Post#178 » by Hornet Mania » Sat Jul 12, 2014 2:11 pm
I'm fine with the off-season so far, mainly because I don't see how we could have done much better. We all see the ridiculous contracts being tossed out left and right, I certainly don't want to compete on those terms. As a small market franchise we absolutely cannot let ourselves fall into that game. If you bust on one or two big deals you're basically the old treadmill Bucks from a couple years back.
I hated losing McBob, but he wasn't worth $6 million over 4 years, and he took the deal with a Miami team he probably fully expected to retain Lebron. We realistically may have been forced to pay $7 million per year to overcome that factor, no one knows. The only report we got was that Charlotte also offered the equivalent of a full MLE, although it didn't specify if we offered the full 4 years at that price, and he still chose Miami.
We took a shot on Hayward, Utah matched. No shame in that. The RFA game is notoriously difficult to come out of with valuable pieces. Ask Portland about their pursuit of Roy Hibbert, or Minnesota (I believe it was them, anyway) about their offer for Nic Batum.
Lance Stephenson is intriguing, maybe we still make a run at him. But on the flip side, maybe we've gotten reports from league sources that he's a nut and no one in their right mind should back the money truck up in his driveway. No one else is throwing big offers his way either, it really makes me wonder why.
So what could we realistically have done better this off-season? The one area I can understand criticizing Cho is our total lack of activity on the trade front. I wouldn't have minded seeing us be a facilitator for other moves this off-season, taking on picks and prospects in return. I still hope we try to jump in on the K-Love front and squeeze something of value out of the Cavs/Wolves/Bulls/whoever else is involved. I hope we also manage to round out the roster with quality vets on short deals, even if we don't land our big fish. Get this year's Jodie Meeks or McBob, an undervalued guy who has a skill you can find use for on a winning team.
Charlotte is a young team with loads of cap space. If we can't find the right deal, and I don't think that deal has realistically been available this off-season, then it's prudent to sit tight and develop from within. I still think the team can contend for a playoff spot assuming Kemba/MKG/Zeller all show improvement and Vonleh flashes what made him seem like a top-5 lock going into the draft. It sucks that we couldn't be the 2010 Heat and load up overnight, but sometimes the best move is no move. I honestly believe this may be one of those times. I tentatively give the off-season a C. Fill out the roster with decent vets, or make a few trades for assets and it's C+
