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2012-13 NBA Preview: New Orleans Hornets
- Updated: October 19, 2012
14. New Orleans Hornets
HOW THEY CAN WIN: Anthony Davis is the real deal. If you don’t think he’s going to make an immediate impact, well, you’re an idiot. Davis is the only player in history to win NCAA Player of the Year, National Defensive Player of the Year, Final Four MOP, and a national title. Oh, and he also won a gold medal and was the No. 1 pick in the draft. So yeah, it’s a good bet he’ll take home Rookie of the Year honors. Eric Gordon (20.6 ppg) is another one of the league’s brightest young stars.
WHY THEY WON’T: New Orleans has Davis and Gordon, but not much else. Like the Rockets, the Hornets are ridiculously young (average age is 23.8 years old). The elder statesman is Roger Mason Jr., a t 32. This isn’t baseball, where the A’s made a run to the playoffs despite starting five rookies. The Hornets will suffer plenty of growing pains.
FINAL DESTINATION: Larry Brown said the team that got Anthony Davis would win 50 games. Not so fast. Davis is going to be a monster (probably Rookie of the Year), and will make the Hornets much better. But there’s still not nearly enough talent here for New Orleans to challenge in the rugged West.
OUR CALL: 21-61
| TEAM ROSTER | |||||||
| NO. | NAME | POS | AGE | HT | WT | COLLEGE | 2012-2013 SALARY |
| 50 | Solomon Alabi | C | 24 | 7-1 | 252 | Florida State | $830,000 |
| 0 | Al-Farouq Aminu | SF | 22 | 6-9 | 215 | Wake Forest | $2,947,800 |
| 33 | Ryan Anderson | PF | 24 | 6-10 | 240 | California | $8,700,000 |
| 23 | Anthony Davis | PF | 19 | 6-10 | 220 | Kentucky | $5,144,280 |
| 10 | Eric Gordon | SG | 23 | 6-3 | 215 | Indiana | $13,668,750 |
| 4 | Xavier Henry | SG | 21 | 6-6 | 220 | Kansas | $2,323,200 |
| 15 | Robin Lopez | C | 24 | 7-0 | 255 | Stanford | $4,899,293 |
| 8 | Roger Mason Jr. | SG | 32 | 6-5 | 205 | Virginia | $854,389 |
| 2 | Darius Miller | SF | 22 | 6-8 | 235 | Kentucky | $473,604 |
| 0 | Dominique Morrison | SF | 22 | 6-6 | 210 | Oral Roberts | |
| 25 | Austin Rivers | SG | 20 | 6-4 | 200 | Duke | $2,238,360 |
| 22 | Brian Roberts | PG | 26 | 6-1 | 180 | Dayton | $473,604 |
| 14 | Jason Smith | PF | 26 | 7-0 | 240 | Colorado State | $2,500,000 |
| 42 | Lance Thomas | SF | 24 | 6-8 | 225 | Duke | $762,195 |
| 21 | Greivis Vasquez | PG | 25 | 6-6 | 211 | Maryland | $1,191,240 |
| 1 | Hakim Warrick | PF | 30 | 6-9 | 219 | Syracuse | $4,000,000 |
| 0 | Chris Wright | PG | 22 | 6-1 | 209 | Georgetown | |
| Coach: Monty Williams |
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