The "Dude": The Mitch Kupchak Thread

[Chapelchilla]

How about the way this guy has put this team together.?

Slap some respect on The Dude’s name!!

Heck yes.

The Dude knows what he is doing. I think the real gm "experts" downing the Hornets and their GM in the offseason may want to chill out and enjoy the ride. We are pretty damn good. Still a bit thin and probably year or two away but we clearly have a plan and a GM with an eye for roster building.

[LofJ]

How about the way this guy has put this team together.?

Slap some respect on The Dude’s name!!

Heck yes.

The Dude knows what he is doing. I think the real gm "experts" downing the Hornets and their GM in the offseason may want to chill out and enjoy the ride. We are pretty damn good. Still a bit thin and probably year or two away but we clearly have a plan and a GM with an eye for roster building.

We still need to find a way to develop big men. We've had some success developing guards and wings, but I can't think of single big man this team has drafted and developed. Zeller and Okafor were more or less the same players we drafted and the rest is a sad list of one failure after another. We've invested too many picks in the last two drafts on big men to come up empty handed again.

[BigSlam]

How about the way this guy has put this team together.?

Slap some respect on The Dude’s name!!

Heck yes.

The Dude knows what he is doing. I think the real gm "experts" downing the Hornets and their GM in the offseason may want to chill out and enjoy the ride. We are pretty damn good. Still a bit thin and probably year or two away but we clearly have a plan and a GM with an eye for roster building.

We've invested too many picks in the last two drafts on big men to come up empty handed again.

None of them have been high picks though, so the expectation should be relative:
PJ = #12
Kai = #19
Vern = #32
Nicky #42

PJ was knocking on the door of being a top 10 pick, but all of the others were outside the lottery and 2 were second round picks.

[LofJ]

Heck yes.

The Dude knows what he is doing. I think the real gm "experts" downing the Hornets and their GM in the offseason may want to chill out and enjoy the ride. We are pretty damn good. Still a bit thin and probably year or two away but we clearly have a plan and a GM with an eye for roster building.

We've invested too many picks in the last two drafts on big men to come up empty handed again.

None of them have been high picks though, so the expectation should be relative:
PJ = #12
Kai = #19
Vern = #32
Nicky #42

PJ was knocking on the door of being a top 10 pick, but all of the others were outside the lottery and 2 were second round picks.

Devonte, Cody Martin, and McDaniels were all 2nd round picks and they're all rotation players. JT Thor is another big we've drafted recently. At least one, if not more, of these guys should become rotation worthy players.

[BigSlam]

We've invested too many picks in the last two drafts on big men to come up empty handed again.

None of them have been high picks though, so the expectation should be relative:
PJ = #12
Kai = #19
Vern = #32
Nicky #42

PJ was knocking on the door of being a top 10 pick, but all of the others were outside the lottery and 2 were second round picks.

Devonte, Cody Martin, and McDaniels were all 2nd round picks and they're all rotation players. JT Thor is another big we've drafted recently. At least one, if not more, of these guys should become rotation worthy players.

We can go through the exercise of identifying all of the 2nd round picks over the years who were not, and are not, rotation players if you like?

I'll bet every cent in my bank accounts that there are significantly more that aren't than there that are.

Point is, the expectation that a team - any team - will hit on a high percentage of their draft picks, especially at the back end of the 1st/2nd round is just setting yourself up for disappointment.

[LofJ]

None of them have been high picks though, so the expectation should be relative:
PJ = #12
Kai = #19
Vern = #32
Nicky #42

PJ was knocking on the door of being a top 10 pick, but all of the others were outside the lottery and 2 were second round picks.

Devonte, Cody Martin, and McDaniels were all 2nd round picks and they're all rotation players. JT Thor is another big we've drafted recently. At least one, if not more, of these guys should become rotation worthy players.

We can go through the exercise of identifying all of the 2nd round picks over the years who were not, and are not, rotation players if you like?

I'll bet every cent in my bank accounts that there are significantly more that aren't than there that are.

Point is, the expectation that a team - any team - will hit on a high percentage of their draft picks, especially at the back end of the 1st/2nd round is just setting yourself up for disappointment.

I don't expect the team to hit on a high percentage of late picks. I'm just pointing out that as an organization the team has struggled to develop big men across several changes in leadership.

Kupchak has placed a lot of faith in the coaching and training staff to develop our players. And so far the results have been pretty good, with the glaring exception of our frontcourt guys. Kupchak even said that the answer may already be on the roster. So he's either higher on those guys than our coaching staff or they aren't developing as well as our guard and wing players. If the latter is the case then maybe Mitch needs to go out and hire some additional guys to potentially change that

Then again big men traditionally take longer to develop, so maybe you're right that I need to dial my expectations back. It would just be really, really nice for this team to finally hit on a big man that we've drafted.

[Robot Rock]

Devonte, Cody Martin, and McDaniels were all 2nd round picks and they're all rotation players. JT Thor is another big we've drafted recently. At least one, if not more, of these guys should become rotation worthy players.

We can go through the exercise of identifying all of the 2nd round picks over the years who were not, and are not, rotation players if you like?

I'll bet every cent in my bank accounts that there are significantly more that aren't than there that are.

Point is, the expectation that a team - any team - will hit on a high percentage of their draft picks, especially at the back end of the 1st/2nd round is just setting yourself up for disappointment.

Then again big men traditionally take longer to develop, so maybe you're right that I need to dial my expectations back. It would just be really, really nice for this team to finally hit on a big man that we've drafted.

I have hope for Vernon Carey, but he doesn't seem to display a lot of confidence in himself when he's out there.

[Chapelchilla]

I do think that we need to invest more in a center at some point but we have to realize that C is not as important these days so we have to be careful. Plus, I agree that it is still possible that one or more of the young draftees grows into a legit player. Most teenage guys are not built to handle grown man NBA C/PF's until they get to around the age of 22. Just not physically developed yet and usually need to learn NBA positioning/D.

[fatlever]

i'm not ready to give mitch credit for his drafting.
the melo decision was made for him since we drafted 3rd. at least 50/50 we would have taken wiseman over melo if given the choice.
miles pick look good, but SGA/Porter prob better picks, either way he was going to hit on those 3.
graham was solid
all the rest are either tbd, neutral or bad

i give him more credit for his free agent/trades.... terry, gordo, mason, ish, oubre all solid to great additions

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

Mitch seems more competent than what we had before drafting wise, but this past draft will be what makes or breaks him IMHO.

[SWedd523]

i'm not ready to give mitch credit for his drafting.
the melo decision was made for him since we drafted 3rd. at least 50/50 we would have taken wiseman over melo if given the choice.
miles pick look good, but SGA/Porter prob better picks, either way he was going to hit on those 3.
graham was solid
all the rest are either tbd, neutral or bad

i give him more credit for his free agent/trades.... terry, gordo, mason, ish, oubre all solid to great additions

you're seriously trying too hard to manufacture negative thoughts here man

[LofJ]

Mitch seems more competent than what we had before drafting wise, but this past draft will be what makes or breaks him IMHO.

Mitch didn't play this draft safe in the slightest. He went for upside with every pick. I support it, if we want this team to ever be a contender we need to hit on all-star talent in the draft.

[Hornet Mania]

Mitch seems more competent than what we had before drafting wise, but this past draft will be what makes or breaks him IMHO.

Mitch didn't play this draft safe in the slightest. He went for upside with every pick. I support it, if we want this team to ever be a contender we need to hit on all-star talent in the draft.

Yeah, if Melo is legit that could be our last lotto pick for awhile. Personally I'd have swung for the fences with Sengun not Bouknight, but with both Bouk/Kai I can't fault Mitch for the attempt.

[predators]

i'm not ready to give mitch credit for his drafting.
the melo decision was made for him since we drafted 3rd. at least 50/50 we would have taken wiseman over melo if given the choice.
miles pick look good, but SGA/Porter prob better picks, either way he was going to hit on those 3.
graham was solid
all the rest are either tbd, neutral or bad

i give him more credit for his free agent/trades.... terry, gordo, mason, ish, oubre all solid to great additions

you're seriously trying too hard to manufacture negative thoughts here man

Bouknight not getting any PT with Terry out isn't a great start.

[LofJ]

i'm not ready to give mitch credit for his drafting.
the melo decision was made for him since we drafted 3rd. at least 50/50 we would have taken wiseman over melo if given the choice.
miles pick look good, but SGA/Porter prob better picks, either way he was going to hit on those 3.
graham was solid
all the rest are either tbd, neutral or bad

i give him more credit for his free agent/trades.... terry, gordo, mason, ish, oubre all solid to great additions

you're seriously trying too hard to manufacture negative thoughts here man

Bouknight not getting any PT with Terry out isn't a great start.

With Cody Martin playing as well as he is are you surprised?

Nothing wrong with winning AND giving your rookies some time to acclimate to the league.

[SWedd523]

i'm not ready to give mitch credit for his drafting.
the melo decision was made for him since we drafted 3rd. at least 50/50 we would have taken wiseman over melo if given the choice.
miles pick look good, but SGA/Porter prob better picks, either way he was going to hit on those 3.
graham was solid
all the rest are either tbd, neutral or bad

i give him more credit for his free agent/trades.... terry, gordo, mason, ish, oubre all solid to great additions

you're seriously trying too hard to manufacture negative thoughts here man

Bouknight not getting any PT with Terry out isn't a great start.

-First 3-0 start in Franchise history
-4-1 overall record right now
-Miles just named EC Player of the week and has put up multiple 30 point games
-Melo/Miles looking like potential All-Star or All-NBA picks
-Oubre/Ish/Mason all looking like upgrades to the Monk/Graham/Zeller trio they replaced
-Twin out there putting on his best Bruce Bowen impersonation
-McDaniels and Richards looking like current and future contributors

ALL without our best scorer and clutch guy from last year (Terry), PJ generally being a non-factor, and none of the rookies playing yet.




I fail to see how any Hornets fan could be anything other than ecstatic with the first two week report card

[JMAC3]

I think Mitch has done an awesome job since taking over, don't get me wrong.
Hired a good coach, in Borrego.
Has done well in the draft.
Think overall getting Rozier for Kemba was awesome.
Getting Hayward has been okay thus far.
Oubre Signing


However, I think he has some really big opportunities.
1. We suck at evaluating other teams talents, we don't seem to ever steal a guy for a 2nd rounder or he hasn't really done many trades.

2. Along the same lines, we suck at evaluating the Gleague. We have no centers at all, so what is our answer? Just stand pat. Why haven't we been giving out 10 day contracts to guys to see if we can find a short term answer? We could of tried Moses Brown, Dwayne Dedmon, Omer Yurtseven, Damian Jones.... etc etc.

It's not just center either. We are carrying so many guys that we are scared to play... no reason that Carey or Thor should be on full contracts. Those guys should be our 2way guys right now instead of Lewis and Kulbolka. That would at least open up a few swings at guys like Alfonzo Mckinnie or Juan Toscano Anderson or Dean Wade or Amir Coffey or Max Strus or Mamida Diakate...

We have to get better at this, because right now this is essentially non-existent.

[MasterIchiro]

I think Mitch has done an awesome job since taking over, don't get me wrong.
Hired a good coach, in Borrego.
Has done well in the draft.
Think overall getting Rozier for Kemba was awesome.
Getting Hayward has been okay thus far.
Oubre Signing


However, I think he has some really big opportunities.
1. We suck at evaluating other teams talents, we don't seem to ever steal a guy for a 2nd rounder or he hasn't really done many trades.

2. Along the same lines, we suck at evaluating the Gleague. We have no centers at all, so what is our answer? Just stand pat. Why haven't we been giving out 10 day contracts to guys to see if we can find a short term answer? We could of tried Moses Brown, Dwayne Dedmon, Omer Yurtseven, Damian Jones.... etc etc.

It's not just center either. We are carrying so many guys that we are scared to play... no reason that Carey or Thor should be on full contracts. Those guys should be our 2way guys right now instead of Lewis and Kulbolka. That would at least open up a few swings at guys like Alfonzo Mckinnie or Juan Toscano Anderson or Dean Wade or Amir Coffey or Max Strus or Mamida Diakate...

We have to get better at this, because right now this is essentially non-existent.

We committed long term to players like Thor because we're building foundation in this early phase of long-term roster construction. We're in no position to tinker with 10-day guys. The blueprint is more inflexible but I appreciate the deeper dive at this point. I don't know where you rate Kupchak but after Riley and Jerry West (they're in a class of their own in my book), I'd put him up against the elite scouts of the game. His operation is right there with the Raptors and Suns group. I think he whiffed on Vernon Carey Jr. and Nick Richards. And he probably should have drafted Daniel Gafford over Cody Martin, but every front office makes low degree mistakes. None of his have been fatal mistakes. Drafting Wiseman would have killed a small market GM. Given his smaller margin of error I couldn't ask for a better replacement for Cho. Cho to me was the worst GM in Charlotte history.

[JDR720]

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/267037/Hornets-Sign-GM-Mitch-Kupchak-To-Multiyear-Extension

[Hornet Mania]

Well-deserved. It's not exactly a high bar to clear but The Dude has quite comfortably been the best Hornets GM since the NBA returned to Charlotte. I'm glad he'll get a chance to finish what he started and hopefully transition this team of young talent to a legitimate threat.