Hornets All-Star forward Jamal Mashburn was lounging in the Hawaiian sun Monday afternoon when he found out the identity of his next immediate supervisor.

But regardless that Tim Floyd was the eventual winner of a three-man race to succeed departed Paul Silas, Mashburn had long ago put his faith in the process, and the single individual who was heading up the search party.

"I've heard a lot of good things about Coach Floyd," Mashburn said, interrupting his vacation for a brief moment, "but I had put my trust in Bob Bass. He's an expert at this, and obviously he thinks he's hired the right man for the job.

"I'm sure Coach Floyd is the right person, and he'll do everything in his power to make us a better ballclub. I had a few meetings with Bob before I left New Orleans. We've always talked about a lot of different things. I have a lot of trust in him, and I'm sure the owners do, too."

Reserve guard Courtney Alexander, who will be playing for his fourth head coach in four seasons, said Monday he'd heard positive comments about Floyd and was ready to move on to forging yet another relationship.

"I think from everything that I've been told, I've been told nothing bad about him," Alexander said from his offseason home in Atlanta. "He was in an unfortunate situation in Chicago, and what happened there would be an unfair assessment of his coaching ability. That would have been a tough job for anybody.

"Obviously management feels Coach Floyd is the right man for the job. But whomever they brought in, we all just have to get behind him and show him nothing but the same respect we showed for Coach Silas. We've got to realize we're all in this together."