Team Vets Hold Meeting After Loss To OKC

[rt0307]

http://www.nola.com/hornets/index.ss...tm_source=t.co

One by one, in a sepulchral New Orleans Hornets locker room, the team's veteran core walked grim-faced out of the training room: Jason Smith, Ryan Anderson, Robin Lopez Greivis Vasquez, Roger Mason Jr.

Behind closed doors, the five discussed what had transpired on the New Orleans Arena floor, a disheartening 100-79 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the second drubbing by the defending Western Conference champions in the last two weeks, and the second occasion this week where the Hornets felt as though they had put up little resistance to an opponent.

[Nola Hornet]

Not sure if this is a good thing or not?

[NDHornet]

I mean, what's to talk about really? You lose to (arguably) the best team in the Western Conference without your best two players on a night where you shoot very poorly.

Obviously the players want to win, but perhaps expectations are a little too high given the circumstances?

[iNolaNightmare]

I think this is a great thing. The real troopers on a team are the ones who can lead and stick by this team, win or lose.

[rt0307]

I mean, what's to talk about really? You lose to (arguably) the best team in the Western Conference without your best two players on a night where you shoot very poorly.

Obviously the players want to win, but perhaps expectations are a little too high given the circumstances?

I don't think it had to do w/ just this 1 loss... I think it has more to do w/ the fact that the Hornets were once 3-2 and have since lost 9 of the last 10... and in several of those games looked completely listless

[Nola Hornet]

Why wasn't Aminu invited to this meeting?

[neworleanshoo]

what veterans?

seriously, i was there tonight and it was a pretty awful showing, but nobody in that arena was too down about it. as noted above, playing without your best 2 players against that kind of talent.... we were just overmatched, pure and simple. throw in poor shooting and yikes.

that said - I have to admit, I'm getting more & more pessimistic about austin rivers. just don't see how he fits. Not a good enough ball handler to be a starting PG, and not a good enough shooter to be our starting SG. He can develop into pretty good depth... but that's pretty costly depth. hope i'm wrong.

sorry for the detour into riversland, feel free to ignore.

[UNO Gracias]

You don't have to be the best player on the team to be the leader.

[nolaslim213]

So, they didn't even invite the younger players? Am I getting this correct?

[luckyman]

So, they didn't even invite the younger players? Am I getting this correct?

They were too busy on xbox.

[rt0307]

They were too busy on xbox.

rookie level setting

[kinglio21093]

Why wasn't Aminu invited to this meeting?

My guess is that he's still really young, and doesn't have enough experience to be called a vet.

[Nola Hornet]

My guess is that he's still really young, and doesn't have enough experience to be called a vet.

As much experience as Vasquez has.

[FlyGirl]

Vasquez is almost 4 years older. Same amount of NBA years though.

[kinglio21093]

Vasquez has playoff experience. Aminu still hasn't established himself/

[Nola Hornet]

Vasquez has playoff experience. Aminu still hasn't established himself/

I'm sorry but his playoff experience doesn't apply here. Aminu has been on this team longer than 3/4 of the roster and is a starter on this team playing starter minutes. There's really no excuse to exclude him from the meeting.

[Mr. West]

Pretty weird. I wonder what they even talked about?

[Mr. West]

I'm sorry but his playoff experience doesn't apply here. Aminu has been on this team longer than 3/4 of the roster and is a starter on this team playing starter minutes. There's really no excuse to exclude him from the meeting.

Aminu is still a kid. The fact that he wasn't invited tells me that he obviously isn't one of the leaders of the team, he's still learning like the rest.

Besides, whats it matter to you? Are you Aminu's mom?

[FlyGirl]

Maybe the meeting was for players 24 and up. Who knows? None of us know why he was excluded.

[FlyGirl]

Aminu is still a kid. The fact that he wasn't invited tells me that he obviously isn't one of the leaders of the team, he's still learning like the rest.

Besides, what it matter to you? Are you Aminu's mom?

You're right in that he's definitely not a leader of the team. They mentioned something in the article about getting a little bit too discouraged early. I don't think they were talking about Aminu specifically but he does seem to get discouraged easily. For all we know, Aminu could've been meeting with Monty or another coach when this meeting took place. Fact is we don't know what he was doing or why he was excluded.

[Nola Hornet]

Aminu is still a kid. The fact that he wasn't invited tells me that he obviously isn't one of the leaders of the team, he's still learning like the rest.

Besides, whats it matter to you? Are you Aminu's mom?

Well, excuse me for wondering why the meeting held included everyone in the starting line up outside of Aminu. He could have really used a meeting like this to help him grow and lead in the same manner these vets are trying to.

[Mr. West]

My bad bro, just joking.

But it seems like it was the leaders of the team meeting up, and Al still acts young.

[NemesisKING]

This is getting even better, some of these guys are delusional and don't understand their limitations. I hope it makes them feel better, but probably will make them feel worse when it doesn't help.

At least we know that Monty hasn't lost the team. What ever he's selling, there still buying. If they really feel like they need to have a meeting about effort, i'm all for that. But if the meeting is about them believing they're a talented team as presently constructed, from top to bottom, and they should have a more wins than losses, then all of those "veterans" are crazy.

A quarter of this team shouldn't be on an NBA roster and if wasn't for the Hornets wouldn't be, this season. Another quarter though talented, are still in diapers and are learning on the job, but being held back by the other guys' lack of talent.

We've barely had Anthony Davis and never had Eric Gordon, it's about time we stop including them as a reason for losing. Eric Gordon hasn't really practiced with this team, didn't go on the bonding mission and has't played a minute in one win or one loss.

The reason we're losing has nothing to do with youth, because they're two guys barely out of they're teens that skew the whole age issue.

Everybody else with the exception of Darius Miller is either over 25 or has multiple NBA seasons under their belt and is technically considered a veteran by league standards.

It's a talent issue, It's these Monty-lite guys. These underdog type with out much talent that Monty has a soft spot for are the problem. This is the same coach that wouldn't give Marcus Thornton any playing time, barely gave Q-Pon minutes and got rid of Darren Collison before that, but he's telling Brian Roberts to shoot more.

So basically he's saying don't set up the offense or complete the pick and roll/pop.

Every time you get freed up shoot don't pass it to the open guy, Well that's the game he's been playing, so Monty wants to see more of that. A guy that requires picks/screen to get open to shoot, already is going to take more shots out of the flow of the game and away from guys like Ryno, Darius Miller and Austin Rivers.

Lance Thomas is another end of the bench guy who should never see the court, you're wasting minutes on him, he looks like the guy at the local court that everybody is scared of when he's guarding them and you get out of his way when he drives to the rim or he's rebounding because you're going to get kneed or elbowed.

He looks clownish when he's trying to put the ball in the whole, getting blocked by the net or the rim or himself. He's a young Ryan Bowen and Ryan Bowen never left the bench until the game was decided, did you ever see Ryan Bowen in a Hornets Advertisement(corrected).

You give anybody in the NBA minutes, a license to shoot and open looks and they're going to make some shots. The fact is that the bottom of this roster should be ever changing, this year and maybe next. You should be looking for young talent all over the place, "reclamation" projects.

Those former first round picks that were drafted by bad teams with poor coaching and given up on, even if there still on the roster of a team. If they have talent, they're young and can be had for cheap, go get them. Those guys we're giving minutes to right now will not get any better and are not apart of our future. They are not talented enough to develop and not good enough to win with. So why are we trying to actually win games with them?

This isn't about EG or AD at all or making a trade for a starting PG or SF, it's about the rest of the guys. Right now we have an Elite 3pt shooter at PF to go with AFA,AR,DM,RL and i'm going to add GV, and again if you can't see that he's a back up in this league you're on another planet.

The rest of those spots should be constantly changing, we should be trying to discover and develop NBA quality talent. And of that previously mentioned group, all are currently roll players to various degrees, someone may become a legitimate starter, but most will be backups, hopefully really good ones.

If you're really trying to develop guys, thats where most of your minutes should go, if you're trying to Win while doing so, you need to clean up the bottom of your roster and add more talent to help you compete and those guys can push the current crop of youngsters on a daily and game to game basis.

Those Vets minus Ryno are apart of the problem, they don't know their limitations.

[Eman5805]

So, they didn't even invite the younger players? Am I getting this correct?

What else are they gonna do there but listen?

[AD23forMVP]

Be fair to Thomas. When Davis has been healthy Thomas hasn't gotten off the bench.

You can't blame him or Monty for putting him out there when there is a injury.