Sobering Reality

[JakeDel5674]

Damn I wish the Cavs would've offered that First Rounder. We would be looking at a possible Top 7 pick right now. Especially since the Nets are really shitting the bed. We need to tank and just rebuild. I love Kemba, but we're going nowhere fast with him as the cornerstone. 

[yasuhara2241]

@Professor Chaos great post about the draft picks. It is so easy to cherry pick what the Hornets should have done after the fact, but a lot of the picks made sense at the time. 

My main contention is that we draft players that don't really fit the way we play and the way Cliff likes to coach. He always talks about two way players. Who is a 2 way player on our team? Do we even have 1? Even Kemba struggles on defense keeping guys out of the lane at times. 

Also his defensive formula is a little flawed for today's game. Pack the paint was very important when guys were fed in the post. Now there are much more pick and pops than pick and rolls. We are usually one of the last teams in guarding the 3 point. 

Now, going forward the Hornets need to evolve. Take the rest of this season to get Monk, Bacon & WHG some playing time. They are young and under good contracts. See what we have and develop them. Also let's go more uptempo. That would be a perfect fit for Monk and the majority of our team. 

[davos]

2 hours ago, yasuhara2241 said:

@Professor Chaos great post about the draft picks. It is so easy to cherry pick what the Hornets should have done after the fact, but a lot of the picks made sense at the time. 

My main contention is that we draft players that don't really fit the way we play and the way Cliff likes to coach. He always talks about two way players. Who is a 2 way player on our team? Do we even have 1? Even Kemba struggles on defense keeping guys out of the lane at times. 

Also his defensive formula is a little flawed for today's game. Pack the paint was very important when guys were fed in the post. Now there are much more pick and pops than pick and rolls. We are usually one of the last teams in guarding the 3 point. 

Now, going forward the Hornets need to evolve. Take the rest of this season to get Monk, Bacon & WHG some playing time. They are young and under good contracts. See what we have and develop them. Also let's go more uptempo. That would be a perfect fit for Monk and the majority of our team. 

A big part of it all is us not knowing the type of team we want to build.  With a new GM and coach, this can get redefined and there needs to be a true mission in place.  I feel we're just constantly rolling the dice with mediocre guys that used to have upside that never materialized.  

[davos]

MKG - If he developed a shot, he's 2 way star...never happened

Batum - Hyped up from France, was a whole pie of mediocrity with some great games sprinkled in up there in Portland.  We give him the house. Never materialized. 

MCW - Former ROTY, then showed his real game after year 1.  We were convinced we were somehow reviving him but it is so wrong on so many levels

Frank - Big guy who can hit the three, right?  That's prime for the modern NBA right?  But, yep, bust

--

We are a nice balancing act of poor drafting, trading, signings, and bad contracts.  Marvin, Kemba, and Lamb are good, that's about all we've got going on.  And everyone knows what you get with Dwight Howard and we have 24 million allocated in that direction.  

[yasuhara2241]

1 hour ago, davos said:

MKG - If he developed a shot, he's 2 way star...never happened. 

Batum - Hyped up from France, was a whole pie of mediocrity with some great games sprinkled in up there in Portland.  We give him the house. Never materialized. 

MCW - Former ROTY, then showed his real game after year 1.  We were convinced we were somehow reviving him but it is so wrong on so many levels

Frank - Big guy who can hit the three, right?  That's prime for the modern NBA right?  But, yep, bust

--

We are a nice balancing act of poor drafting, trading, signings, and bad contracts.  Marvin, Kemba, and Lamb are good, that's about all we've got going on.  And everyone knows what you get with Dwight Howard and we have 24 million allocated in that direction.  

MKG - His injuries really derailed his progression. His focus each year has been recovery and jump shooting. My main problem is his handles have never improved since coming in the league. 

Batum - Honestly, he should have been shut down for the year with his injury. He is not the same player as the past couple of years. 

MCW - Cheap player so I didn't mind taking a risk on him. My issue is that even though he has been struggling offensively, we keep with him. I know Cliff isn't a Monk fan but hell give J. Stone a chance how much worse can he be. 

Frank - Frank was exactly what a lot of ppl thought he was. He was a Senior that had a very low ceiling. He has been very underwhelming. I still don't know why he gets so much playing time. 

Contracts - We had the unfortunate circumstance where the huge cap increase came when almost ALL of our starters were up for contracts. At that time, most ppl thought we got a good deal, but the problem was that the good teams used the extra cap so they could sign 3 all-stars and then have enough for rookies, small deals. We used the extra cap room for Batum, MKG, Cody & Marvin. All role players. 

[davos]

1 hour ago, yasuhara2241 said:

MKG - His injuries really derailed his progression. His focus each year has been recovery and jump shooting. My main problem is his handles have never improved since coming in the league. 

Batum - Honestly, he should have been shut down for the year with his injury. He is not the same player as the past couple of years. 

MCW - Cheap player so I didn't mind taking a risk on him. My issue is that even though he has been struggling offensively, we keep with him. I know Cliff isn't a Monk fan but hell give J. Stone a chance how much worse can he be. 

Frank - Frank was exactly what a lot of ppl thought he was. He was a Senior that had a very low ceiling. He has been very underwhelming. I still don't know why he gets so much playing time. 

Contracts - We had the unfortunate circumstance where the huge cap increase came when almost ALL of our starters were up for contracts. At that time, most ppl thought we got a good deal, but the problem was that the good teams used the extra cap so they could sign 3 all-stars and then have enough for rookies, small deals. We used the extra cap room for Batum, MKG, Cody & Marvin. All role players. 

Truth underlined.  Good post.  

Our best bet if we want to make any big moves but keep Kemba is to try and ship Lamb somewhere while we can sell him high.  

[yasuhara2241]

55 minutes ago, davos said:

Truth underlined.  Good post.  

Our best bet if we want to make any big moves but keep Kemba is to try and ship Lamb somewhere while we can sell him high.  

Problem with shipping Lmab off is his contract. What else can we get for a $7m player? Now if we can parlay him into a 1st then absolutely! Only way Lamb stays if we ship out one of Batum, Marvin, Cody, MKG. With one of them gone we will be able to pay, but I don't think he stays past his contract. 

[davos]

7 minutes ago, yasuhara2241 said:

Problem with shipping Lmab off is his contract. What else can we get for a $7m player? Now if we can parlay him into a 1st then absolutely! Only way Lamb stays if we ship out one of Batum, Marvin, Cody, MKG. With one of them gone we will be able to pay, but I don't think he stays past his contract. 

Exactly.  After Kemba, you can sell him higher than anyone on the team and you'd need to attach a Marvin/Cody/Batum/etc. to make a deal most likely.  

The changes we do/don't make this offseason will be very telling of the direction Jordan wants to take the team.  The opportunity is there to begin a deconstruction but will we take it?  How far can we tank?  Ohhh the possibilities haha

[yasuhara2241]

1 hour ago, davos said:

Exactly.  After Kemba, you can sell him higher than anyone on the team and you'd need to attach a Marvin/Cody/Batum/etc. to make a deal most likely.  

The changes we do/don't make this offseason will be very telling of the direction Jordan wants to take the team.  The opportunity is there to begin a deconstruction but will we take it?  How far can we tank?  Ohhh the possibilities haha

I think we will be very inactive this offseason although I could be wrong. I believe we have too many bad contracts to offload and truly tank correctly. They will give it one more year with this "core". Then decide by trade deadline of next year if they will really start over again. 

My personal opinion is burn it down and start over, giving up on Kemba if that is what it takes to get out of the Batum contract.