Post#50 » by Vanderbilt_Grad » Sat Jul 5, 2014 2:15 am
I’m tired of the “Gordon is trending down” narrative. It’s simply not true.
Here are Gordon’s 2 point, 3 point, and overall FG percentages
10-11 .489, .473, .485
11-12 .496, .346, .456
12-13 .444, .415, .435
13-14 .453, .304, .413
The first year Gordon only played 16 min a game. So he was earning those percentages in limited minutes against other bench players. After that the only sold trend down has been his overall FG%. Three point % has fluctuated up and down. 2 point FG% was actually up for him last year. The bottom line is that there isn’t a simple story of “trending down” to be told here. Something more complicated is going on.
For me last year was almost as much of an outlier as year one. He was “the man” on a really bad team. It was an especially bad situation since this clearly isn’t the role he should be playing. With his passing ability and range he’s the perfect guy to put as a second or third option. His passing enables him to complement a scoring PG (Kemba) and inside scorer (Al) really well. In fact he’s already proven that he can play with Al.
Next let’s think about Al’s situation. He came here from the same Utah team. What happened to him here? Suddenly in a system that suits him he’s a much “better” player. Is there any reason to think that the same thing wouldn’t happen to Hayward?
Which is all a long winded way of saying that he’s potentially a really good fit here. The only question in my mind is how much is he “worth?” So to reverse engineer this this I’m going to assume that Hayward is A) a long term starter & B) improves on the Hornets vs what he’s done so far with the Jazz. If both of those hold true he becomes either one of the better shooting guards in the league or in the top half of small forwards. He can easily be a top 20 player. The other player on the team likely to be paid big while Hayward deal would be in place is Kemba … and the cap situation looks like it can accommodate Al, Haywood, and Kemba … and maybe even Lance as well … on really big deals as long as the team is able to keep rookie contracts flowing. A max deal isn’t going to cripple the team if my two assumptions are true. Is it a risk? Sure. He needs to live up to the contract.
I also think that folks are stuck in the “old CBA” or even “old school” mentality where a max deal could only really go to the team’s one alpha dog player. It’s a different world now. With the new CBA limiting max salaries more than ever, a higher cap, and Gordon’s youth, giving him a max deal isn’t automatically a bad idea.
In an ideal world I would like to see Haywood PAIRED with MKG instead of traded for him. I think that the team needs some really strong defensive players at some of the positions for this thing to work. If MKG goes then the Hornets really are going to need Lance to partner with him.
My picks:
2020 Draft (3rd pick) - Tyrese Haliburton, Devin Vassell, or Onyeka Okongwu
2021 Draft (11th pick) - Moses Moody
