2008–09 New Orleans Hornets season

2008–09 New Orleans Hornets season
Head coach Byron Scott
Arena New Orleans Arena
Results
Record 49–33 (.598)
Place Division: 4th (Southwest)
Conference: 7th (Western)
Playoff finish West First Round
(eliminated 1-4)

Stats @ Basketball-Reference.com

Local media
Television Cox Sports Television
Radio KMEZ

The 2008–09 New Orleans Hornets season is the 7th season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA)

The regular season was marred in terms of injuries. Only Rasual Butler managed to play in all games, with the remaining four starters missing a combined 68 games, of which, most importantly, center Tyson Chandler missed 37 games. Even when not on the injured list, Chandler's season was sub-par. Perhaps partly as a result of this, on February 18 Chandler was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for forwards Joe Smith and Chris Wilcox. Despite the less than stellar season, this was generally perceived as a payroll-shedding move. However, within a day, the trade was rescinded due to concerns regarding Chandlers turf toe, which curiously, according to Chandler and the Hornet organization was not the reason for his stints on the injury list.

Battling these issues for much of the season, the Hornets finished the season with a record of 49–33, 7 games off the franchise best record of the previous season. This meant that the Hornets only finished 4th in the Southwest Division and 7th in the Western Conference. In the 2009 NBA Playoffs the Hornets lost 4-1 in the first round to the second seeded Denver Nuggets. All four losses were severe, the worst being a 58-point drubbing at home in game 4 which tied for the most lopsided loss in NBA Playoff history.[1] Naturally lamented by fans and media alike, the embarrassing performance can at least be partly explained by the health situation of the players, with arguably the top 5 Hornets ailing to varying injuries. [2]

Key dates

Offseason

On July 9 the Hornets announced they had signed their All Star point guard Chris Paul to a contract extension.[3] Hornets owner George Shinn saying ''Chris is the face of our franchise and a leader both on and off the court...Getting him signed to an extension was our number one priority...'' On July 23 it was announced the Hornets had acquired free agent forward James Posey.[4] Posey, a member of the 2008 Boston Celtics team that won the championship said ''I am excited to be a Hornet, it was a coveted destination for me...''

Draft picks

Main article: 2008 NBA Draft
Round Pick Player Position Nationality College
1 27 Darrell Arthur (traded to Memphis via Portland) (PF)  United States Kansas

Trades

December 10, 2008: The New Orleans Hornets traded Mike James to the Washington Wizards for Antonio Daniels.

February 17, 2009: The Hornets traded Tyson Chandler to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Joe Smith, Chris Wilcox and rights to DeVon Hardin. The trade was nullified when Chandler failed his physical because of a previous turf toe injury.[5]

All Stars

For the second year in a row the Hornets were represented with two players at the NBA All Star Game as Chris Paul was voted in by the fans as a starter, and David West was selected as a reserve by the NBA coaches.

Roster

Template:2008–09 New Orleans Hornets roster

Regular season

Standings

Southwest Division W L PCT GB Home Road Div
y-San Antonio Spurs 54 28 .659 — 28–13 26–15 10–6
x-Houston Rockets 53 29 .646 1 33–8 20–21 9–7
x-Dallas Mavericks 50 32 .610 4 32–9 18–23 7–9
x-New Orleans Hornets 49 33 .598 5 28–13 21–20 9–7
Memphis Grizzlies 24 58 .284 30 16–25 8–33 5–11
# Western Conference
Team W L PCT GB
1 c-Los Angeles Lakers 65 17 .793 —
2 y-Denver Nuggets 54 28 .659 11
3 y-San Antonio Spurs 54 28 .659 11
4 x-Portland Trail Blazers 54 28 .659 11
5 x-Houston Rockets 53 29 .646 12
6 x-Dallas Mavericks 50 32 .610 15
7 x-New Orleans Hornets 49 33 .598 16
8 x-Utah Jazz 48 34 .585 17
9 Phoenix Suns 46 36 .561 19
10 Golden State Warriors 29 53 .354 36
11 Minnesota Timberwolves 24 58 .293 41
12 Memphis Grizzlies 24 58 .293 41
13 Oklahoma City Thunder 23 59 .280 42
14 Los Angeles Clippers 19 63 .232 46
15 Sacramento Kings 17 65 .207 48

Game log

2008–09 game log
2012–13 season schedule

Playoffs

West First Round

(2) Denver Nuggets vs. (7) New Orleans Hornets

April 19
10:30 p.m.
New Orleans Hornets 84, Denver Nuggets 113
Scoring by quarter: 25–27, 22–28, 22–32, 15–26
Pts: Chris Paul 21
Rebs: David West 6
Asts: Chris Paul 11		 Pts: Chauncey Billups 36
Rebs: Nenê 14
Asts: Chauncey Billups 8
Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado
Attendance: 19,536
Referees: Marc Davis, Monty McCutchen, Sean Corbin
April 22
10:30 p.m.
New Orleans Hornets 93, Denver Nuggets 108
Scoring by quarter: 25–27, 19–25, 27–29, 22–27
Pts: David West 21
Rebs: Tyson Chandler 11
Asts: Chris Paul 13		 Pts: Chauncey Billups 31
Rebs: Nenê 8
Asts: Carmelo Anthony 9
Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado
Attendance: 19,623
Referees: Mark Wunderlich, Violet Palmer, Joe DeRosa
April 25
1:00 p.m.
Denver Nuggets 93, New Orleans Hornets 95
Scoring by quarter: 26–21, 21–29, 25–27, 21–18
Pts: Carmelo Anthony 25
Rebs: Kenyon Martin 10
Asts: Chauncey Billups 6		 Pts: Chris Paul 32
Rebs: West, Posey 9 each
Asts: Chris Paul 12
New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana
Attendance: 17,489
Referees: Bennett Salvatore, Derrick Stafford, Tom Washington
April 27
8:30 p.m.
Denver Nuggets 121, New Orleans Hornets 63
Scoring by quarter: 36–15, 25–24, 27–11, 33–13
Pts: Carmelo Anthony 26
Rebs: Chris Andersen 8
Asts: Chauncey Billups 8		 Pts: David West 14
Rebs: James Posey 7
Asts: Chris Paul 6
New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana
Attendance: 17,236
Referees: David Jones, Mike Callahan, Scott Foster
April 29
10:30 p.m.
New Orleans Hornets 86, Denver Nuggets 107
Scoring by quarter: 27–24, 22–25, 17–31, 20–27
Pts: David West 24
Rebs: David West 9
Asts: Chris Paul 10		 Pts: Carmelo Anthony 34
Rebs: Martin, Nenê, Andersen 7 each
Asts: Chauncey Billups 11
Denver win series 4–1
Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado
Attendance: 19,744
Referees: Steve Javie, Ken Mauer, Bill Kennedy

Last Playoff Meeting: This is the first meeting between the Nuggets and Hornets.

Player statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game Source: [6]

Season

Player GP GS MPG FG% 3FG% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
Hilton Armstrong 50 16 15.3 .520 .000 .672 2.7 0.4 0.4 0.7 4.6
Ryan Bowen 12 3 12.1 .625 .000 .333 1.3 0.5 0.8 0.3 2.6
Devin Brown 47 5 14.9 .367 .280 .840 2.1 1.0 0.6 0.1 5.9
Rasual Butler 59 50 29.2 .453 .426 .766 3.3 0.8 0.6 0.7 10.8
Tyson Chandler 37 36 31.7 .571 .000 .574 8.7 0.6 0.4 1.3 9.1
Antonio Daniels 38 4 13.6 .409 .341 .808 1.1 2.8 0.5 0.0 4.4
Melvin Ely 23 2 11.7 .384 .000 .656 2.0 0.6 0.1 0.4 3.3
Sean Marks 40 5 13.5 .443 .222 .625 3.1 0.3 0.1 0.6 3.1
Chris Paul 55 55 37.7 .493 .394 .849 5.3 11.0 2.7 0.2 21.3
Morris Peterson 28 9 12.9 .430 .417 .786 2.1 0.5 0.4 0.1 5.4
James Posey 59 0 28.7 .429 .394 .820 4.9 1.1 0.8 0.3 9.4
Peja Stojaković 53 53 34.1 .405 .382 .910 4.4 1.3 0.8 0.1 13.8
David West 53 53 38.5 .468 .250 .888 8.0 2.3 0.7 1.0 20.5
Julian Wright 33 2 9.2 .467 .143 .400 1.7 0.6 0.4 0.2 2.7

Playoffs

Player GP GS MPG FG% 3FG% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG

Awards and records

Awards

Transactions

Free Agents

Additions

Player Signed Former team
James Posey July 16 Boston Celtics

Subtractions

Player Left New team
Jannero Pargo[7]August 15 Dynamo Moscow of the Russian League

See also

References

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