We Traded Tobias Harris for Bismack Biyombo on Draft Day

[MillionDollarCam]

So I completely forgot about this but in 2011 we drafted Kemba Walker with the 9th Overall Pick and we actually drafted Tobias Harris with the 19th Overall Pick. 

However, in another draft day blunder the Hornets traded Harris in a three team trade.

Charlotte Received: Bismack Biyombo, Corey Maggette

Milwaukee Received: Tobias Harris, Stephen Jackson, Shaun Livingston, Beno Udrih

Kings Received: Jimmer Fredette, John Salmons,

If you were wondering, Tobias Harris is currently averaging 21.7 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game.

[Eazy-E]

Just more evidence that tanking is not worth it and rarely works. We were in the middle of tanking when that trade went down and trying to shed salary. We had just traded Gerald Wallace to Portland earlier that year as well.

Biz was one of the most polarizing prospects in that draft and a ton of teams were very high on him. People were making comparisons to Serge Ibaka if he developed his offensive game. We all know how that turned out.

[djp14]

If trading Tobias Harris is a sign of organizational ineptitude, we've got company. Because he's been moved 5 times.

We've had much worse draft failures than this.

 

 

[MillionDollarCam]

11 minutes ago, djp14 said:

If trading Tobias Harris is a sign of organizational ineptitude, we've got company. Because he's been moved 5 times.

We've had much worse draft failures than this.

 

 

He’s also been moved for:

- J.J. Redick (Bucks to Magic)

- Blake Griffin (Pistons to Clippers)

- Two First Round Picks (Clippers to Sixers)

We moved him (and Stephen Jackson) for Bismack Biyombo.

[djp14]

I get that, but before this season, I never heard anyone complain about us dealing Tobias Harris.

Picking up Biyombo, yes.

[MillionDollarCam]

6 minutes ago, djp14 said:

I get that, but before this season, I never heard anyone complain about us dealing Tobias Harris.

Drafting Biyombo, yes.

Most people probably didn’t realize we even drafted him.

It certainly slipped my mind until I was looking at our putrid draft history.

In fact, statistically he’s our second best draft pick (behind Kemba) since 1999 (Baron Davis). Harris has outoroduced Henderson, Augustin, Felton, Okafor etc...

Yet we traded him (now the eighth highest scoring player in the eastern conference) and Stephen Jackson for Biyombo who we later got rid of after we realized how bad he was.

Carmelo Anthony has been traded by the Nuggets, Knicks, Thunder, Hawks, Rockets, etc. but that doesn’t mean he’s not a great player.

We can think about all the draft picks we missed on where we took the wrong guy but the biggest blunders are the one’s where we took the right guy and traded him away.

[MillionDollarCam]

8 minutes ago, Thelt said:

Certainly this was a mistake but there were many others.  Drafting MKG over Beal jumps off the page to me.  The draft where we took Biz was a good one.  We also missed out on Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler.  All three of those guys were drafted lower than Biz. 

We’ve missed on a lot but to me the sting is worse when we actually did draft a good player but then got rid of him.

Many teams missed on those guys above but only one team drafted Tobias Harris and then traded him away for a project.

[GeorgeHanson]

4 hours ago, Thelt said:

Certainly this was a mistake but there were many others.  Drafting MKG over Beal jumps off the page to me.  The draft where we took Biz was a good one.  We also missed out on Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler.  All three of those guys were drafted lower than Biz. 

Brutal.

There's a single constant in all these situations...

[GeorgeHanson]

On 3/5/2019 at 3:16 PM, Thelt said:

Cho

Air Train Wreck.

7 coaches and 4 GM's......1 single Air Train Wreck.

[GeorgeHanson]

9 hours ago, Thelt said:

Cho was here for all the bad choices I listed.

Yeah he was....right at the end of the leash Ol' Trainer kept him on 24/7.  Cho had no autonomy, he was a yes man.

[davos]

On 3/5/2019 at 2:00 AM, Eazy-E said:

Just more evidence that tanking is not worth it and rarely works. We were in the middle of tanking when that trade went down and trying to shed salary. We had just traded Gerald Wallace to Portland earlier that year as well.

Biz was one of the most polarizing prospects in that draft and a ton of teams were very high on him. People were making comparisons to Serge Ibaka if he developed his offensive game. We all know how that turned out.

Definitely.  Just look how teams are building these days.  GSW and Toronto were initially through development, finding 1-2 studs (Curry-Klay, Demar) and then that talent elevated them to the point where it made it appealing to assemble a juggernaut. 

Elsewhere, I like how LAC has been retooling with the new ownership.  They've ditched Paul, Griffin, & Tobias (most recently) but have been good with keeping a strong talented crew.  Gallinari is also having a resurrection with Harrell being an absolute stud along with Lou.  They're good enough with enough $$ room ahead that Kawhi will likely go there and put them over the top.  

Sure we've had Kemba, but he's not really that special and has been rumored to be traded for the last 2-3 years.  This leads us to never even landing the strong starters or being an interesting group to join.  We keep finding these "high ceiling" guys that either flutter or settle into role players and Kemba has just been doing his thing around blah talent.  Then there's the occasional guy that brings something complimentary (Lamb, Parker, Zeller etc.).  I do think Borrego has room to grow/is a coach I can see being appealing to play for but none of the roster outside of Graham, Monk, and Bridges looks that interesting to join if I'm a UFA.  

Really, nothing about our situation is appealing minus Monk & Bridges' potential but it doesn't mean we need to necessarily tank; top talent has been found peppered to the high teens in drafts recently and there's even more 2nds having impacts.  I do think we could be one of the worst teams in the league next year by not signing Kemba to a max, but that's simply the route we should take to climb out of our mess.  

We really need to start drafting better.  

 

[M_Loop]

with regards to drafting better, 
what is the identity that we want our hornets to be
few ideas

local guys from the carolinas, im not against that. i'd like to see coby white and other players who did their HS here. (Zion and Morant did for example, seems like Carolina players are hot property this year)

the most talented available, regardless of position

certain type of characteristics or stats in their amateur career

highest ceiling as we see it, like bucks did with giannis for example

certain types of colleges (Duke or Kansas, NC) etc or certain conferences SEC, ACC etc

strategies like trading up or down with regards to 1st/2nd rounds

I don't know much about our drafting team/scouts



 

[davos]

23 hours ago, RIAnBOW said:

Sure enough.  What do you think needs to change in order for the franchise to start drafting better?

I'm unsure, we're stuck a bad spot.  Hard to endure but all it takes is one guy. 

There's a few guys I like with All-Star upside like Brandon Clarke, Hachimura, Reddish, or DeAndre Hunter.  Maybe we get a top-9 and one of them happens.    

[CarolinaNCSU]

Only thing that will change Charlotte around is to truly tank and get lucky, or to swing for the fences and draft high potential prospects in the mold of Giannis. Kid was drafted 15th in arguably the worst draft...ever? Prospects oozing potential, and not the Frank Kaminskys of the world, turn franchises around.