"We think that the difference between what we had this year and what we want to be is perhaps incremental and not starting from scratch certainly," Weber said. "We believe in our players, and to a person, we believe in the plan that we have."

New Orleans' season came to a disappointing end April 29 with the conclusion of a lopsided 4-1 first-round series loss to Denver. After an injury-plagued season, the Hornets stumbled into the playoffs as the seventh seed in the Western Conference after losing six of their last eight regular-season games.

They began the season with much greater expectations after winning a franchise-record 56 games and their first division title, and coming within one victory of the Western Conference finals a year earlier.

Chad Shinn said it's "highly unlikely" the Hornets will trade All-Star forward David West, and Weber said New Orleans plans to build around its core of West, All-Star point guard Chris Paul, center Tyson Chandler, and forward Peja Stojakovic.

"Chris and David have been key to this team; I don't see that ever changing," Weber said. "Then you talk about guys like Tyson and Peja, these guys are critical to the core of this team. ... I can tell you we're planning on moving forward about the traditional roster changes we have and not some blowup, break down type of process."

The Hornets are likely to be at least a few million dollars above the salary cap when the numbers are finalized in July. But Weber said the team can get under the cap by working trades with teams under the cap, and has until the trading deadline in February to maneuver before facing any luxury tax penalties.

"I think the real question is," Weber said, "if we have to go over the luxury tax in order to stay competitive, the answer is yes. At the same time, you have to ask yourself the question if we don't have to, we won't.

"It's not like, 'Wow, we've got 30 days to figure it out. Let's have a fire sale.' That's not how it works. You have to get through the end of next season before luxury tax even becomes an issue. It's not where you are today, it's where you are a year from today."

Weber said it's natural when a team comes off a disappointing season "to rebuild and restructure everything", but he added "we feel good about this team."

He added that there are no concerns about Chandler's sore left ankle that hampered him late in the season or the surgically repaired left big toe that led Oklahoma City to rescind a trade for Chandler in February.

Weber said Sacramento has not asked for permission to talk to Scott, who has one year left on his contract, and he said the prospect of any team asking for permission to talk to Scott is "not an issue."

"We've got a plan, and Byron's a big part of it," he said.

Weber said he's not concerned about trying to lure free agents to a team that has a coach entering the final year on his contract, noting that the Hornets were in essentially the same position heading into their record-setting season in 2007-08. Scott turned down a longer extension last off-season, opting for just a two-year deal.

Weber said the Hornets are among the top five teams in the NBA in season-ticket renewals and hope to at least match last season's total, though "a long summer of work" lies ahead.

"The good news is from a revenue standpoint, we're ahead of our targets - the ticket sales, the sponsorships, those things," Weber said. "We tend to be performing at a much higher level than other teams in terms of our growth and also performing better than we had budgeted initially."

Weber congratulated the Saints on their tentative new agreement with the state and said he expected that the conclusion of those talks would expedite talks on a new deal for the Hornets , who have a lease through 2014 but benchmarks that would void the deal if not met by February 2011.