At the 2008 All-Star Weekend in New Orleans, Byron Scott seemed closer to a championship than a hot seat.

Coaching the Western Conference en route to earning NBA Coach of the Year honors, Scott talked about taking the next step to contend with the Spurs, Lakers and the rest of the West's perennial contenders, praising the work budding stars Chris Paul and David West had done to turn themselves into All-Stars. The future seemed bright.

On Thursday, New Orelans Hornets president Hugh Weber called the team "broken" and revealed that ownership had no choice but to make a change. Scott was fired by the Hornets, who sent out a morning memo detailing a major announcement to be revealed at an afternoon news conference. Jeff Bower, the GM who has put the roster together, will step in as head coach without an interim tag, adding former Hornets head coach Tim Floyd to the staff as his lead assistant. The rest of Scott's coaching staff remains in place.

"He knows this team better than anyone, has the respect of players and in basketball circles, is regarded as one of the best basketball minds in the business," owner George Shinn said. "This is our best opportunity to reach our goals this season."

Bower, in his 15th year with the Hornets after starting out as an advanced scout, added that the role of head coach is "to get the team to perform to their capablities and reaching their potential this season."  During his tenure, he's served as director of scouting, an assistant coach on two seperate staffs, assistant GM and has been the current general manager since 2001.

"I told Jeff the genie is out of the bottle. Nobody can say he didn't have the right players or the right reason. Jeff has hand-selected this team and we like the idea that now, Jeff will be held accountable for the results," Weber said in candid, strongly-worded comments to reporters in New Orleans on Thursday. "Some of what is being defined was a big problem and yet there was no specific direction on how to fix it. We believe that there are actually very fixable, very tactical, very specific goals that we have that were not being achieved."

There were no specifics given regarding the Hornets having to make the playoffs or reach a 50-win total, but Weber hinted that in-house, the goals established for this season's basketball team are something everyone in the know is well aware of. There are clearly expectations, and it sounds like Bower is on the hook to prove that the roster he's put together can indeed work together to yield results. Bower must count on his most questionable acquisition, Peja Stojakovic, to stay healthy and deliver on the massive contract that has hampered the cash-strapped Hornets financially these past few years.

Bower, now the second GM/head coach in the league alongside L.A.'s Mike Dunleavy, is seeking crisper ball movement and more activity, He'll begin the process of trying to lead the Hornets out of their current hole starting Friday night against Portland. With four of its next five games at home, the opportunity to right the ship exists if the move serves to jolt the players out of their funk.

"The most important part of this whole process is the role that I'm being asked to step into, a role that could have a direct impact on changing the way we play and the effectiveness of many, many things with our team," Bower said. "We feel that the areas where we've come up short this season are correctable... we'll go over some realignments and move forward."

Scott recorded only two winning seasons in his five-plus years, finishing with a 56-26 regular season record to win the Southwest Division in 2008. That Hornets team was defeated by San Antonio in seven games in the Western Conference semis and failed to get out of the first round last postseason, getting embarrassed by Denver.

There was speculation that Scott had lost his team at that point, putting pressure on him to get off to a good start with new acquisition Emeka Okafor joining the fold in a decision that went against the cost-cutting measures mandated by Shinn. A 3-6 start didn't cut it, and the decision to let Scott go was made following a listless performance in Wednesday night's 124-104 loss in Phoenix.

"It goes back to our performance last year. Obviously you see habits forming. You don't want to see those habits re-form when you bring in new guys," Weber said. "You're hopeful through training camp, you're seeing signs of hope and glimmer, but again, the body of work has to come together in a way that you see progress and we saw that gap actually growing. We saw frustration throughout the organization."

New Orleans surrendered 40 points in the first quarter of the nationally-televised loss to the Suns and looked defeated once again, hanging its collective head and leaving the team no other option than a shakeup.

"Accountability was our theme this past summer," VP Chad Shinn said. "We talked about the fact that everyone on our staff is held to a certain standard of performance and we didn't feel that was happening at the head coach level. We feel like we still have an opportunity with our nucleus to get to where we want and Jeff is the right guy, right now, to move us in that direction from the bench. "

This marks the second time in his coaching career that Scott has been let go in the middle of a season, getting the axe in New Jersey after a 22-20 start in the 2003-04 season. Lawrence Frank took over on an interim basis and subsequently won the Atlantic Division, establishing a better relationship with star point guard Jason Kidd than Scott enjoyed. Ironically, there has been talk that Frank's tenure in New Jersey is on it's last legs, as the injury-riddled Nets remain the lone winless squd in the NBA through the season's first few weeks.

Speculation that Scott and Paul had a poor relationship is just that, speculation. That said, you can assume there was some disharmony among the group given the continued pattern of flat performances.

Whether Bower's appointment is temporary and he'll ultimately give way to Floyd remains to be seen. Floyd lasted only one season as the Hornets head coach, going 41-41. He was succeeded by Scott. Since, the former head coach of the Chicago Bulls, Iowa State University and most recently USC, has had varying degrees of success, leaving the Trojans program this summer amid controversy that his staff had acted inappropriately in the recruitment of current Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo. Despite the accusations, the University of Arizona offered him their coveted coaching vacancy, but was turned down. Floyd then cited lacking the sufficient passion to continue as head coach as his reason for resigning at USC on June 9.

Floyd put himself on the map with a great run at the University of New Orleans from 1998-94, leading to his first head coaching opportunity at a high-major, and subsequently, the ill-fated opportunity to coach the Bulls in the post-Michael Jordan era. Bower cited his comfort level with Floyd as the reason for bringing him in, convincing the organization to give him another chance in a different role. 

Scott is frequently mentioned as potential replacement to Phil Jackson given his ties to the Lakers family and his coaching success. Expect him to land on his feet.

As for Bower, it sounds like he's coaching to stay employed. He's got to prove that the team he's put together can be cohesive, because recent results have screamed out otherwise.

Tony Mejia is senior writer of Pro Basketball News. He can be reached at mejia@probasketballnews.com