New Orleans Hornets: Most overrated team in the NBA?

After Chris Paul, do the Hornets have any truly great
players? (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

There is that dreaded word fans hate to hear when it is applied to their own team — “overrated.”  It’s a term that can be so misleading, because to be considered “overrated” a large contingent of individuals have to believe you’re good.

Before the season began, the Philadelphia 76ers seemed the logical choice to fit the “overrated” label. Lauded as a possible contender in the Eastern Conference, this analysis never made sense. With the questionable $82-million signing of a power forward coming off major surgery, and giving $80 million to a guard who has never averaged over 20 points in a season throughout his career — the team was destined for failure.

Of course, currently featuring a 12-16 record, the 76ers haven’t seemed to display the competency most had predicted them to feature.

Therefore, with the 76ers no longer being “overrated”, rather just a bad team — it seems only appropriate to pass along the “overrated” mantle to someone else.

For a while I wanted to pass this mantle along to this specific team, and with the Rockets playing this specific opponent tonight, it’s only fitting to give the title of “Most overrated team in the NBA” to the New Orleans Hornets.

There you go, Rockets fans.  Don’t worry about the N.O. Hornets.  If you think the Rockets are ready for a big playoff push, the Hornets won’t get in your way.

Let me make this apparent -- I’m not declaring the Hornets to necessarily be a bad team.  It’s just the notion that their current roster is one that can win the Western Conference, or that they are a top five team in the NBA, is ludicrous.

This isn’t intended to be a slight on Chris Paul — quite the opposite. He should have been the MVP last year, and could be this year. To me, there is no one more valuable to his team than Chris Paul is to the Hornets. Moreover, because of this, it’s why his team is so susceptible to failure.

The best analogy I can use is that the Hornets are sort of like a snake — cut off its head and the body will wither and die. The Hornets are successful because of one player — Chris Paul. If you take him out of the game (which isn’t necessarily a regular occurrence), you can win.  Because if you force the other Hornets to beat you, nine times out of 10 they won’t.

Chris Paul makes everyone around him better — it’s that simple. He’s the best point guard, and one of the top five players in the NBA. Just look at what he does to players like Tyson Chandler, David West and Peja Stojakovic, three players who are a lot better due to Paul’s presence.

Chandler gets easy baskets due to Paul, either via the alley-oop or a bounce pass for a dunk. Chandler — though a quality defender and rebounder — has limited offensive skills. His low post game is quite restricted. He’ll occasionally spin and throw up a hook shot, but he gets the majority of his points by being set up by Paul. In the game tonight, I’d be shocked if he doesn’t have at least one alley-oop dunk from Paul.

As for David West, an All-Star last year, I fit him into the same category as Andre Kirilenko being an All-Star. He’s competent, an above-average player who occasionally can have a big game (one 30+ point game this season), but he’s still just a complimentary player. If he’s the number one option on any team, their success is limited. If you replace him with LaMarcus Aldridge on the Portland Trail Blazers, does West drastically upgrade the Trail Blazers roster? The improvement is nearly non-existent.

West’s success isn’t entirely dependent upon Paul like Chandler or the soon-to-be mentioned Peja Stojakovic, but he’s not a typical All-Star forward.

When you think of an All-Star power forward, you think of a player like Amare Stoudemire, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Bosh, Pau Gasol, Carlos Boozer, and the list goes on, but he’s not better than any of these afore-mentioned players.

The only player he closely resembles would be Boozer, but Boozer is much more dominant and has more versatility on the offensive end. West is a good player, but when he’s your number two option — how good are you? Are you an elite team? I personally don’t believe so.

The other “star” of the Hornets has to be Peja Stojakovic. He was fun to watch in Sacramento, now he’s a shell of his former self. His best years are long behind him, and is now entirely dependent upon others to make plays for him. He is unable to create his own shot and considering you spend $60 million and consume a lot of you salary cap to a player who is nothing more than a spot-up shooter there are limitations to where you can go.

Peja is a foreign version of Brent Barry. What they bring to their respective teams is very similar, with the only noticeable differences being Barry can play point guard and occasionally run the offense, while Peja shoots more.

Simply put, the Hornets have a great player, a good player, and a group of mediocre roster fillers. With the way the NBA is now, you either need at least two great players, or a great player and multiple good players playing at a high level, to have a chance to compete for a title. The Hornets fail to meet either criteria.

What ultimately hampers the Hornets and why my opinion of them may be lower than that of others is their lack of playmakers. It seems difficult to become an elite team in the NBA when you’re best player is a point guard — the Suns demonstrated this.

Steve Nash was playing just as well as Paul is now and the Suns never advanced to the NBA Finals. Moreover, to the Suns credit, they had a roster which was far more impressive than the one the Hornets feature. Amare, Leonardo Barbosa, heck Raja Bell and Boris Diaw are still better supporting pieces than their counterparts on the Hornets roster.

The Hornets are a tease. They look good, and you think with Chris Paul they are an upper-echelon team. However, as the supporting cast is rather weak and with the way the Western Conference is now, the Hornets won’t claim the conference crown with their current roster. Chris Paul is destined for greatness and could possibly do great things with the Hornets.  But he won't with this roster.

If the Hornets make a move, say dealing Peja for someone who can do more than just stand still and shoot, I’d rethink my evaluation. However, until that occurs the Hornets aren’t a great team.

Though if you’re a Hornets fan, look at the bright side. If someone considers your squad to be overrated, at the very least that means other commentators consider your team to be good.  And you can take comfort in knowing that.