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Official 2018-2019 Charlotte Hornets Thread - Lose Kemba and All Fans

Great OT win against the Spurs, which makes it 4 in a row. Kemba went for 38-9-11 and carried the team in the 4th and OT. Dwayne Bacon is playing out of his mind and dropped 24 against DeRozen. We're now 1 game out of 8th and 3 games out of 6th. Need to keep winning, but we are playing the best ball of the season when it counts.

The crunch time lineup was Kemba, Graham, Bacon, Bridges, and Frank. That is 4 rookie contracts and Kemba, plus Monk also played well. Again this is why tanking is stupid - the young core they need is already fucking there, they just need to play. I don't know whether to hate Borrego for not realizing this until now, or to praise him for constantly shuttling Bacon and Graham back and forth to Greensboro to play in all of the Swarm games. Hopefully it isn't too little too late and they can keep this up, as well as convince themselves and Kemba that him resigning can make both financial and basketball sense with the talent that is already there.
 
The “win now” lineup after the all star break of all our vets who have gone 36-46 the last two years was so fucking bad from borrego. Sank us so low that now with the young guys and Kemba bringing us back the margins are razor thin. Will probably need some luck with playoff teams sitting guys the next couple weeks
 
Yep, our final 8 are @Lakers, @Warriors, @Jazz, @Pelicans, Raptors, @Pistons, @Cavs, Magic. Have to hope that the Lakers shut down LeBron, and that the Warriors and Raptors start resting guys. Have to win against the Lakers, Pelicans, Pistons, Cavs, and Magic to to go 5-3 to have a solid shot, and maybe steal one of the other 3. The Pistons and Magic games are enormous.
 
Steve Martin will do the radio call for the remaining games this season.

 
That is really strange. He was critical of Batum and some of Borrego's strategies, but nothing I would say is different from anyone else. The wording of that statement and lack of explanation makes it sound like something criminal or Jerry Richardson-style workplace harassment. I could see him chasing Ashley Shahamadi or something.
 
If it’s not because of some harassment type misconduct the hornets really fucked him because the way they cut him loose has made every hornets fan I know assume that’s why he was let go
 
This is why we can't have nice things.....blow a 20-point lead at home to the New York Knicks just because we can't figure out a simple zone defense.

great to see that losses like this in december come back to cost us at the end of the season. We need Orlando to lose to the Hawks and Celtics (doable), and we need to win 2 of Toronto, @det, and @cleveland (doable). That sets up a possible play-in game next Wed - although Miami could get in over both if they win a couple down the stretch over playoff teams.

anyway it's still going to be a sweep if they make it so who cares.
 
So is the thinking now that Kemba is going to walk? If so dark days are ahead
 
The only thing that I could see him doing is if he does sneak into one of the All-NBA teams, staying for the cash if the Hornets offer the max (if they even can). It's a tough one. I could see that type of contract being a major albatross towards the end, but if they could only get away from some of the other horrible contracts he'd still be a good piece to build around for the next couple of seasons. If he leaves, great for him, he deserves a better basketball situation. If he stays, also great, but seems all it would do is keep the Hornets in the perpetual mediocrity cycle they've been in since they missed on Anthony Davis.
 
Barring blind luck, the Hornets are not going to be contenders unless they tank for a few years and get lucky in the lottery. It's not a destination for FAs. They have to develop or develop and trade for players with long term deals.
 
The only way the Hornets will ever better than the bottom 2/3 of the playoffs is to tank and get a couple of great draft picks. Whether you like it or not, Charlotte is not a destination for free agents.

Keeping Kemba is one thing. Attracting others to join a second tier star to play in second or third tier NBA city is quite another.

As to OKC signing George, he got a stay at home bonus and an extra year to stay in OKC. Plus, Westbrook is on a different level than Kemba and they had Adams as well.

When was the last time a Top 15-20 player chose to move to Charlotte? I can't think of one in the past 25 years.

Barring blind luck, the Hornets are not going to be contenders unless they tank for a few years and get lucky in the lottery. It's not a destination for FAs. They have to develop or develop and trade for players with long term deals.

We got it. Fuck off.
 
I would be surprised if Kemba stays. If the Knicks can get Durant and Zion, that would be super tempting for him and nobody would fault him if he left. But I hope he does, because I think with him and Bridges, Bacon, Graham, and Monk they have a solid young core that can compete with another decent draft and waiting out the bad contracts.
 
Looking at the current NBA standings, it doesn't seem like tanking is the recipe to compete for a title.


Look at the teams that are good this year:

Golden State 54-24. Never fully tanked. They had a run of poor records from 2009 to 2012, but they never had a pick higher than #6 in the NBA draft (BTW, that #6 pick was someone named Ekpe Udoh from Baylor who never averaged more than 5 ppg). The key pieces that they drafted were obviously Curry (#7 pick in 2009; Klay Thompson #11 pick in 2011; Draymond #35 pick in 2012).

Bucks 59-20. Never fully tanked. They had one tank worthy season in the last 10 years: 2013-4 when they went 15-67. They got the #2 pick and drafted Jabari Parker, who never contributed to their current success; so tanking didn't really help. The path of the franchise changed in 2013, when with the #15 pick in the draft, the Bucks landed the Greek Freak. The year leading into the drafting of the Freak, the Bucks made the playoffs at 38-44. So, tanking didn't lead to the foundation of the franchise.

Raptors 56-23. Never tanked. Have not had a draft pick better than #5 in the last 13 drafts. The one #5 pick was Jonas Valanciunas, who the Raptors just traded. Raptors have essentially built their team through shrewd trades and solid mid-round draft picks.

Rockets 51-28. Never tanked; in fact, #14 in the NBA Draft is the best Rockets' draft position since 2006. Like Toronto, the Rockets have built their team through shrewd trades and FA acquisitions.

Spurs 45-34. Have not tanked since 1997. Even though the Spurs have the longest current streak of NBA relevance, the Spurs have not picked higher than #18 the NBA draft in 21 years.

Blazers 50-28. Never tanked . Blazers will have won 50 or more games 4 times in the last 7 years, yet they haven't picked higher than #13 in the NBA draft since taking Greg Oden #1 in 2007.

Jazz 48-30. Never tanked. In 2011, the Jazz just missed the playoffs with 39 wins, and got lucky and landed the #3 pick in the NBA draft lottery. They picked Enes Kanter, who had little role in the Jazz success. The Jazz made shrewd player acquisitions, and a great late first round pick, Donovan Mitchell to build their current team.

Nuggets 52-26. Never tanked. Haven't lost less than 30 games in 16 years. Haven't picked better than #7 in the NBA draft in 16 years.

76ers 49-30. Massively tanked. It has worked for them, but that seems like the exception, rather than the rule. Even so, they endured several truly awful seasons, and have had some horrendous draft selections over the last 10 years: 2010 - Evan Turner #2, 2015 Jahlil Okafor #3, 2017 Markelle Fultz #1.

Celtics 47-32. Never tanked. They have made the playoffs 11 times in the last 12 years. They have gained high draft picks through smart trades.

Pacers 47-32. Never tanked. Haven't won less than 32 games for the last 29 years. Have made the playoffs 8 times in the last 9 seasons. Paul George at #10 in the 2010 NBA draft is the Pacers highest pick in the last 20+ years.

Teams that have tanked in the last 10 years:

Suns 18-61. Have not made the playoffs in 9 years. They have had a top 5 draft pick five times in the last 6 years, but their best player, Devin Booker, was picked #13 in 2015, during one of the few seasons when the didn't have a top 10 pick.

Magic 39-40. Have not made the playoffs in 8 years. The Magic have had top 6 draft picks 5 times in the last 6 years. They have had the #2 pick once: Victor Oladipo and the #5 pick once: Mario Hezonja.

Kings 39-40. Have not made the playoffs in 12 years. In the last 10 NBA drafts, the Kings have had five top 5 picks, including #2 last year - Marvin Bagley.

Knicks 15-63. Have not made the playoffs in 6 years. Have drafted in the top 10; 3 times (will be 4, and maybe 5, after this year), and have almost nothing to show for it: Frank Ntilkina, Kevin Knox and the Dallas #1 pick for Porzingis.

Lakers 35-44. Haven't made the playoffs in 6 years. Had the #2 pick in the NBA draft (fixed?) 3 years in a row. To show for that: D'Angelo Russell, Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram. Blah.






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Given the history of the Hornets and MJ's management history, they ain't going nowhere without doing something dramatic.
 
Great post, Pilch.
 
Kings and Magic rebuilds have been pretty good.

You can’t just tank, you’ve got to also get a good pick out of the lotto, hit on your evals, build a young core on a similar timeline, account for fit, adjust to roster and salary cap rule variations, and you’ve gotta be committed to a long term vision from the front office on down.

What helps a lot more than tanking is getting value for your draft picks, which is really, really hard. Even the best teams in the league have a pretty low success rate at doing that. The next trick is not giving out awful contracts (Wizards, Hornets, lots of other examples of perennial mid-running teams) and not doing awful trades. The next best thing you can do is have Lebron.

Even then all those things are necessary and mostly insufficient because you still need luck with injuries and probably something like 3 All Stars.
 
New fan here.

I know Frank played well against the Pelicans, but is it me or is he a total liability on defense? I'm not sure I've seen him guard anyone and for a big guy, he is not very aggressive on the glass.
 
Kings and Magic rebuilds have been pretty good.

You can’t just tank, you’ve got to also get a good pick out of the lotto, hit on your evals, build a young core on a similar timeline, account for fit, adjust to roster and salary cap rule variations, and you’ve gotta be committed to a long term vision from the front office on down.

What helps a lot more than tanking is getting value for your draft picks, which is really, really hard. Even the best teams in the league have a pretty low success rate at doing that. The next trick is not giving out awful contracts (Wizards, Hornets, lots of other examples of perennial mid-running teams) and not doing awful trades. The next best thing you can do is have Lebron.

Even then all those things are necessary and mostly insufficient because you still need luck with injuries and probably something like 3 All Stars.

And you can do that from any spot in the draft. If the Hornets let someone else overpay Kemba and have a few good drafts, they'll be fine.
 
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