Wow that's going to be a sad NJ squad that starts opposite the C's. They dreamed of Deron and Dwight and now they're playing Sundiata Gaines, Marshon Brooks, Damion James, Shelden Williams, and Mehmet Okur.
Yikes!
Yikes is right. But with no Eric Gordon, I once felt bad for the hornets (tbf it was a 2nd night of a back to back). Like most times, im sure this game will be closer then it should be until the latter part of the fourth.
Even without Gordon, you're cutting New Orleans short on that comparison. Take away Deron from NJ and Gordon on NO, NO still has a lot of good talent and depth. Okafor and Kaman at C is great when many teams don't have one capable C, plus Landry, Ariza, Jack (who has been surprisingly strong so far), Belleneli, Aminu, Vazquez. If they pull of this expected trade with Memphis they will also add Henry to that lineup.
They are reminding me of the Nuggets after the Melo trade, who were surpringly good because they were so deep. If you can hang with better first units with your starters and then put out a second unit with players that could be starting a lot of places (and therefore will probably have an advantage over other better teams second units) you can win a good amount of games, especially in this condensed season.
Deron Williams: 37% from the field, 28% from three, 6 assists, 4.3 turnovers per game for the worst team in the league.
How the mighty have fallen.
To be fair to Deron, I'm sure it's hard as a PG when you have no scorers to pass to (Lopez has been out, Brooks is seemingly their only other scorer) and the whole defense focuses on you as you're trying to score. He has also dealt with injury issues.