Bower at midseason on 2009 draft class
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
By: Jim Eichenhofer, Hornets.com
Emptying out the notebook with a few of Hornets head coach Jeff Bowers recent comments about the state of the team at the All-Star break:
On Darren Collison:I think hes very good. Obviously when you look at his numbers alone (hes been effective), but theres more to it. There are other things that hes demonstrated. Running the team, hes been very impressive.We dont treat him as a rookie. We dont treat him as a point guard filling in. We treat him as the point guard who has responsibility to his teammates and his team. He doesnt back down from that. Thats a testament to our confidence in him. If we didnt have that type of confidence in him, we would have a different approach. Maybe a little bit less demanding. But he can handle this.On the Hornets productive 2009 draft class:Its crucial in the situation were in, with Chris Pauls injury, have someone (Darren Collison) in that position as a quality backup. Marcus (Thornton), you got used to seeing his 16 to 18 points (after he moved into the starting lineup). You saw his energy, and he added a different element to our team. Both of them have had an impact so far. The thing that I think is important is that now they are better prepared for what theyll face in the last 30 games, because of the experiences that theyve had. Their production is something that we need.On the frequency of Hornets games this season in which one side has not held a lead of 10 points or more:I think leads in the NBA are not as big as theyre made out to be. The team youre playing against has a large impact on that. Teams that can shoot the three-pointer, like Orlando for instance, a lead is very quickly evaporated, if you dont score and they come down and bang some threes.I think if you watch enough games (throughout the NBA), youll see eight- and 10-point swings the majority of nights. Its just that were watching (Hornets) games so closely, and it hits so close to home. But weve come back from 10-plus down many times. Boston has lost a handful of games after being up 10. You go over the course of the season and you start to see that that 10-point lead is not as sacred as it once was, or (actually) is in perhaps college basketball.