Zach Lowe on the Hornets rest of the year

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Nothing shocking here: The Hornets need to see some very important pieces of their young nucleus mesh a bit better. New Orleans definitely put out Eric Gordon feelers at the trade deadline, but he's still around, and it's unclear how interested the team really is in moving him. It would help if Gordon could rediscover his shooting stroke and continue to develop a pick-and-roll chemistry with Anthony Davis; the two are still learning the timing of the pick-and-roll dance, and Davis projects as a devastating dive-man finisher once he gets that timing down.

Davis's shakiness on defense in space has been a bit of a surprise, and the Davis–Ryan Anderson front line has been a disaster; the Hornets have allowed 113.1 points per 100 possessions when those two share the floor, nearly 4.5 points worse than Sacramento's league-worst defense, and the worst number of any of the 40 or so New Orleans player pairs who have logged at least 275 minutes. The Hornets' defense, with a pack-the-paint emphasis nearly on par with Charlotte's, has been bad all season, and finding some synergy with the Anderson-Davis duo would be a nice coda — especially since Monty Williams appears to have (wisely) abandoned the idea of using one of them as a small forward.

The Hornets can nab max-level cap space this summer, in part because Robin Lopez's deal is only $500,000 guaranteed for next season. The team's faith in the Anderson-Davis pair will help determine how much it should spend on other back-line defenders. Continued incremental progress from Austin Rivers would also be nice, to say the least.

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