With little fanfare, Bower builds Hornets into a winner

Jeff Bower (left), shown here with 2007 first-round pick Julian Wright, is in his third season as the Hornets' general manager. AP

RELATED • ASCHBURNER: West race is a doozy

MAILBAG Ian Thomsen will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

The votes aren't cast, yet Boston's Danny Ainge is already the runaway winner for the Executive of the Year award. And deservedly so: He assembled the trades and free-agent signings that have turned the NBA's second-worst team into the league leader at 33-6.

But answer me this: If Ainge hadn't succeeded in landing Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, then who would be receiving his votes as the league's top administrator? A leading candidate would have been Jeff Bower.

Which then might have turned the Executive of the Year into a trivia question: Who is Jeff Bower exactly, and which team employs him?

That team turns out to be 28-12 so far despite more upheaval over the last six years than the rest of the league put together. They are the New Orleans Hornets, and Bower is the general manager who deserves much credit for pulling them together.

In 2004-05, Bower was the player personnel director whose scouting laid the foundation for New Orleans to use the No. 4 pick on Chris Paul, who at the time wasn't loved by most teams picking high in the lottery. Now midway through his third year, Paul is challenging Kevin Garnett for league MVP.

Despite their back-and-forth existence between New Orleans and Oklahoma City amid the desolation of Hurricane Katrina, Bower reinvented the Hornets last season by acquiring Tyson Chandler, Peja Stojakovic and Bobby Jackson before investing this year in starting guard Morris Peterson, who has filled out the starting lineup of one of the league's most surprising teams. Good health and a balanced lineup have put New Orleans on track to win 57 games.

Peterson's individual numbers (8.8 points, 39.6 percent shooting) aren't nearly as impressive as his positive impact on the team. With Paul, Chandler and power forward David West having career years, the rest of the Hornets are being asked to defend (New Orleans is fourth in scoring defense at 93.1 points allowed), keep up with Paul in transition and keep defenders honest.

"He was a veteran who was hungry to play, with a set of skills that blended in really well with the players that we already had on the roster,'' Bower said of Peterson. "We felt that his ability to spread the floor would help Chris Paul and David West, and we liked the fact that he had some toughness and was proven.''

Bower was named GM on the eve of the 2005-06 season, inheriting a team that won 18 games the year before Katrina. He won 38 and 39 games over his first two years while applying the lessons of former GM Bob Bass, who never had a losing season over his nine years in charge of the Hornets. Bass didn't believe in long-term rebuilding plans, and Bower knows the Hornets can't afford them.

Bower's strengths are his humility, as proved by his scrupulously low profile, and his ability to see past the numbers in order to gauge the personality of each player and the team as a whole. He is, in the words of owner George Shinn, a "carbon copy'' of Bass in that both believe in chemistry.

"Bob was always in jobs that required him to be creative and to make the most out of the talent he was able to acquire,'' said Bower, who feels more comfortable talking about Bass than about himself. "I was able to see that first hand, how he could capitalize on his assets.''

1 of 2