Does Hendo opt in?

[yosemiteben]

Curious what the board thinks. I would be very surprised if he opts in, but I guess if he is awful to finish the season he could. I'm sure he'd prefer a multi-year deal. No idea if we'd give it to him, and really personally don't know how I feel one way or the other on keeping him around for three to four more years. Give us a loyalty discount and I'd probably be ok with it.

Tried to cover all iterative options to give a more empirically viable result Lamar

[Liver_Pooty]

Long term deal

[BlackOutBuzz]

Think he seeks out a long-term deal, likely elsewhere. That said, it may be in his best interest to opt in prior to the cap explosion in 2016.

[Braggins]

I wouldn't mind him opting in but if he doesn't I hope we don't resign him.

[LofJ]

If he doesn't Hairston and likely whoever we draft with this year's pick are going to be getting a lot of playing time next year. I'm not sure I like that to be honest. PJ needs to work his *** off this offseason to get in the best shape of his life if Hendo opts out because he won't ever get a better opportunity.

[MasterIchiro]

Hendo will never be a threat from 3. I just can't fathom any notable success if we run out a starting lineup that doesn't have a single 3 pt threat. I think he opts out and the Hornets leave open the one position where spacing comes into play.

[mrknowitall215]

Of course he'll opt-in. Henderson would be hard pressed to find another team willing to give him $6 million annually. Henderson will opt-in to his next season contract in hopes to cash-in on the cap rise of 2016 free-agency. If Henderson does opt out, he'll regret it the same way I'm sure D.J. Augustin's pockets regret not taking the extension Charlotte offered

[BlackOutBuzz]

We're currently in a league where Chandler Parsons is a max player.

Alec Burks just got a $10m/year extension.

OJ Mayo and Marcus Thornton make $8m per.

Jodie freaking Meeks got a deal slightly better than Hendo's.

It's a completely different climate than when Hendo signed his last deal. Teams are already paying more in anticipation of the forthcoming cap increase. I may be wrong, but I think Hendo can get more than $6m on the open market. If nothing else I see him opting out - a la McBob a couple years back - before re-signing once his market value is decided.

[tondi123]

I'm fairly certain he won't find anybody who will pay him 6 million next year. I can't imagine he gives that sure thing up since the league has already made it pretty clear that he has virtually no value. I would like for him to opt out so we could either resign him on the cheap or let him walk.

[yosemiteben]

I think Hendo would give us really solid depth off the bench. He wasn't even supposed to start this season. I'd be happy if we signed him to something like a three year $12-14M deal for bench depth.

[LamarMatic7]

He's been the perfect professional and we should be thankful for the lift he has given us after the blown start to the season. Hendo has been playing some really good ball ever since moving in the starting line-up and especially since the injury bug started biting other guys. Very good on D, been good at knocking down his jumpers (cringe-worthy they might sometimes be, we need them with Kemba out) and, man, some of the things he does.. sometimes you take it for granted. He's been setting hard screens against 7-footers for those Al cross-paint plays ever since Jefferson got here. Dude has given up his body for this franchise.

I actually have started to genuinely like the guy and wish him the best. But, god... His skills are destined to land the team as a mediocre offense (at best) and possibly a top10 defense. I would love to see him knocking down threes but at this point it's almost fair to assume that it won't happen.

And it lands him in a very tough spot. Just as those power forwards with no outside range and lack of size are starting to see their value deteriorate in the market, while stretch-4s are getting paid, it's the same with such shooting guards.

At some point, we need him to either step down to a 20mpg role (and the possibility of him starting whenever a starting wing goes down) or let him go. Under the new CBA, I assume 6-8mil annually would be okay with me. Then I'd be fine with him sticking around as our pesky veteran until he pretty much ends his career. Otherwise.. Ugh.. He is one of the guys (from those who hurt our offense) who is the most expendable.

So I guess I don't know which answer exactly to choose.

[Liver_Pooty]

I'd extend him to a 5-6 mill a year deal, which would be just fine under the new CBA, and as Lamar said bring him off the bench for 20 minutes a game.

[yosemiteben]

At some point, we need him to either step down to a 20mpg role (and the possibility of him starting whenever a starting wing goes down) or let him go.

Completely agree. I think that was the plan for this year and then Lance turned into a huge flop and derailed that approach. We obviously saw the need for an upgrade at SG last season, there's no way they view Hendo as a long term starter for this team.

[fatlever]

I don't have any stats in front of me to back it up, but it seems that historically Hendo has been rather poor as a bench guy. He only seems to play well when he is a starter and heavily involved in the offense. I would be 100% in favor of keeping him around if i knew he could adapt to a bench role or as starter who was OK sitting in the corner shooting corner 3s.

And Lamar is right... for all the crap we give Hendo, we are damn lucky to still have him on the roster. He saved us from the disaster that was Lance and Neal. It could have been much worse.

[LamarMatic7]

At some point, we need him to either step down to a 20mpg role (and the possibility of him starting whenever a starting wing goes down) or let him go.

Completely agree. I think that was the plan for this year and then Lance turned into a huge flop and derailed that approach. We obviously saw the need for an upgrade at SG last season, there's no way they view Hendo as a long term starter for this team.

Yep. Seems like that's the case.

I appreciated the joke in your OP and I feel that I disappointed you by not being able to choose one of those fairly-constructed answers, haha. Will try to make up my mind.

[LamarMatic7]

I don't have any stats in front of me to back it up, but it seems that historically Hendo has been rather poor as a bench guy. He only seems to play well when he is a starter and heavily involved in the offense. I would be 100% in favor of keeping him around if i knew he could adapt to a bench role or as starter who was OK sitting in the corner shooting corner 3s.

yeah, that's a caveat I wanted to throw in when saying that I'd want him as a 20mpg guy. It seems risky putting him in such a situation.

and I don't think that it will be hard to find such stats. We already saw it last year when he was relegated to a third/fourth option with Al joining (and McBob handling the ball a lot). It was day and night when compared to the stint he put together when he made his run for the contract. It seems like him being the third/fourth option is the breaking point. At that point he only adds the sparse mid-range jumper en route to a 12ppg performance.

Just comparing his 1) per36 from the start of the year to his 2) per36s since he joined the starters and also with his 3) per36s since Kemba went down should be enough. I bet that his FG% would even go up with added responsibility (the switch from 2) to 3)) just because he gets included more and is more in a groove.

[JDR720]

He will opt out, and we shouldn't resignhim. I think he can get 7.5 million per year and with the FO trying to trade him for years, I doubt we try and resign him.

[LamarMatic7]

yeah, my idea about his FG% also increasing was far-fetched. other than that...

Hendo with bench, pre-Lance injury: 10.18fga and 11.69ppg per 36
Hendo with starters, pre-Al injury: 11.67fga and 14.16ppg per 36
Hendo with starters, post-Al injury till last game: 15.56fga and 17.65ppg per 36

I guess it shows how little he involved himself when playing with the bench and how he took on the challenge with his role increasing with the starters.

[EwingSweatsALot]

I don't have any stats in front of me to back it up, but it seems that historically Hendo has been rather poor as a bench guy. He only seems to play well when he is a starter and heavily involved in the offense. I would be 100% in favor of keeping him around if i knew he could adapt to a bench role or as starter who was OK sitting in the corner shooting corner 3s.

And Lamar is right... for all the crap we give Hendo, we are damn lucky to still have him on the roster. He saved us from the disaster that was Lance and Neal. It could have been much worse.

Here is his starter vs reserve per 36 numbers for his career. He is worse in almost every category.



I don't care if he opts in or out, but I don't want to sign him on a long term deal. I don't want a 30 year old Henderson on our team. It is also just a matter of time, hell I hope it is, that we out sign, out draft, him at the 2. In that long term deal he will become a bench player, and I would assume it would be sooner rather than later. These numbers prove he struggles off the bench.

I recognize he has done a lot for us this year, he has helped us stay in the playoff race. I'd be happy with him opting in. I don't want him for another 4-5 years though.

[HornetJail]

It's time to move on. I'm perfectly happy keeping him for 4-5M, but I highly doubt Hendo would sign that cheap. He's bound to make 6-7M somewhere