FanHouse ChrisPaul

Leave it to me to go ahead and write the following words less than 48 hours ago: "if you're worried about Chris Paul -- don't be." In all fairness, that was meant as a bit of reassurance that Paul would not let the Byron Scott firing affect the way he plays on the court. Now let me say this: If you're worried about Chris Paul, you're only human.

On Friday night Paul went down with a severe ankle injury that has knocked him out for up to two weeks, possibly more. So what can we do in his absence?

The first thing you need to do is go and pick up rookie point guard Darren Collison. No, he won't "replace" Paul, but his Friday performance after the injury looked rather promising. Collison finished the gamed with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting with two assists and two steals. At the very least you can slot him into your lineup next week with the Hornets on the schedule for four games: home to the Clippers, Suns, Hawks, and at the Heat.

Collison, though, was known more for his leadership and intangibles in college, and less for his ability to take over games. His upside may be limited, but at this point you have to take what you can get.

Smartly, the Hornets braintrust offered up a player for the media horde at the press conference announcing the firing of Byron Scott and the ascension of Jeff Bower. It was David West, the All-Star power forward, who said generally negative things about recent times under Scott and who publicly placed some faith in Bower. Of course, the media (and fans) really only cared what superstar Chris Paul thought ... but Paul was otherwise tied up Thursday.

Eventually, John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune found Paul and got his thoughts on the move. And you understand why the Hornets are glad Paul was unavailable, and he was not nearly as optimistic about the change as West.

How good are the Phoenix Suns this season? It may be too early to tell, but they're at least good enough to get their latest opponent's head coach fired just nine games into the season.

Byron Scott has been relieved of his coaching duties and the team will make the formal announcement at a press conference later this afternoon. This comes in the wake of a disappointing 3-6 start to the season, and, most recently, a completely lackluster and discouraging performance against the Suns in a nationally televised blowout on Wednesday night.

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Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

The last time we got together, three different players scored 40 points or more on the same night. Well, maybe it's not as rare of an occurrence as we thought, since we were just a single point away from it happening again on Wednesday.

Chris Paul missed by one with 39, but Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade each delivered, with 41 and 40 respectively.

Chris Paul was dazzling on Wednesday against Dallas, in what really was a must-win for the Hornets if they were going to have any sort of confidence in their ability to play with the top teams as the season goes on. Paul dragged his team to a win with 39 points, on 14-for-23 shooting, including three of four from three-point land.

But as great as Paul was and as below average as Dallas was (Dirk Nowitzki was held to just 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting), if we're going to be honest, his Hornets were fairly fortunate to be able to pull this one out.

Chris Paul is the best point guard in the game today, and Rajon Rondo isn't too far behind at the position, probably in most people's top five. But besides being great at what they do, these guys have something else in common: they play the game with a noticeable chip on their shoulder.

So it shouldn't come as any surprise that when the two went head-to-head in Boston on Sunday, things got a little heated during the game, and words were exchanged on the court after the final buzzer had sounded.

Freaky Friday in NOLA. The greatest point guard in the world -- Chris Paul. A festive atmosphere, the home opener for the Hornets. Tyreke Evans, rookie point guard for the Sacramento Kings, had a big challenge ahead. Never mind he was coming off an underwhelming debut Wednesday in Oklahoma City. For the 20-year-old wolf in wolf's clothes, this was the proverbial uphill battle.

And though it didn't end with glass slippers or even confetti, Evans proved he belongs in the NBA.

Warriors coach Don Nelson has gone out of his way to compare rookie Stephen Curry to a young Steve Nash. That's a nice comparison and one any young player would likely take.

But Curry's already got a mentor, thank you, and it's tough to argue with his choice: Chris Paul.

Curry and Paul, both from North Carolina, go back a few years. But this summer their friendship grew, the result of spending nearly a month working out together at various venues in the South.

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

Time at the peak isn't supposed to be this short.

The Hornets jolted the West in 2008, nearly taking the first seed in the conference one season after missing the postseason entirely. After waxing Dallas in what would become Avery Johnson's final playoff series there, the Hornets went all the way to Game 7 against the defending champion Spurs. The Hornets lost, and didn't get close in 2008-09.

You can believe one of three things. The Hornets' short triumph could be over, more flash in the sky than formation of a new star. The Hornets could have experienced just a brief setback, a defeat at the hands of a bad match-up and an injury-riddled season. Or, the Hornets could have just ran into some structural problems in need of fixing, which they possibly have this summer.

Cleveland's Shaquille O'Neal stood with the NBA's incumbent, locked-out referees last week, calling officials "vital" and saying that the players "need perfection" from game crews. But Hornets capo Chris Paul isn't sweating the replacement corps, which will descend upon New York for a boot camp later this week before taking the reins on October 1 when the preseason schedule kicks off.

Paul told his hometown Winston-Salem Journal that he's not worried teams will be overly physical with him if less experienced referees are roaming the sidelines.