NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In the Big Easy, the rebuilding can wait, at least as far as the Hornets are concerned.
Team executives Hugh Weber and Chad Shinn said the club is not ready to part ways with coach Byron Scott or overhaul the lineup that looked powerless to prevent this season from fizzling out well short of expectations.
Weber said the Hornets are even prepared to pay the NBA’s punitive luxury tax to keep Chris Paul, David West, Tyson Chandler and Peja Stojakovic together for another season — if such a move appears to be New Orleans’ best chance to remain a playoff contender.
“If we have to go over the luxury tax in order to stay competitive, the answer is yes,” Weber said. “At the same time … if we don’t have to, we won’t.”
Weber added that Scott never expressed a desire to leave during postseason meetings in the past week and that any interest other teams may have in the coach is “not an issue.”
“Maybe it’s just the nature of this business — when you see that there’s disappointment, the natural instinct is to rebuild and restructure everything,” Weber said. “We feel good about this team. We think that the difference between what we had this year and what we want to be is perhaps incremental and not starting from scratch.”
Two seasons ago, the Hornets won a franchise record 56 regular season games, won the Southwest Division and came within one victory of advancing to the Western Conference finals. This season, injuries plagued Chandler and Stojakovic, and the Hornets saw their regular season wins drop by seven. They made the playoffs as a seventh seed before Denver dispatched them in only five games, including one game in which Denver’s 58-point victory margin tied for the most lopsided trouncing in NBA playoff history.
Yet Chad Shinn, son of Hornets majority owner George Shinn, said he didn’t necessarily see a team that had quit on its coach.
“In all fairness … we ran into a buzz saw,” Shinn said. “Denver’s playing unbelievable basketball. … They just played great, the whole team did on both ends of the floor and they deserve it.”
Weber and Shinn did not get into specifics about which positions require tinkering and they did not rule out major trades. However, Weber said he still sees Paul and West, both two-time All-Stars, as the nucleus of the team. Shinn added that a trade involving West would be “very unlikely.”
Still, a trade of one of their higher-paid players by next February’s trading deadline could help the Hornets avoid paying the NBA’s luxury tax. The luxury tax threshold is expected to be around where it is now, possibly lower due to recession. Much will depend on league revenues for this season, some of which were locked in before the recession hit.
If the Hornets keep all current starters, they’d likely have to pay several million dollars in luxury taxes.
They could try to trade Chandler, who is due $12 million next season. Whether there are any takers, given his injury problems, remains in question. New Orleans already failed to trade him once last winter, when Oklahoma City sent him back after citing concerns about his big toe — a surprise given his main injury this season was a sprained left ankle.
Weber said he expects Chandler — who at 7-foot-1 can be a menacing defender and constant alley-oop threat — to return fully fit next season.
“He’s never missed a game for his toe,” Weber said. “His issue with his ankle this year — you all know that’s a tough injury to overcome, and I think some good time off, some rehab, we hope to see Tyson back to form.”
Stojakovic is due $29.5 million during the next two seasons. That, combined with the fact that he’ll be 32 next season and that his back has bothered him for several years, will make him tough to trade as well.
Weber said the key to how far the Hornets go next year may be finding new talent to improve depth, or to better develop young players already on the squad. While Weber didn’t cite any underachievers by name, it was clear that former first-round draft picks Julian Wright and Hilton Armstrong, who both averaged below five points a game, were disappointments.
Weber did single out shooting guard Rasual Butler as an example of what went right. Butler, a healthy scratch for 32 games in 2007-08, broke into the starting lineup early this season and averaged 11.2 points.
“What Rasual do we have sitting on our bench now who can be a contributor next year?” Weber said.
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Hornets stand by Scott – 5/7, 6:20 p.m.
May 6, 2009