High expectations for Hornets

• By LES EAST
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Sep 27, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — The NBA let the Hornets start training camp early because they’ll be spending part of it in Europe, but the league couldn’t make it start soon enough for coach Byron Scott.

“For the past three weeks I’ve been biting at the bit, ready to get going,” Scott said Friday during Media Day at the New Orleans Arena. “The season ended on a sour note, but after watching the Lakers and the Celtics (in the NBA Finals) and seeing some of our games replayed on television, I got geared up.”

New Orleans has its first training camp practice today, and Scott has plenty to be excited about. The “sour note” — a loss at home to San Antonio in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals — came after the Hornets won a franchise-record 56 games, their first division title, and a best-of-seven playoff series for the first time.

Those accomplishments, plus the youth of the team’s top three players — All-Star point guard Chris Paul (23), All-Star forward David West (28), and center Tyson Chandler (25) — have many preseason prognosticators putting New Orleans in the Western Conference finals or even the NBA Finals.

“We’re coming in loose,” West said. “The big thing for us is we have to make sure that we’re climbing throughout the season, that we take it one step at a time. We have to have the mental strength to not let other folks’ expectations get in the way of what we have to do.”

Scott said his biggest challenge initially will be trying to slow down the ultra-competitive Paul, who helped Team USA win a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in August.

“We already had one fight,” Scott said with a smile. “I told him that in the first couple of preseason games I’m only going to play him 20 or 25 minutes tops.”

Scott said he told Paul when he was selected for the Olympic team that he was happy for him, but he hoped he’d only play about five minutes a game so he’d be fresher for the Hornets’ season. But Paul became an integral part of Team USA.

“That U.S. team was all about the gold medal,” Paul said. “You’d visualize that gold medal every day before practice. You knew what you were striving for. I think that same approach can work for this team. You never want to look too far ahead, but you always understand that we’re not trying to make the playoffs, we’re trying to win this thing.”

Scott wants Paul to catch his breath after the busy summer while he gives more playing time to Mike James and Devin Brown, who will be competing to be Paul’s primary backup after Jannero Pargo signed with a team in Russia.

“I want to give those guys more reps,” Scott said, “so they can pick up the system.”

James played sparingly with the Hornets after being acquired in a trade with Houston in February, and Brown rejoined the team as a free agent after spending a season with Cleveland.

Scott said another preseason competition will be between James Posey, the team’s marquee offseason acquisition, Julian Wright, the team’s No. 1 draft choice who showed flashes of ability as a rookie, and veteran Rasual Butler, whose minutes have dwindled the last couple of seasons.