Big Easy Buzz Blog - November 20, 2010

Toronto trade is sixth for Demps in 3+ months
Saturday, November 20, 2010
By: Jim Eichenhofer, Hornets.com

The timing of Dell Demps’ arrival as New Orleans’ new general manager was anything with ideal – when he was hired on July 27, virtually all of the major free-agent moves had already taken place. In a period of less than four months, however, Demps seems to be making up for lost time, pulling the trigger today on his sixth trade.

After Saturday’s trade that landed point guards Jarrett Jack and Marcus Banks, along with frontcourt reserve David Andersen, the Hornets’ 15-member roster now includes only five players who were on the 2009-10 squad (Chris Paul, David West, Emeka Okafor, Marcus Thornton, Aaron Gray).

Here is a list in reverse chronological order of the trades Demps has made since the summer, with the impact of each deal (all stats are entering Saturday’s slate of NBA games):Nov. 20Coming: Jarrett Jack, David Andersen, Marcus Banks from TorontoGoing: Peja Stojakovic, Jerryd Bayless to TorontoImpact: If Jack performs the way he has over the majority of his six-year NBA career, he immediately gives the Hornets one of the best backup point guards in the league. He and Chris Paul are close friends, first competing against each other in the ACC, when Paul was at Wake Forest and Jack starred for Georgia Tech. Andersen is a skilled frontcourt reserve who debuted with Houston as an NBA rookie in 2009-10, but was traded in July. Andersen had played in 11 of the Raptors’ 13 games this season. Banks logged just 22 minutes over three appearances.Oct. 23Coming: Jerryd Bayless from PortlandGoing: A partially protected 2011 first-round pickImpact: Bayless did not play well in his 11 regular season games with the Hornets, shooting just 34.7 percent from the field and 21.4 percent on three-pointers. Although the bench has fared much better than many NBA analysts anticipated entering 2010-11, Bayless struggled at times to adapt to the backup point guard role. He had 28 assists and 17 turnovers with New Orleans, a 1.64 ratio.Oct. 18Coming: Curtis Jerrells from San AntonioGoing: A future conditional second-round pickImpact: Jerrells was waived by New Orleans on Oct. 24. As a result, the draft pick will not be conveyed to the Spurs.Sept. 23Coming: Willie Green, Jason Smith from PhiladelphiaGoing: Darius Songaila, Craig Brackins to PhiladelphiaImpact: Green and Smith quickly emerged as important reserves for a deeper-than-expected New Orleans bench, averaging 20.7 and 19.0 minutes per game, respectively. Green has been the Hornets’ most consistent sub and often is relied on by the coaching staff for defense during crunch time. New Orleans is 8-1 in games decided by single digits. Meanwhile, Songaila and Brackins have been used sparingly by the 76ers. Brackins has yet to make his official NBA debut, not appearing on the floor since the preseason. Songaila has logged a total of 27 minutes in four regular season appearances.Aug. 11 (four-team trade that also involved New Jersey)Coming: Trevor Ariza from HoustonGoing: Darren Collison to Indiana, James Posey to IndianaImpact: Ariza has been an invaluable, jack-of-all-trades anchor for the Hornets’ vastly improved defense, which held each of the first 10 opponents to fewer than 100 points. In some instances, Ariza has guarded the opposing team’s point guard, shooting guard and small forward all on the same night. He’s always assigned to the best wing scorer. Meanwhile, Collison is off to a very solid start for the Pacers, averaging 15.1 points and 4.1 assists, though he’s missed recent games due to injury. Posey is generally Indiana’s eighth or ninth man, playing about 20 minutes a game. He’s taken to a new level his career trend of being heavily reliant on perimeter shots, taking a staggering 86 percent of his shots from three-point range (43 trey attempts out of 50 shots).Aug. 11Coming: Marco Belinelli from TorontoGoing: Julian Wright to TorontoImpact: Belinelli moved into New Orleans’ starting lineup in preseason and has remained there for all 11 regular season games. Belinelli is the Hornets’ third-leading scorer and has put up excellent shooting percentages across the board (47.5 on field goals, 43.1 on treys, 85.7 on free throws). Wright was picking up DNPs by coach’s decision regularly early in the season, but cracked the Raptors’ rotation recently. In seven appearances, he’s averaging 4.7 points, 2.4 rebounds and 15.0 minutes.