The Detroit Pistons beat the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier tonight 116-77 in a game that was not nearly as close as the score makes it seem. In case you missed the highlights, first of all, take a moment to congratulate yourself on a terrific life choice. Second of all, feel free to jump in the Hot Tub Time Machine and view the above video to relive a classic moment in WCW’s history which does an adequate job of summing up the roles these two teams played. Actually that’s not totally correct; in that match, Kevin Nash put up a better fight than the Cavs tonight.

I honestly don’t even know what three letter Internet abbreviation accurately describes this beat down. OMG? LOL? WTF? Let’s start by looking at the boxscore which is as NSFW as raw data can possibly be:

Before we get into breaking down the ridiculous numbers, it’s worth acknowledging that the Cavs played this game without Kyrie Irving, Anderson Varejao, Alonzo Gee, and Daniel Gibson due to various injuries. When healthy, that is 60% of the starting lineup plus the usual first guard off the bench sitting out. Be that as it may, the game was against the Detroit Pistons who entered tonight a scintillating 16 games under .500. Though the Pistons have a number of promising players, by no means is anyone mistaking them for the Thunder, Bulls, or Heat. On to the numbers…

• The Cavs starting five was a combined -213. Minus two hundred thirteen. MINUS TWO HUNDRED THIRTEEN! Look, +/- can be an incredibly misleading stat, particularly in a one game sample size, but the fact remains that this is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen stats wise in a basketball game.
• Conversely, the Pistons starting five countered with an equally staggering combined +/- of +205. Again, PLUS TWO HUNDRED FIVE. Rodney Stuckey only scored eight points, but led everyone in the game, league, and Universe tonight with a +46.
• Antawn Jamison’s first game with the Cavaliers was a deplorable, hideous 0-12 from the floor effort that saw him missing from all over the floor as seen here:

Somehow, this game was worse. In 29 minutes of action, the 6’9” Jamison managed to pull down four rebounds, attempt 10 shots, and made exactly as many field goals as you and I did. The phrase “veteran leadership” has been a running joke among Cavs fans when watching Jamison and Anthony Parker  play this year. I’m going to go out on a limb and say nothing that occurred tonight is going to change that perception.

• This is not to just rip on the Cavs; we need to give credit where credit is due. The Pistons were on fire tonight. The starting lineup for Detroit shot a sizzling 67% (29-43) from the field led by an unconscious 11-12 performance by Brandon Knight. As Jamison proved he could miss from anywhere on the floor, Knight was the polar opposite drilling jumpers from all over the Palace of Auburn Hills. Eight of Knight’s 11 field goals came from outside the paint as seen below:

I could continue to harp on this issue, but there are people far more clever than I who voiced their thoughts on the game on Twitter.

If there are any #Cavs players laughing after this game there needs to be a fight in the locker room.

— Michael A. Young (@RealMYoung23) April 18, 2012

There are a number of Cavs fans that don’t mind losing games at this point in the season. At this point, the Cavs have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, and it’s a race for more ping pong balls in the lottery. The ideal scenario is that the Cavs play hard, compete, and lose by a couple points at the end. It’s efforts and games like this that drive fans nuts, and deservedly so.

My fiancee the other night: “How many of the Cavs playing are from the D-League?” Me: “All of them.” — The Greek (@demeatloaf) April 18, 2012

An astute observation by both parties here. Manny Harris, Lester Hudson, Donald Sloan played a total of 73 game minutes tonight. If you’re reading this and are not from Northeast Ohio, chances are all you know about these players is that the first has the best full name in the NBA (Corperryale L’Adorable “Manny” Harris), the second enjoyed a Linsanity-Lite run as recently as earlier this month, and the third has the same last name as the romantic interest of E on Entourage. Harris actually led the Cavs with 18 points tonight. That’s good. Hudson and Sloan finished 5-18 from the field for a total of 13 points. That’s bad.

The Cavs trailed by 50 after 3 qtrs in tonight’s loss to the Pistons. That has only happened 4 other times in the past 20 years. #Elias

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 18, 2012

Usually, I’m an advocate of the “Go big or go home mentality.” Cleveland took this to a whole new level tonight. After three quarters, the score was 100-50. It’s rare to see a team score 100 points in three quarters. It’s rare to see a team score only 50 points in three quarters. It’s damn near impossible for both of those feats to be achieved during the same game. To quote Anchorman, “How’d you do that? Heck, I’m not even mad; that’s amazing.”

By the way, this wasn’t the worst loss the Cavs have had in the past 16 months. — Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) April 18, 2012

Our fearless leader at HP providing some perspective. Of course, “worst” is subjective. Matt is referring to 112-57 shellacking the Lakers put on the Cavs last year when Cleveland was in the midst of their record 26 game losing streak. Points wise, of course the 55 point deficit is greater than tonight’s 39 point catastrophe. However, I’d argue that tonight was worse since last year’s game was against a playoff team and at the time pushed LA to a 28-11 record. Detroit improved to 23-38 tonight.

As bad as this loss was, at the end of the day, whether a team loses by one point, 39 points, or 55 points, it only counts as one loss in the standings. There are no awards for failing spectacularly, no additional ping pong balls for extreme tanking. All the Cavs can do at this point is forget everything that happened tonight and put forth a better effort on Wednesday night against Philadelphia in Cleveland. Although  Cavs fans won’t resort to the the Fingerpoke of Doom that Hulk Hogan employed on Kevin Nash, I have a feeling there is another finger fans will be using to convey their feelings if there is a repeat performance of tonight’s effort ever again.

Statistical support for this story from NBA.com.

With Derrick Rose sidelined by injuries for nearly half the season, the Chicago Bulls have had to get creative with their crunch time offense. Last night against the Washington Wizards, down by five points with under two minutes left in the game, Tom Thibodeau turned to Rose’s backup, C.J. Watson, on three different sideline out of bounds plays.

The first play starts with Watson taking the ball out of bounds. Richard Hamilton above the 3-point line at the top of the key, Joakim Noah at the right elbow, Kyle Korver on the right block and Carlos Boozer on the left block. The initial action has Korver running toward Noah as if he wants to take a pin-down screen and pop out above the top of the key.

But instead of doing that, Korver changes his path midway through and cuts toward the near corner, rubbing his man off a screen from Boozer. Noah then turns around and sets a back-screen on Hamilton’s man as Hamilton heads from the top of the key toward the far side corner. Down by 5, the Bulls send their guards off screens to the corners and if either is open, they can get a quick-hit 3-point opportunity out of it.

While Korver flashes open in the nearside corner, the man guarding the inbounds pass shuffles over to cut off the passing lane. This creates an opening for Watson to easily inbound the ball to Joakim Noah, who has flashed toward the ball after setting a screen on Hamilton’s man.

After receiving the inbounds pass, Noah quickly flips the ball back to Watson, who is on the move toward the middle of the court. At the same time, Noah sets a screen on Watson’s man to create some separation for Watson to get off a quick shot. The end result is that Watson gets off a wide open 18-footer after just two seconds have run off the clock.

The Wizards would hit one of two free throws on their next possession, and the Bulls again set up to inbound the ball from the same spot on the court. Watson is again the inbounder, but this time, Korver and Hamilton have flip-flopped their starting position. Korver is stationed above the 3-point line at the top of the key and Hamilton is started on the right block. Noah still occupies the right elbow and Boozer remains on the left block.

The play begins with the same basic action except that Hamilton does not feign a cut toward the top of the key as if he is going to receive a pin-down screen from Noah. Instead, Hamilton cuts directly across the lane to the near side corner, rubbing his man off a screen from Boozer. Korver runs the same route Hamilton did on the previous play and again gets a back-screen from Noah. Here’s where the twist on this play comes in.

Rather than slipping his screen to receive the inbounds pass from Watson, Noah holds the screen on Korver’s man to create separation so Korver can heads towards the corner for a spot-up opportunity. Boozer pivots and faces Watson, posting up his man on the left block, and this time he’s the man who receives the initial pass.

This is where you realize that the Bulls are running almost exactly the same action as on the previous play. Noah again comes over and sets a screen for Watson, who is on the move toward the middle of the court. Rather than being a dribble hand-off pick-and-roll, this time it’s an off-ball screen designed to get Watson an opening near the top of the key. Boozer, a good passer for a big man, immediately senses Watson will be open after coming off Noah’s screen.

Watson is pretty wide open here, but his man is closing out quickly to contest his shot. So what does he do? He throws up a pump-fake and takes a step inside the 3-point line.

The final result is another wide open jumper for Watson, this time after a mere three seconds have run off the shot clock. The Bulls cut the lead to two points. After the teams traded turnovers on consecutive possessions and John Wall made two free throws, Chicago was again down by four points. This time, they inbounded the ball from the opposite side of the court.

Hamilton is now the trigger man for the Bulls on this play. Noah, Watson, Boozer and Korver are staggered near the right elbow. Korver, again stationed closest to the top of the key, runs off a screen from Noah toward the strong side corner. Watson, stationed between Noah of Boozer, initially heads toward the hoop.

Look at how crowded that area near the right elbow is. The Wizards don’t know who is heading in what direction. As Korver heads toward the corner off of Noah’s screen, Watson stops on a dime and changes direction. Rather than continuing toward the hoop…

Watson quickly turns around and heads toward the top of the key, aided by a screen from Boozer. Watson, who started between Boozer and Noah, essentially made a V-cut and wound up on Boozer’s outside shoulder. This allowed him to run his man into Boozer and create a little separation as he headed out to the 3-point line.

Rather than heading straight out to the top of the key, however, Watson again changes direction. He runs his man off yet another screen, set by Noah, as he cuts toward Hamilton, the inbounder. This creates just enough room for Watson to catch, pivot, square himself up and fire a jumper. This time, only 0.5 seconds run off the clock before Watson puts up the shot.

Three plays. Seven points. 5.5 seconds total. The Bulls designed three different ways to get the ball in bounds and get up a quick shot. Far too often late in games, coaches depend on their players to manufacture looks themselves out of isolations or simple high pick-and-rolls. By getting his players on the move and using both on and off-ball screens, Thibodeau was able to get points out of his sets quickly and extend the game. The Bulls didn’t wind up winning, but the creativity and imagination that Thibodeau put into his late-game sideline out of bounds plays was something to be admired.

The following is a fake profile about a nonexistent person, regarding an event that never occurred in a town that doesn’t exist. 

Tim Daynor sits at the bench across from me and ties his shoes, slowly but surely. It’s a routine he’s followed thousands of times – the lacing, the tying, the rabbit ears-ing. Daynor knows every groove in those shoes. In this place, on this locker room bench, Daynor feels at home. He’s returned to where it all began, and I’m just along for the journey.

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A passerby will find little remarkable about the exterior of the Gradendary, Pennsylvania YMCA. It’s an old, creaky building, but an unassuming one, measured by strong square walls and a basic entrance. It’s fundamental architecture is reminiscent of the nearby YMCA many of us lived close to in our childhoods. Residents know the two-story, 6,350 square-foot building simply as “The Y”, and most visitors know nothing of the building beyond its vending machines and weight room. But there are some who know “The Y” as something more than a run-of-the-mill recreational facility. To these people, it is known simply as “The Runic”, a place not of exercise but of pure competition and sport. To them, it is a place of basketball, and a testament to the latent greatness that lies somewhere deep within everyone.

In this small Pennsylvania town, basketball history, and perhaps human history, was made. By all appearances, that day was like any other at the Runic. Inside, the weight room and vending machine were as preoccupied as ever, filled to the brim with gym enthusiasts and Kit-Kat reductionists. But beyond the spectacle and hubbub in the gym’s forefront, a monumental game of pickup basketball was beginning, one that would lead many in the Runic that day to reconsider their lives.

“It was a simple idea, really,” Tim Daynor tells me as we walk into the Runic, “4-on-4 game, first to 21, win by 2. Play by two’s and one’s. And none of that elbows’ crap.”

Daynor, now 42 years of age and firmly ensconced in his local job as a retro phone salesman, has lived in Gradendary all of his life.  He grew up the son of a baker and the brother of a baker’s son, and established himself as an athletic star early on in life with victories in local tetherball and field hockey tournaments. At age 13, he picked up a basketball, and soon adopted it as his sport of choice.

“I just loved the game: Monopoly, that is. But also basketball.”

Though Daynor’s talents peaked in the final game of his illustrious junior varsity career, he soon became a standout basketball star during pickup games at the Runic.

“All of us could see he had something special, something different,” Rob Toggle, Daynor’s lifting partner, friend, and accountant said, “He just moved with such grace. I hadn’t seen that good of a player in here since the 1978 intramurals. And I think it made a lot of us reconsider what we were doing on the court, and with our lives. Sure, we could move the ball well and make sure to finish our layups, but could we transcend like Tim? I wasn’t so sure, until the Miracle at the Runic. That changed everything.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

I’ve arrived here in Gradendary to interview Daynor about that fateful day, now known in obscure, underground circles as the Miracle at the Runic. When I called Daynor to inquire about an interview over the phone, he insisted I meet him here in Gradendary, at the old Runic. I agreed, and soon found myself in a dark locker room inside the building, facing a concentrated man.

“What are we doing here, Tim?” I ask.

“I want you to know exactly how that fateful game began, happened, and ended. And it began here, in a dark locker room. I was in a rush, and didn’t have time to turn the lights on. So I grabbed my shoes, which were New Balances, and sprinted outside.”

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Accounts of what happened on that fateful night in amateur basketball history vary, depending upon who you ask. Everyone in town knows the story, but few know the truth. Some claim Daynor only shot three-pointers and played almost no defense, some claim his opponents were exclusively comprised of middle-aged men with bad knees and busy schedules, and others claim he possessed a versatility of talents, if only for an hour, that could only be likened to a young Wilt Chamberlain. Only one truth hangs true through all of the hearsay and nebulous machinations of time: Something about the game itself changed that night. The shockwaves rippled slowly throughout the United States, spreading from hopeful player to player, always slightly different but always filled with the vague wonder of one of Steven Spielberg’s early films. But what exactly did the stories tell?

“I was there that night. Or afternoon, actually. There was a spark in Tim’s eyes that day that I couldn’t quite place, but I knew our team’s chances of winning had just skyrocketed. When Tim was on, Tim was on, and you could only hope to contain him. From the very beginning, it became clear that Tim had it going. It was a special game, and we all knew it. He made every shot he took. Eventually, he was just toying with chance. He pulled up for half-court shots, hit no-look bank fade aways, and made a finger-roll from the three-point line. At one point, when the game was closing to an end, he bounced the ball off some guy’s head and into the basket. I felt bad for the guy, and I’m not sure it was a “clean play”, but I can’t believe it happened. What we didn’t know was that Tim literally couldn’t miss,” Craigory Lodney’s eyes radiate embers as he speaks.

“But he sure as heck knew it.”

Another teammate, Youkilis Devin, tells me how Daynor managed to shoot every single one of his team’s shots.

“I mean, at the start, of course we tried to shoot. We even managed to get a couple off. But after Tim made a couple, he really decided to go into “hero mode”. I said, “Tim, the score’s only 4-6, can we at least try to move the ball a little bit?”, and he just said, “Nobody puts Tim in a corner!” I was taken aback, honestly. I never touched the ball again that game for more than a second. Nobody did, really. After we’d get a rebound, Tim would grab the ball and run down the court. After a while, we just watched. But hey, it worked. I think. What was the score?”

Local newspapers soon learned of the event, and published the following quotes regarding the game from an anonymous source:

“He played to win the game, but he also played to be the game.”

“Fans applauded his every made shot and move. Others just left to go buy a Gatorade out of the vending machine and maybe to go run on the treadmill for a while.”

“We all learned a lot that day, because the Y was hosting a class on computer programming.”

But Argos Dench, a member of the opposing team, tells a far less glowing account of the historic game.

“First thing, he traveled on almost every play. But what am I gonna say to him? This is pickup basketball, there aren’t any refs or anything here. So Mr. Tim the Legend is over there, moving his feet like 1984 Kevin Bacon and I can’t say a thing to stop him. So yeah, he made a lot of shots. He had it going. We doubled him, we tripled him, but somehow he kept scoring. But that doesn’t mean they beat us handily. Oh no. That’s the big secret of the whole thing, the thing no one will tell you. How did Tim score so many points if we were only playing to 21? It’s because he didn’t play a lick of defense.Sometimes he didn’t even look us while we were playing offense. He just turned the other way and waited for us to finish our possession, like he was conserving energy for something. And so the game went back and forth, back and forth, endlessly. And you know what? That’s how he wanted it. He knew what he was doing. And do you want to know how he hit his game-winning shot? Game is tied at some ridiculous score, we’re all tired (even him), and he just skips up to the basket and scores. And I mean skips. It wasn’t anything close to a legal basketball play, but there he was, skipping up for the game-winner. Someone tried to tell him he traveled, but he had already walked out of the gym.”

Dench has written letters titled as all-caps exposes to the Gradendary newspaper in the hopes of unmasking Daynor’s legend, but to no avail.

“Sure, Tim didn’t play the best defense that day, but we understood it. Tim was our scorer, so he couldn’t focus on defense all the time. We made do. What, is he supposed to make every basket and play the best defense of his life? Tim is a great basketball player, a great businessman, and a great mind, but he’s not perfect.” Lodney responds.

Fredward Flaxson, who was in the three-person crowd that day, tells his own separate version of the Daynor Game.

“Well, you can’t trust anyone who was playing that day to know the truth, can you? Here’s what I know: I was there, and even I got lost in the glory of it all. I mean, have you ever seen someone score hundreds of baskets consecutively, in one game? It’s magical and horrifying and depressing. I just hoped the opposing team could get out of there with their pride intact, and no significant groin injuries. Some of those guys playing out there were really old.”

How many points Tim Daynor actually scored that day is a topic of debate all on its own. Estimates and stories have told the number as anywhere from 150 to 300, depending on the teller and the skepticism of the listener. I asked Craigory Lodney to give me best guess, but he just shrugs.

“Somewhere along the way, we just lost count. We were watching, mere pawns in Tim’s revelation of genius. It might have been 150 — it very well might have been 250. No one can say for certain, except maybe Tim. I don’t think anyone needs to know, or should.”

But Argos Dench feels he remembers concretely.

“It was 160, and not a single point more,” Dench stares forward, “and don’t let the embellishments and Gradendary tabloid media fool you.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Tim and I stand in the Runic gym with the lights dimmed and the sunset fading behind us. He’s dribbling and staring forward, and I’m forced to wait until he makes a move.

“You know, I haven’t back here since it happened.” Tim finally speaks.

“Since the Miracle?”

“Don’t call it that. But yeah, since then.”

“Why the wait?”

As I ask, Tim turns his gaze to the basket.

He jolts back towards me, as if removing himself from a trance, and answers.

“That day, I reached my peak. Not my basketball peak; my life peak. It wasn’t going to get any better than that for me. I finally tasted real basketball stardom, and I knew I wouldn’t taste it again. The whole town knew it. So I left the gym that day, and never looked back. How could I? Any return would be a disappointment. I would finally miss again in these shadowed halls, and the whispers of the legend’s death would ring through these roofs and through the forests of Pennsylvania.”

“So why now?”

At this, Tim is less quick to answer. He draws his breath, and his eyes gaze into the distance. He does not appear to be searching for some last time; rather, his stare searches for something tangible he can’t find. A basketball net, perhaps.

“Because I had to. I knew I always would. A man can not turn his back on his craft forever, and this gym is my forge. When you called, I almost hung up the phone, but I just…couldn’t. It was as if every layup, every slow jog back on defense, every memory of that day was calling back to me. I couldn’t resist, and so here we are.”

I nod and shoot a mid-range jumper. The rebound bounces back, directly into Tim’s arms. He smiles wryly.

“Well, I can’t hide forever, can I?” He smiles as he releases the ball, for the first time since the Miracle at the Runic.

Swish.

Tim turns to leave, pacing quickly towards the door. As he opens the door, I call out to him:

“Hey Tim, tell me one last thing: Exactly how many points did you score in that game?”

“That’s my little secret,” He shouts, saluting me as he goes.

And he hasn’t looked back since.

(Except he forgot to shut the door.)

the_moment (flickr)

Yesterday against the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors point guard Charles Jenkins recorded a most rare of feats.

He recorded 1 point,1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 block. That’s right, he achieved the elusive quintuple-single. Using basketball-reference’s game index, which only goes back to the 1985-86 season, only 6 other players have accomplished this mammoth undertaking.

The list of players Jenkins is joining is an illustrious “who’s who” of kind of serviceable but not really big men from the last 25 years.

You have  Adam Keefe, best known for his non-exploits as a Utah Jazz, giving the 1993 Atlanta Hawks a whole lot of barely anything in a victory over the New Jersey Nets. In addition to the quintuple-single, Keefe also gave quintuple fouls in just 10 minutes of action. Apparently, he couldn’t handle Derrick Coleman.

There’s Pervis Ellison, who shockingly was still in the league in the 1999-2000 season. His 5×1 came in a mere 7 minutes of action in a 7-point loss to the Indiana Pacers. “Nervous Pervis” would only appear in 30 games for the Celtics that year.

William Bedford also makes an appearance. And I had never heard of him before in my life. With a career average of 4.1 points and little else, there may be a reason for that. But on one cold February night in Milwaukee in 1988, he etched his name into history with a 1-1-1-1-1 as his Pistons lost to the Bucks. 

Delightfully amongst this cavalcade of spectacular play is Clemon Johnson. Perhaps best known as the stationary post which Hakeem Olajuwon abused for 49 points and 25 rebounds in the 1987 playoffs, Johnson should also be remembered for his sterling quintuple-single which propelled the Sonics to victory over the Suns earlier that regular season.

And now it’s time to get serious. These next two players are favorites of nearly every NBA fan: Jason Collins and Shawn Bradley.

The husky Collins gave New Jersey his last full measure to the Nets in a riveting 96-82 victory over Minnesota in 2002. Meanwhile, string bean Bradley laid it all out on the line as the Mavericks upended the Utah Jazz 88-81 toward the end of the 2005 regular season.

A few weeks later, Bradley was demolished by Tracy McGrady… 

While it was overshadowed by the laughably disastrous Board of Governors meeting involving the Maloof family’s pitch to nix the arena deal they described as “fair” just over a month ago, the sale of the New Orleans Hornets to New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson is potentially just as big of news for the NBA. After all this time, the NBA sold the team to Benson at cost – they purchased the team from previous owner George Shinn in December 2010 for approximately $310 million, spent another $20 million in the ensuing year and a half and sold to Benson for $330 million today – so the other 29 owners did not lose any money on the deal. The period of time during which the NBA owned and operated the Hornets will likely mostly be remembered for the “basketball reasons” controversy surrounding the vetoed Chris Paul to the Lakers trade, but it’s time to move on. The world has moved on, the league has moved on and now the team has moved on as well. Though this season has been extremely trying for the Hornets organization and their fans, views of the future bring reason for optimism.

Let’s begin with Benson. For starters, it’s obvious that he plans to keep the team in New Orleans long-term. NFL rules prohibit their team owners from owning a non-NFL team in another NFL city or territory than the one their NFL team is located in, so if Benson were to move the Hornets out of New Orleans to, say, Kansas City or Anaheim, he would be forced to either sell or transfer ownership of the Saints to someone else. Benson has owned the Saints since 1985 and they make him a boatload of money every year, so this is something that is highly unlikely to happen. Benson, also owner of several auto dealerships in the New Orleans area and former owner of Benson Financial, which he sold to Wells Fargo in 1996, has extremely deep pockets. Forbes estimated Benson’s net worth at $1.1 billion as of March 2012, making him the 390th richest man in America.

There is no guarantee that he’ll be an eager luxury-tax spender in what is still one of the smallest markets in the league, but at the very least he should be less frugal than the previous ownership regime. This is not a man who will be hurting for money (Any time you can spare $8 million without blinking, as Benson did when he donated that amount to Loyola University New Orleans in 2010, it’s safe to say you’re not cash-strapped). Between the incoming cash flow from owning the Saints and his auto dealerships, Benson should even have enough money to sustain losses for a few years while the Hornets regain the trust and loyalty of their fan base.

While the team this season has been one of the worst in the league, next year’s team is pretty much guaranteed to look drastically different. Shooting guard Eric Gordon, the big prize New Orleans received from the Clippers in the Chris Paul trade who has missed most of this season with an injury, is a restricted free agent this summer, but the Hornets are expected to bring him back into the fold. The expiration of the contracts of Chris Kaman and Carl Landry should leave the team about $19 million under the salary cap after factoring in Gordon’s cap hold (though that number will probably go down to somewhere around $10-13 million depending how large a deal Gordon signs), which leaves ample space to sign a free agent or two.

Additionally, the Hornets should have two high lottery picks in a draft that, although it doesn’t look to be quite as good as some predicted in the preseason, is still one of the best and deepest in years. The Hornets will have their own draft pick, which should be a guarantee to land in the top 5 (with the league’s 2nd-worst record, the Hornets could drop no lower than 5th in the lottery), as well as that of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Halfway through the season, that Wolves pick didn’t look like it would turn in great value as the Kevin Love and Ricky Rubi0-led squad was competing for a playoff spot. But Rubio’s season-ending ACL tear started the team on a downward spiral and Love’s recent concussion could possibly sideline him for the rest of the year as well. The Wolves’ pick would be 10th in the lottery right now, but without Rubio and Love for the rest of the season, it could wind up being even higher.

A full season – and hopefully a few more – of Gordon, two probable top-10 picks in a loaded draft, ample cap space and a brand new, deep-pocketed owner? Things are already looking up. And that’s even before we get to Monty Williams, considered by many to be one of the best young coaches in the NBA. Williams has somehow coaxed 16 wins so far out of a team that was missing Gordon for nearly the entirety of the season (he’s appeared in just 5 games), Landry, Jason Smith and Emeka Okafor for about half the season (33, 33 and 27 games, respectively), and Kaman, Jarrett Jack and Trevor Ariza for a few weeks each (45, 45, 41 games played, in that order). Williams, who played for the Knicks, Spurs, Nuggets, Magic and 76ers in his 10-year NBA career, began his coaching career as an assistant to Nate McMillan in Portland and also considers himself a disciple of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who many consider the best in the league. In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Zach Lowe, Williams stated that he has taken plays out of both McMillan and Popovich’s playbooks and added them to his own. He’s also come up with a few innovative sets of his own, some that no one else in the league runs.

So, here we have a new owner with deep pockets, one of the best young coaches in the NBA, the return of Gordon, two high-lottery draft picks and a fairly significant amount of cap space to work with this summer (and after Gordon is signed, he’ll be the only player on the team under contract past 2014). Those are all the ingredients thought to be necessary for a successful rebuilding project, but the Hornets have one more thing going for them: the city of New Orleans. Though it’s not exactly a giant media market (according to a US Census Bureau survey in 2007, it is the 35th largest market in the United States and 23rd largest in the NBA), there’s no denying the New Orleans is one of the most attractive “destination” cities in the NBA. Considering the vibrant nightlife, excellent and exotic cuisine and laid back lifestyle prevalent throughout the city, it should be a hot location for free agents, but things haven’t exactly worked out that way in the decade the team has been in New Orleans. Though it likely won’t happen overnight – I don’t imagine Deron Williams or Dwight Howard will be clamoring to play for the Hornets in the next two summers – it’s possible that a culture change combined with the deep pockets of the new owner, a rising star of a young coach and an improving roster could lead to the team landing some higher tier free agents a few years down the line.

Even if they never get to that point of being a big free agent destination (and it’s more than likely that they won’t ever be an option for the biggest of the big fish), things are still looking much brighter for the future of the Hornets than their record this season indicates. A new era of Hornets basketball is on the horizon, and the sale of the team to Tom Benson is just the beginning.