Offseason 2025 Thread

[HornetJail]

The roster crunch just highlights how much signing Mason Plumlee screwed us.

Unless they are committed to tanking again

I don’t think they are committed to tanking, but I do believe they want one more rebuilding year while putting some semblance of a competent team on the floor for the fans sanity. Last year was just ridiculous.

Edit: I have no idea if this post even makes sense.

this year won't be much better than the last if we're committing to this center rotation, or Lee is planning to play an ass load of small ball with Miller at the 4 or something stupid like that.

They have fixed exactly one issue from last season, and that's the fact we aren't going to be short on ball handlers. It'll help, even if our injury issues are as dire as last season, I think we'll add 8-10 wins just by virtue of not having to rely on Micic or Damion Baugh for offense.

But our frontcourt is even worse than last year (by a lot compared to the games Mark played starter minutes), and our defense will likely be worse.

We are going to be asking way too much from a 6'9 starting center with zero offensive game, a rookie 2nd round center and a 6'6 PF coming off ACL surgery for me to be comfortable calling this team "competent".

It occurred to me earlier today that there is a very good chance Collin Sexton winds up with the highest qualifying FG% on the team this year. And that is not a good thing at all.

[Braggins]

Yeah, unless they make a big splash trade this is going to be a tank season. Im not holding my breath for the big trade.

[yosemiteben]

Our frontcourt is about the same as it was in like 60% of games last year. Reminder that we were rolling with a C rotation of two of Nurk - Moussa - Taj in a bunch of games. Even when we had Mark, he was not a difference maker defensively.

If we stay healthy, I think we could easily double our win total. It doesn't feel like people are appreciating how much the wheels fell off offensively unless Melo was playing and at a 1st team All NBA level.

Mission #1 this off-season was to build depth and diversity into our offensive personnel and they have definitely done that.

[KembaWalker]

Our biggest offseason addition is an all time level historic proven loser lol. Sexton Plumdog and Dinwiddie are not moves of a team trying to win any time soon. We aren’t even pretending to be trying to win

[yosemiteben]

Sexton and Dinwiddie would have been extremely useful last season, I don't understand saying they can't possibly help.

As fun as it was to depend on KJ Simpson and NSJ to organize our offense and significantly contribute to it, we're way better off with guys like Sexton, Dinwiddie, and Mann.

[EmpireFalls]

Our frontcourt is about the same as it was in like 60% of games last year. Reminder that we were rolling with a C rotation of two of Nurk - Moussa - Taj in a bunch of games. Even when we had Mark, he was not a difference maker defensively.

If we stay healthy, I think we could easily double our win total. It doesn't feel like people are appreciating how much the wheels fell off offensively unless Melo was playing and at a 1st team All NBA level.

Mission #1 this off-season was to build depth and diversity into our offensive personnel and they have definitely done that.

Where exactly are 38 entire wins coming from on the schedule? Just doing some eyeball math using preseason odds, I’d predict us to be large to massive underdogs against:

OKC, Denver, Houston, LA Clippers, Golden State, Minnesota, Dallas, Memphis, LA Lakers, New York, Cleveland, Orlando, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Milwaukee.

Out of that group of 15, last year we won exactly 3 games: one vs Houston on opening night (who are now much improved) one against Dallas with no Luka, one against Lakers where Luka played the worst game of his career. We didn’t win a single other game, even against that disgusting beat up Philly team.

So beyond that, there’s the middle class of teams, like the Torontos, Phoenix, Boston, Indiana, Detroit, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, Chicago, New Orleans. These we can play with and indeed did see some success against last year, and a few are now a step down from last year. But each have a better frontcourt than us and will be tough to beat. And we got embarrassed by Portland&Sacramento.

So that leaves the tankers. Utah, Brooklyn, Washington, us. We went 0-4 vs a horrid Washington last year anyway.

I just don’t see how we get to 38. 28 is much more realistic.

[KembaWalker]

Sure they’ll pad the offense a bit but doubling our wins seems beyond crazy to me. We gone from the worst offense in the league to maybe the 26th offense in the league and the 24th defense to a probably 28th if this front court situation doesn’t resolve. Maybe a 24 win team instead of a 19 win team. The roster make no sense at all as currently constructed

[JustBuzzin]

Sexton and Dinwiddie would have been extremely useful last season, I don't understand saying they can't possibly help.

As fun as it was to depend on KJ Simpson and NSJ to organize our offense and significantly contribute to it, we're way better off with guys like Sexton, Dinwiddie, and Mann.

They will help us compete, but those aren't pieces that's going to win us 10-15 extra games.

As much as I love the Sexton addition he's never played on a playoff team. He's been a good stats on bad teams player.

I'm not here to give up on the season, but being realistic with the current frontcourt we have I just don't see a massive improvement from this team unless we make another impact trade.

[MasterIchiro]

Sexton and Dinwiddie would have been extremely useful last season, I don't understand saying they can't possibly help.

As fun as it was to depend on KJ Simpson and NSJ to organize our offense and significantly contribute to it, we're way better off with guys like Sexton, Dinwiddie, and Mann.

You forgot Micić, the slug.

[Rays Pompadour]

Can’t compare last season to this season’s projection without factoring in health. New additions are helpers, not needle-movers and that was the point.

Make your win/loss projection based on the health of Ball and Miller.

[JDR720]

It's possible we end up winning 35-ish games via our backcourt offense and being in the East.

The frontcourt depth and defense is easily bottom 5 though.

[Rays Pompadour]

It's possible we end up winning 35-ish games via our backcourt offense and being in the East.

The frontcourt depth and defense is easily bottom 5 though.

I'm not sure that can be fixed, honestly. It'll be 4-out offense with Diabate doing the dirty work inside. Charlotte will try to outscore everyone. They'll also mix in Sexton, Dinwiddie and Mann to try to collapse perimeter defenses.

It'll be interesting to see how Lee responds as the league adjusts to his offense. The effectiveness of their overall defense may be the quality of their offense.

[MasterIchiro]

Honest question, not at all rhetorical:

How many teams in the East can top the top-5 scoring options on the Hornets?

LaMelo Ball
Brandon Miller
Collin Sexton
Miles Bridges
Tre Mann

I think that offense is a playoff offense in the East.

Because the offense is competitive, I'd love to follow through and add one POA defender plus one mobile defending big to the defense.

We have the matching salary plus draft capital outside our own 1st round picks to attach to it to bid on Claxton + Terance Mann, for example.

We are in position to make the defense more competitive on top of a competitive offense, without mortgaging any Hornets 1st round picks.

Why wouldn't we?

[Bassman]

Honest question, not at all rhetorical:

How many teams in the East can top the top-5 scoring options on the Hornets?

LaMelo Ball
Brandon Miller
Collin Sexton
Miles Bridges
Tre Mann

I think that offense is a playoff offense in the East.

Because the offense is competitive, I'd love to follow through and add one POA defender plus one mobile defending big to the defense.

We have the matching salary plus draft capital outside our own 1st round picks to attach to it to bid on Claxton + Terance Mann, for example.

We are in position to make the defense more competitive on top of a competitive offense, without mortgaging any Hornets 1st round picks.

Why wouldn't we?

Completely agree. Peterson should see this and make his move now. The “plan” isn’t always perfect nor the timing predictable. Opportunities are here if he will act.

And YES the price for starting caliber centers is high. See this from the RealGM news ticker about how challenging it was for the Lakers trying to find a starting center. We have the assets so let’s use them.

After teams around the league demanded high trade prices from the Los Angeles Lakers for available centers, Rob Pelinka turned to Deandre Ayton after he cleared waivers from the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Lakers held approximately $8 million from their midlevel exception while watching center options like Brook Lopez and Clint Capela sign elsewhere on the opening night of free agency. Teams with available centers kept their asking prices high when the Lakers called, sources said.

[fatlever]

Honest question, not at all rhetorical:

How many teams in the East can top the top-5 scoring options on the Hornets?

LaMelo Ball
Brandon Miller
Collin Sexton
Miles Bridges
Tre Mann

I think that offense is a playoff offense in the East.

Because the offense is competitive, I'd love to follow through and add one POA defender plus one mobile defending big to the defense.

We have the matching salary plus draft capital outside our own 1st round picks to attach to it to bid on Claxton + Terance Mann, for example.

We are in position to make the defense more competitive on top of a competitive offense, without mortgaging any Hornets 1st round picks.

Why wouldn't we?

Add

Kon
Grant
Spencer

You have 8 guys that realistically can average 10ppg, given pt, and 3 that should be near or over 20ppg

Sent from my SM-G973U using RealGM mobile app

[vorbis]

why the hell do NBA trades and signings sometimes take weeks to execute
even draft day trades drag out for so ridiculously long, considering the simplicity of the moves happening
why are draft picks being traded ten years into the future
why do trades expand into potentially seven-team deals

this feels like something is just screwed up in how the NBA handles its salary cap and various tax/apron thresholds. it feels dumber than it has to be.

[GoBobs]

I think there is going to be a chance to turn the Sexton contract into Jalen Green, Suggs, or Giddy if we get the timing right and are willing to buy low when these guys have a dip in production

[cornchip]

Honest question, not at all rhetorical:

How many teams in the East can top the top-5 scoring options on the Hornets?

LaMelo Ball
Brandon Miller
Collin Sexton
Miles Bridges
Tre Mann

I think that offense is a playoff offense in the East.

Because the offense is competitive, I'd love to follow through and add one POA defender plus one mobile defending big to the defense.

We have the matching salary plus draft capital outside our own 1st round picks to attach to it to bid on Claxton + Terance Mann, for example.

We are in position to make the defense more competitive on top of a competitive offense, without mortgaging any Hornets 1st round picks.

Why wouldn't we?

The problem is none of those guys are that efficient. I was surprised to find out that the most consistently efficient scorer out of that group is Collin Sexton. Miles had the post-COVID year where he was legit efficient but it was kinda an outlier.

[NCHeels2008]

Anyone else annoyed we didn't try for Cam Whitmore at such a low value?

[MasterIchiro]

Honest question, not at all rhetorical:

How many teams in the East can top the top-5 scoring options on the Hornets?

LaMelo Ball
Brandon Miller
Collin Sexton
Miles Bridges
Tre Mann

I think that offense is a playoff offense in the East.

Because the offense is competitive, I'd love to follow through and add one POA defender plus one mobile defending big to the defense.

We have the matching salary plus draft capital outside our own 1st round picks to attach to it to bid on Claxton + Terance Mann, for example.

We are in position to make the defense more competitive on top of a competitive offense, without mortgaging any Hornets 1st round picks.

Why wouldn't we?

The problem is none of those guys are that efficient. I was surprised to find out that the most consistently efficient scorer out of that group is Collin Sexton. Miles had the post-COVID year where he was legit efficient but it was kinda an outlier.

Look at the context of their inefficiency.

I don't think we really need to go line-by-line with their teammates on the Jazz and Hornets.

Put them together and they're going to open the floor for eachother and shoot more high percentage attempts.