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Time for everyone to put their armchair GM skills to work and make a definitive choice about what the Hornets should have done at #22. This is so everyone can't come back 3 years from now saying, "I knew we should have taken player X", when they did not think that way initially. Also, this gives us the best indication of what the consensus was for that pick.

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_tijo_ wrote:I think it's hard to blame Cho for making a trade for a known commodity. Yes there have been great players drafted post 22. But you can't play that game here... unless you say I would have taken X player with the pick on draft night, and that player actually turns into your all-pro, then you really can't say that Cho is an idiot and you know better. You don't get to have hindsight when you're the GM, you actually have to pick a player, not get picks 22-60 and pick the best one later.

I'll go on record with Luwawu at 22 instead of the trade for Bellineli

Brice Johnson

Edit: Luwawu a close second for me.

I voted for Luwawu

Loo-wah-woo. Seemed like a no brainer. Brogdon a close second - both could have played a meaningful bench role from the get-go.

Flip Murray wrote:Brice Johnson

Ditto.

Trade for 2 second rounders, draft JP Tokoto and Marcus Paige.

Trade for 2 second rounders.

Draft Brogdon and Hammons.


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BigSlam wrote:Trade for 2 second rounders.

Draft Brogdon and Hammons.


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We don't know if that was ever an option. We do know all of the other choices were an option. For all we know Cho tried to trade down and failed.

Luwawu, he was/is a top 15 talent.

2nd for me is murray.

fatlever wrote:

BigSlam wrote:Trade for 2 second rounders.

Draft Brogdon and Hammons.

(Who were available at #31 and #35).


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We don't know if that was ever an option. We do know all of the other choices were an option. For all we know Cho tried to trade down and failed.

Memphis traded for picks #31 and #35 from Boston.

I would have made that trade and used them on Brogdon and Hammons.


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I would've taken one of the fallen lottery talents: Davis, Luwawu, or Skal; probably in that order.

But...I get it, none of those guys are likely to have the short-term impact of Belinelli. My main qualm with the trade was that it happened before the draft even started, so we didn't even know if someone we liked would've been there.

I feel like Cho bet on the draft going a certain way, with all the top prospects being long gone by 22. Of course this didn't happen, but someone insisted on making the move ahead of time. Maybe Cho was afraid no one worthwhile would be there and the Kings would back out. Maybe Divac thought we'd keep the pick if someone like Luwawu fell.

Whatever the reason, it feels very short-sighted on our part.

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And honestly it's not even the guys left on the board that bother me, it's the value. Belinelli will probably be fine, but is he really worth that pick? We got Courtney Lee for a couple seconds, the Cavs got Dunleavy for the rights to a stash player that will probably never play in the NBA, and hell...Thad Young is a much better player and we was only worth a pick two spots higher?

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Honest answer is I don't really know or care. It happened. I agree with the point that if anyone above 22 outperforms Marco, then most on here will say we lost the trade because of that player, regardless of whether said player was on our radar or a likely pick. There is logic to the argument, but my take is let's see how Marco plays, assess his contribution to this team, then let's see after we've quantified that production how valuable it is. The wisdom of the trade will be borne out based on how well Marco fits with this team.

What we know now is that our FO values Marco much more highly than most of us on here, and they thought he'd be more valuable than anyone likely to be available at 22. I get not liking the trade, but I also think this board has never more highly valued a late 1st round pick until now.

BlackOutBuzz wrote:We got Courtney Lee for a couple seconds, the Cavs got Dunleavy for the rights to a stash player that will probably never play in the NBA, and hell...

Those are much different situations though. CLee was a rental and MEM probably had a sense that he was bouncing town or they wouldn't have traded him. Dunleavy turns 36 in September and played in 31 games last season. Plus 2nd rounders

BlackOutBuzz wrote:Thad Young is a much better player and we was only worth a pick two spots higher?

I actually think Marco is a better fit for us than Thad, who is a bit of an undersized PF with no jumper and just OK D, and Thad is getting paid double what we're going to pay Marco. Given their skill sets and contract obligations, I'd prefer Belinelli to Thad for our team, and I don't love Belinelli.

yosemiteben wrote:

BlackOutBuzz wrote:We got Courtney Lee for a couple seconds, the Cavs got Dunleavy for the rights to a stash player that will probably never play in the NBA, and hell...

Those are much different situations though. CLee was a rental and MEM probably had a sense that he was bouncing town or they wouldn't have traded him. Dunleavy turns 36 in September and played in 31 games last season.

Sure, but I'd still take Dunleavy for what amounts to nothing before using a first round pick on Belinelli.

yosemiteben wrote:

BlackOutBuzz wrote:Thad Young is a much better player and we was only worth a pick two spots higher?

I actually think Marco is a much better fit for us than Thad, who is a bit of an undersized PF with no jumper and just OK D, and Thad is getting paid double what we're going to pay Marco. Given their skill sets and contract obligations, I'd prefer Belinelli to Thad for our team, and I don't love Belinelli.

I'm not really discussing fit, nor am I saying that we should've traded for Thad, just the overall value. The difference in talent between the two is much wider than 2 late first picks.

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I imagine dialed in general managers have a really good idea of how the draft is going to play out prior to it happening.

I think we wanted to trade up for Beasley and we were also rumored to like Papagiannis. Both of them went before our pick. And obviously if Luwawu, Korkmaz, Skal, Davis, etc. were such hot commodities all of them wouldn't have fallen out of the lottery. So I don't much care for the argument that we threw away our pick. We clearly liked a few guys in this draft, but weren't able or willing to pay the price needed to move up to get them.

MJ being too cheap to buy a 2nd is what bothers me. I guess setting up the d-league team took up the entire investment budget for the year, because according to Cho a 2nd round pick is "too expensive."

Give me Marco or give me peace.

I'm not entirely sure, as I didn't study this draft very extensively, but I think I might have taken Damian Jones over all the guys in the poll. If we were going strictly BPA then I think Luwawu is the pick and thats who I voted for. Jones seems to have more bust potential than Luwawu, but I really liked Jones combination of upside and fit. I think he actually would have been useful for us this season as a 3rd center option to throw in there occasionally when we need athleticism at the rim and rebounding. I think he can do the job we got Hibbert for better. Yes, he would make more mistakes than Hibbert and get out of position more, but he actually has some basketball talent to work with. I'd rather have an athletic guy with good size who isn't quite ready than a giant stiff who is just flat out terrible at basketball and has no upside, even though the giant stiff is going to make fewer mistakes.

I think the use of this years draft pick is by far the biggest mistake the front office has made in the Cho era by an absolutely huge margin. It is still unbelievable and damn near surreal to me that we traded the pick for Belinelli. Even if Marco has a solid season he is still not even close to being worth a 1st round pick. I literally feel embarrassed as a fan of this organization when I think about it and it makes me worried about the future direction of the franchise.

Braggins wrote:I literally feel embarrassed as a fan of this organization when I think about it and it makes me worried about the future direction of the franchise.

Guess that makes two offseasons in a row that you've felt that way.