New Orleans Hornets

The New Orleans Hornets play in the Southwest Division of the NBA's Western Conference.

The Hornets were founded in 1988 in the city of Charlotte. The team struggled in its first few seasons until 1992 when it put together a team consisting of Alonzo Mourning, Kendall Gill, and Larry Johnson. Although the team had several good seasons, they were unable to make it past the conference semifinals.

With Hornets fans becoming discontent and attendance numbers dropping, the Hornets moved to New Orleans before the start of the 2002-03 season. The team would continue to struggle for the first few years in its new home. When Hurricane Katrina hit, The Hornets were forced to relocate to Oklahoma City for the 2005-06 season, as well as the 06-07 season. The Hornets returned to New Orleans in 2007 and captured a #2 seed in the Western Conference Playoffs.

The Hornets now rely on the number four draft pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, Chris Paul, and fellow NBA All-Star, David West to guide them to success. The Hornets had a disappointing campaign in 2009/10, when Paul was injured in January and with fellow All-Star, Peja Stojakovic in and out with injuries, the team struggled to a 37-45 record and missed the playoffs

Although the Hornets made the Playoffs with a record of 49-33, they would go on and lose in the first round of the Playoffs to the Denver Nuggets. The main story of 2009, was the tax roll situation.

First of all, the Hornets traded center Tyson Chandler for Emeka Okafor in an attempt to immediately lower their salary, but they took on a long term burden by taking on Okafor's $63 million, five year contract. They also traded starting guard Rasual Butler to the Los Angeles Clippers for a 2016 secound round draft pick, saving $3.9 million for the 2009/10 season.

With the Hornets being $7 million over the tax level at the start of the season, these moves moved the Hornets under the luxury tax threshold for the season.

It was an interesting move by the owner because even though it was wise financially, it didn't necessarily benefit the Hornets on the court.