Hornets as a Team Question.........

[Whitaker240]

Where are we if Kemba doesn’t resign?  5 year rebuild like Phila was a few years back?  Sure would be hard to watch.  

Will the coach be retained?  We have a lot of big lead collapses ect.  That lead to losses.

Can we ever expect to get a top tier free agent?  Or will it basically be we get the mid level guys forever?

Sure is hard to be a Hornets fan!  Ugh!

[MillionDollarCam]

Think eight years.

Philly lucked into (and traded for) multiple VERY high draft picks (Nerlens Noel, Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, Ben Simmons, and Markelle Fultz, Mikal Bridges) and it still took them 6 years to finally complete their rebuild. Not to mention they were only able to do it because of the Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris trades. Philly would be a five seed without those two trades.

The NBA will always be a league for the large markets unless your team can consistently draft good players.

Look at the contenders this year... Houston was built through free agency, Toronto was built through trades, the Sixers were built through lucky lottery numbers and trades, the Celtics were built through free agency, the Thunder were built through free agency and a generational draft pick, and the Warriors were built through free agency and a generational draft pick.

The only two teams that can really argue that they were built entirely through the draft are Denver and Milwaukee).

Six of Denver's eight players who average double figures (Jokic, Murray, Harris, Barton, Beasley, and Morris) were drafted by Denver and they filled the team out by signing Millsap and Thomas.

Milwaukee's top three players were drafted by them (Antetokounmpo, Middleton, and Brogdon).

Now look at the Hornets, we drafted Kemba and Cody and the rest of the team is made up of poor signings, bad draft picks, and players we traded for.

This team is at the very least eight years away from being a title contender if Kemba leaves.

[Ornias]

What is worse is our cap situation. Being bad with cap space is one thing, being bad while flirting with the luxury tax is a special level of inept. 

[archer4364]

It doesn't take 5 or 8 years to rebuild a team. If Kemba leaves we'll probably be better off as long as we did the smart thing and didn't pay some middling free agent to come replace Kemba and ensure we win close to 30 games again. After next season, MKG, Biz, and Marvin come off the books, freeing up a lot of needed space while not costing us much production. The season after that Batum is expiring. As long as Monk, Graham, and Bridges develop decently and we don't make any financially unsound decisions, we'll be in a decent spot in a few years. Hopefully the tank gods are generous to us this year because we sure as hell need it. I'm worried about Monk.

[Shocker]

We resign Kemba then win the lottery.  Ship boys!  

[Chaos]

I gotta bad feeling Monk isn’t gonna pan out.

[Eazy-E]

8 to 10 year just to get another player comparable to Kemba. If we were a larger market maybe 5 to 6.

We still never recovered from getting fuged on AD. There hasn’t been anyone since then that I feel would have made us a championship caliber team tanking for a top pick.

We have had plenty of lottery picks and haven’t hit on any of them really. 

Like it was said earlier, Philly did a lot more than tank to get to where they are and the Bucks got incredibly lucky with Giannis. 

Like I posted in my tanking thread most of the time top 5 picks don’t amount to much and drafting another player like Kemba is insanely hard to do. 

[GeorgeHanson]

Until ownership changes this franchise will never thrive. 

[MillionDollarCam]

Don't kid yourselves, this is six year rebuild with a star player and without a star player it will only be longer.

The last time the Nuggets were higher than a three seed in the NBA playoffs was the 2012-13 season (seven years go). They chose to rebuild and have drafted phenomenally since then, adding Gary Harris, Trey Lyles, Nikola Jokic, Malik Beasley, Jamal Murray, Monte Morris, and Michael Porter Jr. (TBD).

In that same time period the Hornets have drafted Cody Zeller, Noah Vonleh, Shabazz Napier (traded for P.J. Hairston), Dwight Powell (traded for Alonzo Gee), Frank Kaminsky, Juan Pablo Vaulet (traded for 2nd Round Draft Picks), Malachi Richardson (traded for Marco Belinelli), Malik Monk, Frank Jackson (traded For Dwayne Bacon and Cash), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (traded For Miles Bridges), Devonte Graham (traded picks to move up to select), and Arnoldas Kulboka.

We are eight+ years from being a top five team if Kemba leaves, no doubt about it. 

[Sapper]

Kemba isnt  going  anywhere.  Mitch is a fantastic  GM and Kemba loves Charlotte.

[carpanfan96]

On 3/3/2019 at 11:21 PM, MillionDollarCam said:

Think eight years.

Philly lucked into (and traded for) multiple VERY high draft picks (Nerlens Noel, Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, Ben Simmons, and Markelle Fultz, Mikal Bridges) and it still took them 6 years to finally complete their rebuild. Not to mention they were only able to do it because of the Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris trades. Philly would be a five seed without those two trades.

The NBA will always be a league for the large markets unless your team can consistently draft good players.

Look at the contenders this year... Houston was built through free agency, Toronto was built through trades, the Sixers were built through lucky lottery numbers and trades, the Celtics were built through free agency, the Thunder were built through free agency and a generational draft pick, and the Warriors were built through free agency and a generational draft pick.

The only two teams that can really argue that they were built entirely through the draft are Denver and Milwaukee).

Six of Denver's eight players who average double figures (Jokic, Murray, Harris, Barton, Beasley, and Morris) were drafted by Denver and they filled the team out by signing Millsap and Thomas.

Milwaukee's top three players were drafted by them (Antetokounmpo, Middleton, and Brogdon).

Now look at the Hornets, we drafted Kemba and Cody and the rest of the team is made up of poor signings, bad draft picks, and players we traded for.

This team is at the very least eight years away from being a title contender if Kemba leaves.

Warriors drafted Curry, Klay, Green, Barnes over a 4 year period. Sure they picked up Cousins and Durant in free agency but they are still a title contender with out them. 

[archer4364]

5 minutes ago, carpanfan96 said:

Warriors drafted Curry, Klay, Green, Barnes over a 4 year period. Sure they picked up Cousins and Durant in free agency but they are still a title contender with out them. 

Exactly. 8 years is an insane amount of time, I don't know why MillionDollarCam is obsessed with jerking off about how long and hard a rebuild is going to be. Of course if we screw up all our lottery picks the rebuild will take forever, but if all it takes is stringing together a few good drafts, and the rest isn't that hard to assemble. What's really limiting our franchise right now are the contracts of Nic Batum, Marvin Williams, Biz, and MKG. $45 million of that comes off the books after next year, and then Batum and Zeller free up $42 million more the next summer. We've got two excellent pieces in Devonte Graham and Miles Bridges who could definitely be key players on a top 5 team in the future. If we end up with a solid lottery pick this year, keep developing our players, don't sign any ludicrous contracts, then maybe we can even bring in an elite FA to complete the team in a few more years with the Batum money. There is light at the end of the tunnel if we stay smart. It doesn't have to be a decade of rebuilding... 

[carpanfan96]

they are going to do everything to keep Kemba so for the next 5 years there isnt going to be cap flexibility

[MillionDollarCam]

8 hours ago, archer4364 said:

Exactly. 8 years is an insane amount of time, I don't know why MillionDollarCam is obsessed with jerking off about how long and hard a rebuild is going to be. Of course if we screw up all our lottery picks the rebuild will take forever, but if all it takes is stringing together a few good drafts, and the rest isn't that hard to assemble. What's really limiting our franchise right now are the contracts of Nic Batum, Marvin Williams, Biz, and MKG. $45 million of that comes off the books after next year, and then Batum and Zeller free up $42 million more the next summer. We've got two excellent pieces in Devonte Graham and Miles Bridges who could definitely be key players on a top 5 team in the future. If we end up with a solid lottery pick this year, keep developing our players, don't sign any ludicrous contracts, then maybe we can even bring in an elite FA to complete the team in a few more years with the Batum money. There is light at the end of the tunnel if we stay smart. It doesn't have to be a decade of rebuilding... 

How many capable starters have we drafted since Kemba (hint: the answer is none).

Also, how many years has it been since we drafted Kemba (hint: the answer is eight).

Additiobally, which Kevin Durantesque and Demarcus Cousinsesque free agents do you see signing with Charlotte to speed up our rebuild?

Our team is made up of one elite draft pick (Kemba) and a bunch of mediocre free agents/trades.

Maybe you still have hope MKG is going to live up to his second overall potential or that Zeller is going to live up to the infamous LaMarcus Aldridge comparison, but most of us outside of fantasyland realize how hard it is to build a competitive NBA team in a small market with horrible talent evaluation.