The buzz is gone for the New Orleans Hornets

[Tim Floyd]

The New Orleans Hornets' game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night should have been a highlight on the local sports calendar, a circle-the-date standout in the 41-game home schedule.

LSU and the New Orleans Saints were off. The weather was ideal. And one of the NBA's star-studded teams was in town for a marquee early-season battle.

It should have been a sellout. Instead, the New Orleans Arena was about two-thirds full - official attendance was announced at 14,547 – and there was a noticeable lack of buzz in the air.

And, really, who could blame the fans? They knew exactly what was going to happen on the court.

This isn't how it's supposed to work in Year 2 of a rebuilding campaign, especially after you land the No. 1 player in the draft and secure popular local ownership.

The Thunder went to the playoffs in Year 3 of the Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook era. The Spurs won it all in Year 3 of Greg Popovich's tenure.

The Hornets, meanwhile, are spinning their wheels and spinning rhetoric about the promising future.

Read More: http://www.nola.com/hornets/index.ss..._river_default

Any thoughts on this? Seems a bit to early to be calling the rebuild a failure already.

[Eman5805]

I wish you would've said it was a Jeff Duncan article. I wouldn't have bothered clicking it.

[The JNR]

Yeah, dude's pretty full of it. Panicking way too early.

[42]

This is the way it's supposed to work.

[Pelicans_fan_504]

I can't believe that someone would right that trash. Go look how many games okc won the year before they made the playoffs

[jawznola]

The problem is he's basing his decision off of less than one year of Benson ownership, but is using OKC (in year 3 of KD's career) and San Antonio (Year 3 of their program)... totally unfair, give us at least 3 years too

We should be fine once AD gets healthy, Gordon actually plays, a key FA pickup in the offseason, and possibly a good lottery pick... THEN we could be judged, right now, we're just hustling for wins

[PELICANSFAN]

I wish you would've said it was a Jeff Duncan article. I wouldn't have bothered clicking it.

The guy is a cancer to New Orleans sports. He does not deserve to have a job in this market. He does not understand sports at all. Anyone calling a rebuild a failure only 15 games in and without its two best player just proves they are ignorant.

[greewe]

This is the way it's supposed to work.

Nailed it.

[iNolaNightmare]

This is the way it's supposed to work.

Exactly. Is he dumb or stupid?

[Pelicans23]

What is this guys problem? It's funny before i opened the link i KNEW it was duncan.

[kclaboy504]

I wish you would've said it was a Jeff Duncan article. I wouldn't have bothered clicking it.

exactly lol..he is a bum for a journalist

[Pelicans78]

He is wrong about the timing of the rebuilding. Only been one full year in this rebuilding effort.

He is right on the buzz being gone right now. This team is not interesting at all right now and they don't play with alot of effort or competitiveness.

[PelsFan2313]

The guy is a cancer to New Orleans sports. He does not deserve to have a job in this market. He does not understand sports at all. Anyone calling a rebuild a failure only 15 games in and without its two best player just proves they are ignorant.

Amen. He doesn't have a clue about basketball or football. Honestly, I don't know one person who likes this clown. And for good reason. What a joke of an article.

[Pantazis76]

What else does he expect.. from a team without our two best players..
Its like asking OKC to top the nba standings without Westbrook or Durant.

[Joe Horn(ets)]

The rebuilding isn't over yet, he's wrong for making it seem like it's a failure. Maybe if we are showing no progress next season or the year after then yes, it's a failure.

But like someone alluded to, he's right that the "buzz" is gone. Davis has missed more games than played which took off all the sails as of right now on the excitement fans had for him. The team is struggling on the court and look much less competitive than last season. The whole Eric Gordon saga. And the buzz that fans had after Benson bought the team clearly has gone down since. But it's still early.

[Vinny6420]

We have the second youngest team, no **** we aren't beating some of the best teams in the league

[Hornetnojersey]

Last year Duncan figured out that people pay more attention to you when you're the bad guy so he welcomed that role. He's a wanna be P.Prisco/Cowherd now. Just ignore that clown and see what he has to say in a month when the teams is healthy

[Pantazis76]

Youth doesnt really play a factor to our record though.. Rockets are younger and look at their record.

[FlyGirl]

Youth doesnt really play a factor to our record though.. Rockets are younger and look at their record.

The Rockets currently have 4 more wins. I don't think their strength of schedule has been the same as ours either.

ETA: According to BR.com, Cleveland, New Orleans and Houston currently have the same avg. age of 24.2. And it just so happens that both us and Cleveland only have 4 wins.

[42]

Most of what Duncan is saying is just fine.

[Perth_Hornet]

Davis wasn't even playing, nor is max man Gordon.

What a giant ******bag and links to okc and spurs are tenuous at best.

[Eman5805]

Youth doesnt really play a factor to our record though.. Rockets are younger and look at their record.

One of their young players is elite though. None of our young players. Well, actually two are. But they aren't playing right now.

[ramsters60]

One of their young players is elite though. None of our young players. Well, actually two are. But they aren't playing right now.

Eman....how about pulling some strings and getting me Chandler Parsons...

[da ThRONe]

Most of what Duncan is saying is just fine.

This. The comparisons to other teams was unnecessary, but he address the fact that Gordon and Davis is out. He simply points out the fact that the buzz is down and from what I can tell it is. Not sure of this guy history of reports, but just based off of this article there's no major swipes at the Hornets.

[WisconsinHornet]

I don't know anybody who has actually watched Hornets games who doesn't think we'd be .500 if Eric Gordon was healthy and playing.

Most of our first 5 losses were within 5 points and came down to the wire. There was a point where we realistically would have been 6-0 if Eric Gordon had been healthy.

Now with Ant'n'y Davis (as Kaare Johnson calls him) out as well it's no wonder that we're one of the worst teams in the league. If you take the two best players off of ANY NBA team they're going to struggle (well, except for the Timberwolves apparently).

Honest to God, I don't even see the point of bringing Gordon back until very late in the season if this sounds like rest could really help his knee heal properly. AD needs playing time - Gordon needs to be 100% for next year when we'll be legit playoff contenders.