Grade the Draft: Hornets 2025

[Diop]

1st off there are some awesome people in this world and 100% of them are found on THIS board.
I was all but done on this site and said it would take something drastic to return.
To my surpise that drastic thing was the PACERS drafting of TAELON PETER. I'll get to that in a second.

BTW - I rate our draft a B-. I actually think we did pretty well, but I do not like the formula used on a consistant basis.
To me THESE TYPES of players RARELY pan out. Imo the MAJORITY of players in the NBA have HIGH CHARACTER so never understood
why it had to be added as if they didn't.

My draft would have been different tho

PICK 1 - FEARS - I liked him as of late
PICK 2 - MAXIME RAYNAUD
PICK 3 - KAM JONES

AND

PICK 4 - Taelon Peter

This kid has EVERYTHING that a UNCNYC player would have, when choosing an underdog...

faith
athleticism
it factor
confidence
swag
flashy play
potential

He is also one heck of an underdog. He came off the bench at LIBERTY and only averaged 13 pts a game.
He is also 23 years old.

There must be something about the GM of the pacers cause he picked two players I LOVE in Kam Jones and Taelon Peter.

Thats why it's always good to keep an open mind when drafting cause you got people like UNCNYC
and a FEW people who think like him lol.

Watch on YouTube

Good to have you back buddy.

72% true shooting for a guard is pretty impressive by Peter. Interesting selection

[UNCNYC]

1st off there are some awesome people in this world and 100% of them are found on THIS board.
I was all but done on this site and said it would take something drastic to return.
To my surpise that drastic thing was the PACERS drafting of TAELON PETER. I'll get to that in a second.

BTW - I rate our draft a B-. I actually think we did pretty well, but I do not like the formula used on a consistant basis.
To me THESE TYPES of players RARELY pan out. Imo the MAJORITY of players in the NBA have HIGH CHARACTER so never understood
why it had to be added as if they didn't.

My draft would have been different tho

PICK 1 - FEARS - I liked him as of late
PICK 2 - MAXIME RAYNAUD
PICK 3 - KAM JONES

AND

PICK 4 - Taelon Peter

This kid has EVERYTHING that a UNCNYC player would have, when choosing an underdog...

faith
athleticism
it factor
confidence
swag
flashy play
potential

He is also one heck of an underdog. He came off the bench at LIBERTY and only averaged 13 pts a game.
He is also 23 years old.

There must be something about the GM of the pacers cause he picked two players I LOVE in Kam Jones and Taelon Peter.

Thats why it's always good to keep an open mind when drafting cause you got people like UNCNYC
and a FEW people who think like him lol.

Watch on YouTube

Good to have you back buddy.

72% true shooting for a guard is pretty impressive by Peter. Interesting selection

Awww thanks Diop. You know in life there are PRESIDENTS, TEACHERS and MODERATORS of a hornets/bobcat forum. If you take the titles away the impact of a person can be just as great. In your case it TRULY is sir. You are ONE OF ONE!!!!!

Yes this guy is intruiging. I like everything about this selection for the PACERS!!!!!!!!!!

[Bassman]

Don’t leave again UNCNYC. Your unique perspectives are fun and thoughtful! This overall draft class will be interesting to monitor and gauge results on.

[UNCNYC]

Don’t leave again UNCNYC. Your unique perspectives are fun and thoughtful! This overall draft class will be interesting to monitor and gauge results on.

Awww I appreciate that BASSman. Especially from you. Your name should be JAZZman because that compliment was too smooth lol.

I cannot promise I wont leave cause unfortunately CABLE IS EXPENSIVE and I use that often to LOG ON HERE. Buuuuut if you guys stop by my job, and order your burgers well done, with ketchup, mayo and onions *fries extra pal* I think I can manage to afford the bill

[UNCNYC]

My picks are in but I think I want to change my 1st pick from FEARS to HUGO GONZALES. I like UNDERDOGS. I feel weird picking dudes that ya'll pick lol. It shouldn't be too late change to a pick since neither has played a summer league game yet and Hugo was not a lottery pick. I wouldn't be UNCNYC picking FEARS lol.

here are my 4 picks

Chase Hunter - summer league
Kam Jones
Taelon Peter
Maxime Raynaud
Hugo Gonzales - Hugo is waaay too good man.

Watch on YouTube

also my picks for next year are

1. Dash Daniels - I think I am sold on this for number 1
2. Yaxel Lendeborg
3. Brayden Burries
4. Andrej Stojakovic
5. JJ Starling
6. Milos Uzan
7. Andrej Kostic
8. Sergio de Larrea
9. Richie Saunders
10. Bennett Stirtz

[Braggins]

I wanted to see a bit of summer league because I hadn't really watched McNeeley or Kalkbrenner at all yet. After getting a small preview of them here is where I'm at as far as how Id rate each individual pick. Take these with a big grain of salt.

#4 ~ Kon Knueppel = D
He'll probably be at least an ok player, but I think he has virtually 0% chance of ever being a top 5 player from this class. I'm not sure its that likely he will be top 10 either. This seems like such a cowardly pick to me and I have been adamant all season I didn't think it was justifiable to take him this high.

#29 ~ Liam McNeeley = A
He might be a better prospect than Kon. That was honestly the consensus for much of the NCAA season, not just my opinion. Before I saw him play in summer league I already thought his overall profile seemed underrated. This might be a summer league overreaction, but he has passed the eye test so far.

Random thought: I think the eye test is more important than stats for summer league. Its a small sample size of games and players are adjusting to a different environment and most of the players have never played together before. The games are sloppy and normal variance and shooting slumps can torpedo a players stats over a few games. I think you can take away a little bit from the eye test, but still not a whole lot.

#33 ~ Sion James = C
I saw a decent amount of Duke games but didn't pay much attention to him or consider his NBA potential. He has a clear skill with his defense and seems like the type of guy that could stick eventually if he manages to ever be able to hit spot up 3s at a reasonable rate, so I can see the justification, but I'm not really convinced either way about the pick.

#34 ~ Ryan Kalkbrenner = C-
Meh, my only exposure to him has been these two summer league games and he seems fine, but I'm really not sure if hes actually an NBA player. A lot about him feels very borderline. Hes also older than the other prospects and I worry how much more of a ceiling he has.

The only pick I clearly liked was McNeeley and I think they made a bad selection with their one high impact pick, which I weight much more heavily than the others, so overall I am not a fan of this draft so far.