Thanks to last night, the Hornets are now riding their first winning streak of the season - granted it’s only 2 games - but with Chris Paul out of the line up two games is more like five or six. The very team that beat the Bees by 20 points a week ago leading up to the firing of then head coach Byron Scott, the Suns, looked like a shell of themselves last night allowing New Orleans to win by 7 despite Paul not playing and David West only scoring 6 points.

WOW!

This may not sound like much but if this team can some how keep the ship afloat while Paul is out (likely the next 2-3 weeks) then this team has a chance at making a little noise once their leader returns. Rookies Marcus Thornton and Darren Collison looked fantastic last night combining for 34 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists, while only turning the ball over three times. The story of the night, though, was up and down veteran Peja Stojakovic who exploded for 25 points and 13 rebounds, making 7-11 three point attempts. This very well could’ve been his best game since joining the Hornets four years ago. I wouldn’t count on it happening too often, if ever again, but it was nice to see Peja earn some his money for once.

Looking at the Hornets upcoming schedule, the Bees have a chance to break even if the continue to play together with Paul sidelined. They currently are sitting at 5-8 on the season with games this week against Atlanta, Milwaukee, Miami and Sacramento. The Hornets should come out of that stretch 2-2 heading into the month of December where they only play four or five quality opponents. I wouldn’t just off the Hornets ship just yet, as the team is starting to respond to interim coach Jeff Bower and the “real” coach Tim Floyd.

Well forget about the e-mail speculation about when New Orleans Hornets coach Byron Scott will be fired because the Bees’ management thought today was the day.

I couldn’t have agreed more!

It’s not immediately known who will succeed Scott until a new coach is hired but look for one of the “ridiculous” looking assistants to be a temporary replacement until the Hornets sign someone like Avery Johnson.

More on this as the story unfolds.

Scott needs to take a seat somewhere else.

It’s no secret when I tell you Byron Scott will be fired at some point in this season, it’s just a matter of when. Last night the Hornets dropped yet another loss, this time by the hands of the Phoenix Suns 124-104 in a game that wasn’t even as close as the score indicates. Chris Paul is on a poorly coached team surrounded by scrubs and castoffs that have no true identity and no strengths.

This is not the same team that finished 2nd in the Western Conference just two seasons ago. No, that team is long gone. As is, this is a team that will struggle to reach .500 unless something miraculous happens. What’s that miracle you ask?

Byron Scott being fired!

Go ahead and throw in all those rediculous looking assistant coaches while you’re at it.

This team has reached its peak and now is just free falling to mediocrity.

The team sits 3-6 right now with a mere three players scoring in double figures including 26 from Chris Paul, 15 from David West (down from 20 a year ago) and 11 from Emeka Okafor. After those three, Scott has already tried more line up formations than a down syndrome kid fiddling with a rubrics cube (yeah it’s that bad). Scott is blindly trying to mix and match a lineup that can compete but is failing to realize that the talent he has outside of the top three, is nothing to write home about. They’re bad. Real bad. The worst part about it is there is nothing Scott can do to move any of these guys.

This is how the unmovable salaries are looking for the Hornets:

Morris Peterson- 2 years remaining @ $5.8 million per

Peja Stojakovic- 2 years remaining @ $13.392 million per

James Posey- 2 years remaining @ $6 million per

Darius Songaila- 2 years remaining @ $4.5 million per

Emeka Okafor- 5 years remaining @ $10.797 million per

The rest of the guys on the team are semi-movable but would return no true value. The best trade bait the Hornets have is in David West who is still due three years @ $9 million per, but the Hornets would insist that any team that wants West would have to take on one or two of the guys above. Hilton Armstrong could give a team some cap relief since this is the last year of his deal with a shade under $3 million owed to him. In short, the Hornets hands are tied when it comes to moving most of the guys. They would be reluctant to do anything with West since the team still looks at him as one of the top forwards in the conference. What they fail to realize is that the undersized forward is not among the elite. In fact he’s far from it judging by his play to start this season.

Along with firing Scott, here are some of my ideas towards improving this team in the short term:

First off, package a deal to the Chicago Bulls for Tyrus Thomas. It’s common knowledge the Bulls want to trade Thomas’ expiring contract (worth right at $5 million) and the Bees could stand to get a little bit younger and athletic. The thing is, the Hornets would have to part with West. To make this work the Bees would try to give up Peterson and would have to take on some more salary. That’s where Kirk Hinrich comes in (making $9.5 million for the next 3 years). Hinrich could serve as a great backup point guard and could also see time playing the two-guard along side Chris Paul. The Hornets would shed about $600,000 worth of salary for this season but would save roughly $6 million long term. The trade makes the Hornets instantly better on defense and gives the team two guys that can play substantial minutes by only giving up one guy. I’d pull the trigger on this deal!

Let’s try another trade. This one takes on a tad less talent, but still sheds salary and gives the team more flexibility heading into the ever so important summer of 2010. The Hornets trade West, Posey and Armstrong to the Miami Heat for Udonis Haslem (expiring @ $7 million) and Quinton Richardson (expiring at $8.7 million). The Hornets would have both players off their books by season’s end and would save more than $33 million in the long run. The team would take a hit in the talent category until season’s end, but would have enough money to go out and sign a marquee free agent over the summer like Chris Bosh or Lebron James (I could picture Lebron in a Hornets Jersey, can’t you?). Why would the Heat do this trade? Well it makes the Heat better right now. The Heat weren’t able to land Carlos Boozer or Lamar Odom in the offseason and they know that in order to keep Dwayne Wade happy they have to build a solid team around him. David West might be the guy the Heat need to resign Wade. This one is a little more likely to happen than the first.

Are you starting to see a trend here? We’re going to have to give up players to get players and outside of trading Paul, West is the guy the Hornets must trade in order to compete.

Of course, for any of this to happen the Hornets must rid themselves of Byron Scott. Many people are predicting him to be canned by Thanksgiving. I think it might take a little bit more time than that considering Hornets owner George Shin is illiterate and still doesn’t quite know if we won the game last night or not (we loss George, now go back to sleep). Scott will be out of here by mid-to-late December. Mark it down in the books. The likely replacement will be New Orleans native Avery Johnson (although I would prefer a guy like Brian Shaw).

Let’s make this fun. How about we turn this into a contest? I want YOU to e-mail me the date you think Byron Scott will be fired on or around. If your within 5 days of the date, I’ll mention you in an upcoming sports column in Tiger Weekly. Fair enough?

My e-mail is:   joshssports@gmail.com

You really start to realize that you’re getting older when the sports icons that you admired growing up are getting older and have diminished skills. Ken Griffey Jr was the guy I looked up to in the 1990’s. He made baseball fun to watch, he made baseball cool. Now the aging slugger is just barely hanging on after a career of ups and downs - and now he is signed on for his 21st season after a semi-productive 2009 with the team that made him a star.

Last season Griffey cranked out a respectable 19 homers, with 57 RBIs with a measly .214 average.  Jr has managed to stay healthy the last couple of seasons after playing the previous eight years with Cincinnati battling a whole assortment of ailments that without a doubt kept the slugging lefty from breaking every home run record and building on his stardom that captured the hearts of every young baseball fan growing up in the 90’s. Sitting at 630 home runs right now, the logical thought would be for him to approach the 650 mark, but a very slim shot at 700.

But who cares how many homers he belts out this year? I know I don’t. I don’t mind seeing him barely hit over .200. Just let him play as long as he wants to. He’s the last piece of a childhood for many now twenty and thirty-somethings out there. Its going to be really weird when the guys like Jr, and others like Shaq and Kevin Garnett start retiring. Our guys will be gone. New kids will come up and we’ll no longer be younger than the athletes we admire. It’s a strange feeling.

Keep it up Griffey. Play until you’re 50 (he’ll be 40 in a couple of weeks) or play longer. I might not have seen any of your games last season, but I enjoy hearing your name and don’t want to picture the MLB without Ken Griffey, Jr. in it.

It’s taken me two day before I’ve been able to talk about the LSU-Bama game. It still hurts as we speak. To start off I’m so happy that I went to Miami over the weekend instead of Tuscaloosa because there could’ve been a killing and plus Miami was just awesome.

Something has to be done about the referees in the Southeastern Conference! LSU could easily be undefeated and ranked number 1 right now had it not been for completely shitty calls against both Florida and Alabama, the latest of which was a complete travesty. Patrick Peterson was perhaps the biggest factor in the outcome of Saturday’s matchup of the best from the SEC West. Julio Jones would have never broke off Bama’s long TD reception had Peterson not been suffering from cramps. Regardless of that, LSU would have won the game had Peterson’s interception been called correctly. Gary Danielson even called it a pick. You could clearly see the dirt come up from Peterson cleat BOTH being in bounds at the point of possession of the INT.

I’m among the biggest fan of the SEC conference, but at this point I would be overjoyed if a team like Boise State won the National Title this year.

Florida and Alabama can both go straight to hell!

It’s no surprise when I say there needs to be a change in the Big Easy - and no I’m not talking about the Saints (for once).

The New Orleans Hornets are struggling to the tune of a 1-3 start to the season, with their lone win against a horrible Sacramento King team and their most recent loss to the New York Knicks last night 117-111 despite solid double-doubles by both Chris Paul and Emeka Okafor.

The team as a whole stinks. David West is now the most overrated forward in the entire NBA (well maybe second most to Zach Randolph) and he may be the only salvageable trade bait without parting with Paul or Okafor. Byron Scott is holding true to his motto of not playing rookies, regardless of how bad his veterans are. The two PROMISING rookies for the Hornets have played a combined 3 MINUTES through the first four games with all of which going to Darren Collison against Spurs last week.

Instead, Scott is sticking with perhaps the worst player in the NBA, Morris Peterson. Mo Pete hasn’t played decent basketball in at least three years and has shown no signs of life averaging a measly 6.5 points per game with less than 1 assist and shooting 35% from the field and 25% from three. Granted this is coming from a guy that’s “supposed” to be an above average jump shooter. And let’s not forget he was the main guy that guarded Kobe Bryant on his remarkable 81 point game four years ago. So his defense is shit, too.

What should they do?

For starters, Peterson, Peja Stojakovic and West all have to go. Rumor is the Hornets are interested in the Warriors’ forward Stephen Jackson. With an abundance of talent at Jackson’s position, the one time NBA champion should be traded within the next couple of weeks. If the Hornets can trade two of three (or all, if we’re lucky) of the above mentioned guys for Jackson and maybe either Anthony Marrow or Acie Law, the Bees would be well improved.

Hornets management shouldn’t stop there, though.

Byron Scott has to go! He is too stubborn in his coaching and seems to have lost this team. Chris Paul of all people spoke out last night after their loss about how the team needs to find an identity. And he’s right. This team has no identity. Aside from Paul working his magic and Okafor collecting some boards and put backs, this team has nothing going for them. To fit Paul’s skill set, the team has to get longer, faster and meaner. None of which describes David West who is slow, short and a nightmare on defense.

Hire someone like Flip Saunders. Trade for a guy like Stephen Jackson. And play talented rookies like Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton. This team could be a fifth or sixth seed in the West. Changes have to be made soon, before they dig themselves into too big of a hole and lose yet another promising season with the most dominant point guard in the league.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel might have made the biggest mistake in World Series history by not starting ace Cliff Lee last night against the Yankees. The Yanks started game 1 starter CC Sabathia yet again on only 3 days rest because they knew the importance of game 4. Flash forward to a decent outing by Joe Blanton and another horrible outing by closer Brad Lidge and the Phillies now find themselves down 3-1 to the Yankees and are pitching Lee a day late in a game that they’ll likely win, but to much dismay.

Instead of going all out last night and tying the series 2-2 with Lee (their game 1 winner), they now find themselves in a hole and have to win 3 games in a row to win the Series, which isn’t going to happen. If Lee pitched last night then he would’ve been available for a game 7 showdown against Sabathia, now he’s not.

Charlie Manuel is an idiot….

….just listen to him talk. He really is.

The Saints are set to face their first divisional opponent tonight on MNF with an unbeaten record at stake. How will it end up?

In short, the Saints will rise to the occasion at home and show the world that they are for real.

Key Match ups:

Saints receivers versus a young Falcon secondary. Drew Brees will pick a part a cornerback duo of Chris Houston and Brent Grimes. Much apologies to former Tiger Chevis Jackson and co., but Colston and boys are too big, fast and physical to be slowed down.

On the other hand, the Saints will have a tough time defending a Falcons passing attach headlined by Roddy White and the aging Tony Gonzalez. The key will be can Vilma and Sharper hold their own, and make Gonzalez a non factor. White can get his touches as long as we shut down the other guys.

The biggest test for the Saints will be Michael Turner. Earlier today we learned that Saints’ D-lineman Sedrick Ellis will be out for 4-6 weeks. This hurts more than ever, playing one of the more talented backs in the league. Turner hasn’t shown his explosive running that he had last year when he rushed for close to 1,700 yards. Through six games Turner has only gained 403 yards, as opposed to 597 yards through six games last year.

The X Factor is the Saints playing at home with a winning team. The fans will be out and the Superdome will be electric tonight giving the Saints the overall advantage. Unless the Falcons can build an early lead on the back of Turner and are able to control the time of possession, the Saints shouldn’t have a problem improving to 7-0.

Prediction:

Saints 33  Falcons24

Basketball is in the air. Let’s just take and minute and breath it all in.

……

..

There we go. The NBA season is just under a week old but its starting to shape up to be a good one. Teams like the Lakers, Celtics and Magic have looked flawless, while early favorites like the Spurs and Cavaliers have already slipped. I find it funny that the Spurs can beat the Hornets (very badly) despite Timmy Duncan only scoring nine points and hauling in 12 boards, but the Spurs lose the next night to the Bulls (of all teams) when Duncan explodes for 28 points, 16 boards and three blocks. What gives? One things for sure, Tony Parker is not as good as people think and Manu Ginobili is through. The Cavaliers on the other hand are just not a very athletic team (outside of Lebron of course). Shaq and Big Z stand no chance matching up with teams that run pick and rolls with their bigs, and Mo Williams has (seemingly) taken a step back from his stellar season a year ago.

The big dogs led by the defending Champ Lakers, are all out for blood. If the Lakers, Magic and Celts can stay healthy there’s a chance all three will have well over 55 wins, maybe 60+. The Lakers’ young center Andrew Bynum has looked spectacular and could push for most improved player of the year if he can stay healthy. The big question on everyone’s mind is Ron Artest and can he keep his head in check. I think he will. Kobe will see to that. Artest may very well be legally insane but he will play nice for at least one title. (After this year, not a chance)

My come back kids this year is gonna be the OK City Thunder. This team has a chance to be good for a long time with youngsters like Durant, Westbrook, Green and Harden locked in. Westbrook may have had one of the most under the radar rookie seasons ever last year as he averaged right at 15 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. The kid does have an issue with turnovers but that will heal with experience. Throw in a veteran center with upside like Nenad Kristic and you have a team that could challenge  the West bottom feeders for the eighth playoff spot.

Game of the Night:

Mavericks @ Lakers tonight on ESPN

While most are out partying, be sure to find a TV at the bar or the apartment with this game on. Should be an entertaining one. Pau Gasol is supposed to make his season debut tonight and Kobe always enjoys playing against Jason Kidd.

Next week we’ll have a better picture of who is on the right track and who needs a fine tuned adjustment.

Not that the play even mattered, but Tennessee Coach Lane Kiffin was right when he criticized the SEC officials Sunday about not calling a penalty on Alabama tackle Terrance Cody after he removed his helmet in celebration following his game winning field goal block to secure the Tide’s victory.

Today the SEC announced that they have “reprimanded” Kiffin for his remarks, which is the equivalent of a warning.

This is bogus. There’s no reason the SEC should act so “snobby” about their remarks towards their refs, especially in light of the horrible calls that have taken place in the last few weeks. Sure Cody should have received a penalty. Would it have affected the outcome? Not Likely, but it would have been warranted.

The SEC is basically saying that you can’t as much as point towards the sky after a touchdown, but if you block a kick you can take your helmet off and run like a fat ass (which is what Cody is) all around the field in celebration. I call bullshit.

The refs need to get on their A-game fast because if they blow a big call in 2 weeks when LSU travels down to Tuscaloosa, the league can expect riots.