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Official Charlotte Hornets Offseason Thread - Biz back, Monk out, stocking up on TP

Time to full-on tank and overhaul the coaching staff. This team plays significantly below its talent level. Batum is on a max contract and is a mediocre role player at best - he took 1 shot last night, and was 0-1. If he is injured to the point that he shouldn't be out there to contribute more than that, then that is on the coaches for putting him out there. Monk rides the pine except for garbage time when he lights it up, presumably for his defense. Yet the other stiffs give up 90 points with 10 minutes to go. How could his defense possibly be any worse than theirs?

Jeremy Lamb scored 32 last night and we got blown out. If your number 4/5 option goes off like that in his regular rotation minutes and no other significant injuries accounting for it, then you should win. Or else it means that your 1-3 options just fell off completely. They need to can the staff, trade Batum and Marvin, and rebuild around Kemba, MKG and Monk. I think they could get some value for Frank and Lamb, so trade them as well, or use them as the bait to unload Batum and Marvin. I would like to keep Dwight as well, but I imagine he'll want out if the team keeps playing like this.
 
I think we’re low key tanking already by not firing the staff and keeping clearly injured batum in. It’s the only thing that makes sense because: 1) the coaches are clearly in over their heads even when cliff wasn’t out 2) we were so much better without Batum. I think it’s pretty clear that he’s injured badly. He was never gonna be worth his contract, but he’s also not a completely, utterly worthless player like he is now

Things that really drive me nuts
1) what we’ve done to monk. Draft him as a 2 guard. Play him at PG early due to injuries. Predictably struggles, but also shows the flashes you hope for. Then we get MCW back, and we completely stop playing him. We still have never given the kid extended minutes at the 2, and MCW is the worst PG in the league, so at least play Monk there where hopefully he’ll learn from these mistakes. Monk doesn’t even look for the ball let alone his shot when he’s out there now in spot duty. Finally started to again in the garbage time minutes last night. It’s like we’ve tried to destroy him, and for what? An 11-20 record
2) bacon. Looked good, completely stop playing him. Batum clearly should not be on the floor. Again let the kid grow, especially if we’re gonna suck anyway. Seriously the only thing I can figure on this one is that the lamb-bacon-MKG rotation we had earlier will win too many games (not a lot of games, but enough to get us around the 6th-12th worst record as opposed to the bottom 5 trajectory we’re currently crashing towards)


I’d be looking at a firesale. Start frank and let him officially sink or swim (I think he’ll sink). Wonder if we could get low firsts for dudes like MKG (I don’t think him and batum are compatible at all, and no chance Batum has any market right now), Lamb, and Marv around the trade deadline. I don’t think there’s any chance Cho will be back after this year regardless, and it’ll take a miracle for this coaching staff to survive
 
I think we’re low key tanking already by not firing the staff and keeping clearly injured batum in. It’s the only thing that makes sense because: 1) the coaches are clearly in over their heads even when cliff wasn’t out 2) we were so much better without Batum. I think it’s pretty clear that he’s injured badly. He was never gonna be worth his contract, but he’s also not a completely, utterly worthless player like he is now

Things that really drive me nuts
1) what we’ve done to monk. Draft him as a 2 guard. Play him at PG early due to injuries. Predictably struggles, but also shows the flashes you hope for. Then we get MCW back, and we completely stop playing him. We still have never given the kid extended minutes at the 2, and MCW is the worst PG in the league, so at least play Monk there where hopefully he’ll learn from these mistakes. Monk doesn’t even look for the ball let alone his shot when he’s out there now in spot duty. Finally started to again in the garbage time minutes last night. It’s like we’ve tried to destroy him, and for what? An 11-20 record
2) bacon. Looked good, completely stop playing him. Batum clearly should not be on the floor. Again let the kid grow, especially if we’re gonna suck anyway. Seriously the only thing I can figure on this one is that the lamb-bacon-MKG rotation we had earlier will win too many games (not a lot of games, but enough to get us around the 6th-12th worst record as opposed to the bottom 5 trajectory we’re currently crashing towards)


I’d be looking at a firesale. Start frank and let him officially sink or swim (I think he’ll sink). Wonder if we could get low firsts for dudes like MKG (I don’t think him and batum are compatible at all, and no chance Batum has any market right now), Lamb, and Marv around the trade deadline. I don’t think there’s any chance Cho will be back after this year regardless, and it’ll take a miracle for this coaching staff to survive

Re: MKG, I wouldn't give up a low first for a 6-8 defensive specialist. Never understood that draft pick.
 
Also forgot to mention the number one thing that drives me crazy about this season. Doctors told Batum and the team that he will want to come back early and that he’ll think he’s ready, but he won’t be and we should hold him out longer. We ignored that and brought him back earlier than anyone expected. While the team was doing ok holding their heads above water without him. He comes back and clearly isn’t right. So predictable, so stupid
 
Re: MKG, I wouldn't give up a low first for a 6-8 defensive specialist. Never understood that draft pick.

Eh, he just turned 24 and is now a strong 2-way player. He can get to the rim and his midrange J is money. He can't hit threes, but he knows that so never takes them. Add that to the strong defense, rebounding, hustle plays, and high BB IQ and I like him a lot more now than when they drafted him. He is finally hitting his stride, I probably wouldn't trade him for anything outside the lottery.
 
Monk and Bacon both being sent to the D-League.

WTH, why?

ETA: reading its to get them some PT and they could be back with the team immediately after. Really wish the team would start selling the old expensive assets and building to the future. And getting both these guys a lot of NBA run.
 
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Got hammered by the Celtics at home (though probably just as many Celtic fans there, plus the Celtic refs) last night. Got down 20, cut it to 1 or 2 a few times in the 3rd and 4th, but as usual could never get over the hump. The coaching is awful. Dwight can dominate Baynes and Pussy Horford down low, yet we have him playing pick and pop. Makes sense. Kemba and MKG played well, most everyone else was trash. At this point I would just flat out cut Batum and Marvin. Both are absolutely horrible and bring virtually nothing. When they are on the court together it is 5 on 3. Yet Monk and Bacon still ride the pine. There is no possible way they can be worse than those two and they have to be wondering wtf are they on the team for if they can't get minutes over those two bums. It's like the coaches forgot that we were pretty decent at the start of the year with Bacon and Monk in the rotation and Batum out of it.
 
Got hammered by the Celtics at home (though probably just as many Celtic fans there, plus the Celtic refs) last night. Got down 20, cut it to 1 or 2 a few times in the 3rd and 4th, but as usual could never get over the hump. The coaching is awful. Dwight can dominate Baynes and Pussy Horford down low, yet we have him playing pick and pop. Makes sense. Kemba and MKG played well, most everyone else was trash. At this point I would just flat out cut Batum and Marvin. Both are absolutely horrible and bring virtually nothing. When they are on the court together it is 5 on 3. Yet Monk and Bacon still ride the pine. There is no possible way they can be worse than those two and they have to be wondering wtf are they on the team for if they can't get minutes over those two bums. It's like the coaches forgot that we were pretty decent at the start of the year with Bacon and Monk in the rotation and Batum out of it.

I watched some of the game and wondered why the ball didn't go into Dwight in the post against Baynes more often. And why not give Monk and Bacon some PT when down 20?
 
I heard Dell on a pregame show a week or two ago respond to a question about the rookies getting more PT by saying something like, “Contending teams don’t rely on first-year guys, look around the league.” And I was thinking, what exactly are we contending for? If we’re going to blow ass anyway, why not give Monk and Bacon a lot of real game experience.
 
Boston is contending and Tatum plays a ton. The Lakers aren't contending for a championship, but they are decent and full of rookies. And regardless, from what we have seen Monk and Bacon are already better than two of the guys ahead of them, three if you count MCW who has to be challenging Sessions' record for most blown point-blank layups (though I do like MCW's defense).

Batum is fucking infuriating. He had 6'0" Terry Rozier posted up, and instead of shooting he passed to a cutter who was jammed up and had to send it back out to reset. Getting a mismatch like that is the whole point of "running our offense", why the hell would you voluntarily pass out of it for anything less than a completely open player? Take the damn shot. Then he had 6'0" Marcus Smart posted up, and shot a fucking turnaround fadeaway off of one-foot. You've got 8 fucking inches on the guy, just go over him towards the basket and you are going to either get the shot or get fouled, which in either case is a better shot than a fadeaway that barely hit the rim. When somebody posts up Kemba off a switch do they shoot a fadeaway - no, they go right at him and either hit the shot or get fouled. That is high school basketball 101. Yet every damn game Batum is pulling that shit.
 
On the topic of our young guys, Bacon went for 45 and 9 in 38 minutes for Greensboro tonight.
 
Batum is the worst player in the league relative to his contract, and MCW is just flat out the worst player in the league. What a time to be alive as a hornets fan
 
Congrats on beating the Warriors, not that any of you noticed.
 
Oh I stayed up to watch it, as infuriating as it was. There is no reason we shouldn't be playing at that level all the time. Not beating the Warriors every time, but having most of our players actually all show up in the same game. That is coaching.
 
The Hornets have 3 road wins this season - @Golden State, @OKC, and @Memphis. It makes no sense, clearly the talent is there. Yet they routinely lose to the Knicks, Nets, Sixers, Lakers, etc. because Kemba, Dwight, and MKG seem to be the only guys who know how to show up every single game. Clearly the coaches need to rethink what they are doing.
 
Batum finally showed up against the Kings last night and, hey surprise surprise, we were able to win on the road by 20. Amazing what happens when a max player actually tries to score. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, but more likely just a false ray of hope with him. So far 2-1 on this west coast trip, which is getting my hopes up given I assumed we'd go 0-4. Final game is at the Lakers on Friday, a team we should be able to beat but who knows which Hornets team will show up.
 
Hornets have played the hardest schedule in the NBA thus far. They haven't performed very well against it, but there's reason to expect they'll do better moving forward.
 
That road trip really emphasized how terrible a job these coaches have done this year. Team is way too talented to have to win 3 out of 4 just to get to 15-23. We blew the doors off teams that are actually that bad on the trip and took out the champs. At the very worst with the injuries and schedule this team should be just a couple games off .500. Bother to show up in the Lakers and 2 bulls losses would’ve solved that alone. Now even if we manage to climb out of this hole, we’re looking at a matchup against the Celtics or cavs in the first round. Pathetic
 
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