New Orleans Hornets at Phoenix Suns Game Thread I

Mmmm, new season smell. LET'S DO THIS!!!

[Note by Seth Pollack, 12/26/11 6:17 PM MST ]

Pregame notes from Alvin Gentry:

• "Obviously, we're familiar with the players, we're just not familiar with them in this particular system." -- Gentry on playing new-look Hornets
• Kaman, good post up guy. Gordon difficult cover, will average 20 playing on any team in the NBA. Great rebounding team. Will play slow and string out possessions.
• Key to defending Gordon (similar to Kobe) is to keep him off the line and from getting easy points. Dudley will get primary assignment. Could see Dudley and Brown playing together.
• Gentry seemed to be laying the ground work for moving Dudley to the bench -- "The thing that's so crazy about him is that you almost like to have him come in off the bench because he's such a utility guy. You can play him as a two, or a three or a four in certain situations. I just think he played so well (in camp) that he deserved to start and if we get to that point that it's better for our team or something like that, I could talk to him and I know that he's going to do what's best for the team. Right now, he's earned that spot and I think he deserves to be out there to start."
• Can't control what they do tempo-wise but Suns will push but can't take bad shots.
• Back up to Nash will be based on feel, fit, or how the game is going.
• Gortat will play his normal rotation minutes. No limitations on what he can do.
• Gentry watched some games on Christmas. What stood out was depth on the Clippers team and how scary good the Heat look: "Just the whole attitude that LeBron has and what he talked about, he talked about his failures and what he needs to do. That's really not a good thing for the rest of the league for a guy that talented to be that focused"

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