Open Practice Saturday

I would've if the Tigers didn't have a home game. I was going to make a day out of it with the GF. She's a Hornets fan too, but the tailgate crew will penalize for missing a game.

If I didn't live in Austin Texas I'd be there....frick football or any other excuse bandied for not going. I am/was a basketball player first.

i'll go with you brah

You guys that go must report back on what yall see... obviously.

not seeing much on the web yet. Just posted this in the training camp thread from Bob Licht.

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Big story @ Hornets open practice...double overtime! Is this an NBA 1st? 29 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

On the Mark-o! Marko Belinelli hits the 1st halfcourt shot...Pops hit the other one. 17 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

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LINK

I went and was wondering why Okafor was out. He looked like was walking with a limp, but the could just be his "ganster walk." Some observations though:
-The players who have been here looked as usual. D west gave as usual contributions on D, which was not much. Peja pretty well, went maybe 4/6, 5/7 from 3. Thornton really started to take over the game towards the end of regulation for his game with his shooting and slashing.
-Bellenlli looks like he could a real threat as a sharp shooter off the bench. He really lit it up, and looked like he handled the ball well.
-Pops was a rebounding machine, he may have had 4 or 5 offensive rebounds. He definitely puts forth a big effort.
-Alexander looks like he still has potential. He shook D West a couple times, ane drew the foul, but didn't look too great shooting the free throws. I still like what I saw out of him. Gray does look slimmer, but he was real slow on defending on the post. He had at least 4 fouls by the end of the 2nd period from just being late to position himself. He also dropped a few passes into the post.
-Green started off bad with an airball from 3, but played much better as time went on and him the game tying 3 at the end of regulation.
-Ariza look really good out there overall. He didn't shoot lights out, but he slashed to the hole when needed, connected on an ally oop with CP, and even blocked a few shots including Peja's attempt at the game winning 3 in OT. I think he will be a real difference make for the team.
-Jason Smith didn't do much to impress me. He dropped a few passes as well, but you can see the potential in him, and he was really hustling his arse off.
-Pondexter looks like he can contribute this season as well. He had one mistake where he should have driven to the goal and he would have a wide open dunk. But he did shoot the ball well and played good defense.
Overall I really like what I saw out of the team. You can see them playing hard on defense, and even with that, there weren't that many bad shots taken. There really wasn't anyone out there who looked incompetent and just couldn't play like we are used to with such players as DTDB, Juju and other fan favorites. CP and Pargo stayed after and played some around the world, which was fun to watch, and then actually came over and signed some autographs.

BTW, West does look a lot skinnier. I don't know if that's a good thing, as in his in good shape, or a bad thing that he isn't going to be bulky enough to bang down low.

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read/saw him say that the slim down was intentional and he feels good. He's more of a finesse guy than a banger anyway, so leaner is hopefully better.

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I figured that was case for him, so I'll take it as a good thing.

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How did he do defensively against West? Does he look like he could play the PF spot? That's really the only position he'd have a shot at competing for minutes.

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I really didn't notice to be honest, but then again I don't really remember West scoring a lot of points.

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I'm starting to wonder if giving Gray and extended look is why we didn't see Okafor. Dampier is still available and Gray has never been this high on the depth chart entering a season. If you don't think he can hack it now is the time to figure that out.

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I agree man. I really think there's something fishy about the Okafor situtation. I can understand an older, more fragile player like Peja maybe needing rest that doesn't involve injury like he did yesterday, but Okafor shouldn't. Like I said, he did look to be kind of limping on the sideline, but it could just be the way he was walking (you know how some tall people have a really goofy walk?). He participated in the shoot around before and I think after he took part in the half court shoot out. After Bellinelli hit the first shot, Monty pulled out a wad of money (baller!) and handed him a bill. After the rest of the players saw that they all ran up and wanted to go again.

The team looks like they have good chemitsry and get along well with one another. You could see some of the newer guys like Green joking around with CP and West during the stretching. I really, really like what I saw today.

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mm2316

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thanks for posting what u saw

More on why Okafor didn't play in the scrimmage. Near the end of this vlog from Jimmy Smith he mentions Monty's practice of giving a veteran player a day off. LINK I had never heard of this before so when resting Okafor to not break routine was the excuse given it sounded like a BS cover up. Apparently he really was just resting