent financial needs on the part of Shinn.

"I had an interesting kind of experience, because I was very involved with Gary and George, but as they started to talk about a transaction I took a step back and was really an advocate for the team," says Weber. "I wasn’t privy to all of the conversations. I understand that after the fact Mr. Shinn called the commissioner and had a conversation and that obviously made some things start to happen, so I don’t know exactly when that happened, but I know it’s been more like weeks and not months. You look at all of the possibilities. I knew that Mr. Shinn and his family really had some timelines that they needed to transact something before the end of the calendar year. That’s what I really knew, but short of that I didn’t know exactly what it looked like."

In the mean time, Weber has been working feverishly to get the word out that in spite of the ownership situation and rumors to the contrary, the Hornets are not planning to leave New Orleans.

"I know that there have been some folks who have said that we’re moving the team, but we sent out an email to our fans on Tuesday night and I put my email address on there. I got an overwhelming numbers of emails that were supporting, people saying they’re in this with us, and that’s kind of the mindset of the people of New Orleans. They roll up their sleeves and say even though everyone else is saying this can’t be done, we’re going to do it and there really is a lot of fight in them. I think we’re all fighting for the same thing, and that’s to really represent the community well. They see the Hornets as a big asset to the community and they want to see the team here for a long time."

More than anything, Weber wants to get the message out that far from being dead in the water, the Hornets are open for business and serious about bringing playoff basketball back to the Big Easy.

"If you look at the budget we’ve had as a team over the last three or four seasons, we did spend. We were over the cap for much of last year and have made some trades over the last two or three seasons to improve the team. I don’t think the question is about having more resources, but if you think about the transition from one owner to another, the league stepping in has given us a longer runway in terms of finding someone who might be more stable long-term."

The NBA will not permanently own the New Orleans Hornets, and they are not nearly as anxious to move the team as George Shinn and his partners were. The NBA believes the first, best option is to keep the Hornets in New Orleans, where they hope to continue being an important part of the ongoing efforts to rebuild the city. The Hornets have been through worse, and come out strong on the other side. No doubt this latest issue of ownership will be another such character-building experience for the team and the city.

"I think he’s the piece who can help turn this franchise around," says Warriors head coach Keith Smart. "We saw it early in that New York game, where he was really turning the corner in understanding his new position. He’s learning the four position, how to play the four offensively and defensively. Fours in the NBA get back to a shooting four pretty quick, and he was starting to turn that corner but then the injury set him back. He has to reset a little bit."

Lee is back and doing what he does, cleaning the glass and working hard to adjust to his new team. HOOPSWORLD sat down with Lee to talk about the transition from New York to Golden State, head coach Keith Smart, why he’s better suited to play the four than the five, and the one big challenge he still has to face before he fully arrives as a Warrior:

{AUTHOR_BOX}Blazers Preparing to Rebuild?

You had to see this one coming. The Portland Trail Blazers, who just three seasons ago were thought to be the next NBA powerhouse, are now talking about trading away their veteran players and starting over nearly from scratch.

Injuries are, of course, the reason for the changing hearts in Portland. The vision of Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden being a dominant big three in the NBA slips further and further away with each surgery for Oden and each missed game for Roy. The sad reality is that those three may never play together again, and that Roy’s future is definitely in question.

"The obvious targets for such a purge would be Marcus Camby (36), Andre Miller (34), and Joel Przybilla (31)," writes CBS Sportsline’s Ken Berger. "Roy isn’t old, but his knees are — though one of the sources said Portland would find no takers for the five years and $82.3 million remaining on Roy’s contract, given the state of his meniscus-less knees. Przybilla ($7.4 million expiring contract) and Miller (whose $7.8 million salary in 2011-12 is fully non-guaranteed) are eminently moveable. Another candidate to be dealt, though not because of age or health, is Rudy Fernandez, who has wanted out of Portland for some time. Sources caution that the Blazers have engaged in only internal conversations about this strategy, and it is contingent upon the team (10-11) continuing to struggle. But the writing certainly is on the wall for major changes in Portland."

As Canzano cleverly points out, the Blazers even have a scapegoat in place for whatever happens in the immediate aftermath of a trade or series of trades that could turn the team upside down. Head coach Nate McMillan has not been able to reach terms on a mutually-agreeable contract extension, and so could find himself martyred as the team heads down a new road.

What’s happening in Portland is a travesty. Blazers fan or not, you have to appreciate a team that builds from the ground up, finds players of great character to go along with their great talent, and then has the entire operation derailed by debilitating injuries. It seems the team that seemed so destined for greatness is now headed for the scrap heap.