Hornets to work draft prospects starting Tuesday

• By LES EAST
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Jun 8, 2008 - UPDATED: 4:07 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Hornets' NBA draft preparations get into full swing this week as they’ll hold four sets of workouts with prospects beginning Tuesday.

It’s the latest step, after the predraft camp in Orlando, Fla., late last month, in getting ready for the June 26 NBA draft.

At the same time, General Manager Jeff Bower and coach Byron Scott are mapping out a game plan for free agency. Negotiations with free agents can begin July 1.

July 1 is also the first day New Orleans can begin talks with All-Star point guard Chris Paul on a long-term contract. But that negotiating period lasts until Oct. 31 and Paul has a year left on his contract.

“Obviously it’s an important topic, but it’s one for which the timing hasn’t begun,” Bower said this week. “Obviously, we have a very high priority on Chris. We’ll be dealing with that as soon as we’re permitted. We would all like to think that we’ll be able to put something together during that time frame, but I won’t be presumptuous to guess at this point.”

So in the meantime, the Hornets are trying to figure out what they’ll do with the 27th pick in the draft.

“When you get to the 27th spot in the draft,” Scott said, “I don’t think you can really look at one guy and say this is the guy we want. You have to look at a bunch of people and say we’ll take the best one of those that’s available at that time. The guy we get at that spot is probably going to be able to help us in the future.”

By July 1, the Hornets will know exactly what they’re dealing with in regards to their roster.

Their starting five is under contract, but three reserves – swingman Bonzi Wells, forward Ryan Bowen, and center Chris Andersen – will become free agents July 1. Two other reserves – guard Jannero Pargo and center Melvin Ely – can opt out of their deals.

“The biggest thing is we’ve got the opportunity to build on the players that we have here and the continuity that we’ve been able to establish over the last year,” Bower said. “This was the first year that that group played together. We’ve seen the second year in just about any job is so much easier, so much smoother.

“So I think we’re going to see some growth just because of the experience factor with the group as it stands. We’re going to see individual improvement from a number of our guys on the roster. As July unfolds we’ll be looking to make some things happen to give us a little bit of help.”

Scott said the Hornets will be looking to improve their depth at center, point guard, and with an athletic player that can play shooting guard and small forward.

Bower said he and Scott have been working on finalizing their roster for the summer league in July, but aren’t ready to announce who will participate.

One negotiation already completed is the signing of Scott to a two-year extension that keeps him with the organization for three more seasons.

Scott had a brief window during which he could have bought his way out of the final year of his old deal to go elsewhere, but chose to stay put. He said shortly before he agreed to the new deal he ran into Michael Jordan in Orlando.

“He told me, ‘you’re not really thinking about leaving Chris Paul, are you?’ ” Scott recalled, “and I said, “No, not really.’ ”

Scott said he hadn’t watched a lot of the Lakers-Spurs Western Conference finals and didn’t plan to watch all of the Lakers-Celtics in the NBA finals. Realizing how close the Hornets were to moving on before losing a 3-2 lead to the Spurs in the Western semis, made it hard to watch.

A statistic on NBA.com, the Lenovo Stat, measures the point differential when a group of five players is on the court together. Among the final eight playoff teams, New Orleans’ starting five of Chris Paul, Morris Peterson, Peja Stojakovic, David West, and Tyson Chandler, had the best number after the Lakers and the Celtics.

Scott said the expectation that the Hornets will duplicate and exceed this season’s success made the extension enticing.

“There’s a buzz here right now,” Scott said. “I thought in the next couple of years we’d really have a chance to make some hay and maybe get a chance to play (in June) next year.

“Everything is here for us right now. The fans have been fantastic. When you look at January on, the sellouts that we had, the support that we were getting, the way our guys performed, led right to us getting into the semifinals. All we can do right now is aspire to go up, be a little better next year.”