WESTWEGO, La – When the Hornets officially released Byron Scott from head coaching duties, it was the end of a road that, according to one of the players, began as far back as the 2007-08 season.
Yes, the same season the Hornets won their first-ever Southwest Division title and came within one game of the Western Conference finals.
“Actually, even that year, we ran into some things that we felt like at times we just weren’t playing the game the right way,” All-Star forward David West said. “When we faced teams that were strong in their system and really had a system they felt comfortable with, we struggled.”
This offseason, change became a buzz word at the Hornets’ Poydras Street offices and at the Alario Center, where the team works out when it’s in town.
Owner George Shinn implied before the season that if changes weren’t made in how rookies and young players were developed, changes would occur.
Few believed it would happen so soon, though. New Orleans is 3-6 heading into the season’s 10th game Friday night against the Trailblazers at the Arena.
“Over the last, even the last couple of weeks, we’ve had conversations just about tying to change our approach and trying to change some of the things we were doing because they weren’t giving us the results we were looking for,” West said.
President Hugh Weber and General Manager Jeff Bower, who takes over as head coach, decided they had seen enough after watching the team struggle
In three of the past four games, the Hornets struggled with defense, allowing those opponents to score at least 100 points in 17-, 16- and 20-point losses to Toronto, the Lakers and Phoenix.
On Thursday morning, the five-season plus tenure of Scott officially ended at 203-216.
“Some of what is being defined was a big problem and yet, there was no specific direction on how to fix it,” Weber said. “We believe there are actually very fixable, very tactical, very specific goals that are not being achieved.”
Added Bower, “As an organization, we had key areas we were looking at from a results standpoint and the results we were getting weren’t matching what we had hoped for and how we were getting there was as important and led us to the need to make change.”
Bower will keep all of Scott’s assistants in addition to adding Tim Floyd as his top assistant. Floyd coached the Hornets for one season, going 41-41 in 2003-04 before being let go so the franchise could hire Scott. Floyd has been living in the area since he resigned as the head coach at Southern California, where the NCAA is investigating an alleged pay for play scheme that attracted highly recruited player O.J. Mayo.
Floyd also was the head coach at UNO from 1988-94, leading the team to a 127-58 record and two NCAA tournament appearances. Bower was an assistant to Floyd in his one season as the Hornets’ head coach.
“I think this team was not performing up to its capabilities right now and has the ability and the talent to do better,” Bower said.
