Hornets' Chandler emerging -- and outplaying Big Ben

	Tyson Chandler averaged 13.2 points, 16.1 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in February. David E. Klutho/SI

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There may be no more difficult property to manage in sports than youth. The physical gifts a player demonstrates may take years to develop into a focused and consistently productive force. That is, if he develops. But that time can cost millions -- even before the player pays off on the court.

And for the Bulls, the millions they had paid Tyson Chandler over his first five seasons had not added up to a player they hoped the former No. 3 overall draft choice would be. So last July, Chandler and the remaining $54 million on his contract were sent to the Hornets one day after Chicago officially signed free agent Ben Wallace to a four-year $60 million deal. On paper, the exchange of an often disappointing player who had averaged 7.1 points and 7.7 rebounds through last season for a four-time Defensive Player of the Year with a championship ring made perfect sense; in reality, it may have been a mistake the Bulls regret for years.

Deep into his sixth season, the 24-year-old Chandler is finally playing the type of basketball that must have filled the dreams of former Chicago general manager Jerry Krause when he selected the Dominguez High School (Compton, Calif.) star in the 2001 draft. After a slow start in which Chandler averaged less than six points and about 11 boards in November and December, the new year brought a noticeable improvement in those numbers and more than two blocks a game. Chandler was even better in February, posting 13.2 points, 16.1 rebounds and 1.8 blocks while shooting 61.3 percent from the floor. In turn, that's also helped the Hornets produce their best numbers of the year so far, a 9-4 mark in February that through Wednesday had left them a mere half-game off the pace for the West's final playoff spot.

"The biggest difference with Tyson is the confidence he has in himself right now, and a lot of that has to do with the confidence we've shown in him from the start," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "I felt Tyson really should be a double-double guy in this league. We knew that he was going to have to work on his offensive game a little bit, especially in the post, and we've done that from Day 1. Now he's starting to touch the surface of where he can get as a basketball player. He still has a ways to go, but he is definitely headed in the right direction."

That's apparently a 180 from the path he headed down with Bulls coach Scott Skiles, with whom Chandler traded verbal shots in the media over everything from effort to injuries. The bad blood still persists, as Chandler demonstrated in avoiding even a cursory greeting with Skiles when the Bulls visited Oklahoma City in early December.

"My last year in Chicago was so bad that, honestly, I wanted to blank it out of my mind," Chandler said in a phone interview. "I just feel like [Skiles and I] never saw eye-to-eye. From the moment he came in, it was never right."