Did the Hornets give up on Scott too soon?
In a shocking NBA move, the New Orleans Hornets have fired head coach Byron Scott, according to league sources. The team is expected to make a formal announcement sometime on Thursday.
Scott is being let go following a slow start for the Hornets, as they’ve gone just 3-6 through their first nine contests, and have been struggling to keep up with opponents on both ends of the floor, while star point guard has had to create and carry the scoring load almost all by himself.
A lack of depth could attrbute to the slow start, as well as off-season moves that may not have materialized as planned.
The Hornets signed forward James Posey last season, in hopes that he could bring is defense and energy from the Boston Celtics championship team, but he has yet to find his role with the team, and hasn’t made the impact that was hoped.
Another transaction that has not paid off for the Hornets was the straight-up trade for Emeka Okafor, sending disgruntled center Tyson Chandler to the Charlotte Bobcats. Okafor had not made major strides in his career leading up to the trade, but New Orleans was hoping acquiring him would give them the consistent low-post threat and defensive presence they needed opposite of star power forward, David West.
In turn, they lost the energy and dunking machine-esque energy that Chandler brough to the table.
GM Jeff Bower will reportedly take over interim head coaching duties until the team has a permanent replacement, while there are also reports that the team will be bringing back former coach Tim Floyd as an assistant.
This is a very surprising move considering the Hornets are a young team with no true star players outside of Chris Paul, and accoding to most sources throughout the NBA, many people felt Scott was the best man for the job, and was doing remarkably well.
Scott inherited a terrible New Orleans team in 2004, a year after being fired by the New Jersey Nets under similar circumstances, when the Nets actually had a record above .500, at 22-20.
Scott built the Hornets into contenders, taking a team that he coached to an 18-64 record in his first year, to a playoff birth in 2007 with a 56-26 record. The Hornets dropped down to 49 wins last season, yet still made the playoffs.
The Hornets GM obviously took the Hornets slow start and Scott’s inability to move them past the second round in the playoffs as a sign that he took them as far as he could, and that they needed to move in a different direction. Somehow, however, it seems as if Scott was short-changed after being allowed just nine games to turn things around this season.
Not just that. Probably Scott is the best asset they have outside of CP3. I dont know but I think Jeff Bower would not perform better than Scott..