RealGM

Genuinely curious to hear thoughts on what, in your mind, is your goal for next season for our team? Follow up question is what would continue a successful season, not necessarily best case scenario but a season you will see as acceptable.

Feel free to suggest other poll options.

Picked the rebuild, but on that situation should be included gaining as many assets as possible by way of trade.

Good call, will add.

I think this team has the talent to make the playoffs and, depending on the matchup, make it to the 2nd round. That's the ceiling of this team as constructed. But as crazy as it may seem to the championship or bust crowd I would be overjoyed to see a Hornets team advance in the playoffs. It's been 17 years since it last happened.

Don't get me wrong I'd rather we be the Celtics or 76ers right now, but the reality is we're not. Maybe the next iteration of the team can reach that level, but I want to see the core we have now compete for one more season before we start over.

Development, development, and more development. That primarily includes players, but it also includes coaches, management, and culture. Rebuild the roster to do what is good for the long-term, but keep certain guys that help keep the team competitive and positively influence our young guys.

When I say competitive I don't mean making the playoffs. If Kemba is traded (which I think is more probable than not) it simply isn't going to happen unless Borrego is an absolute stud. Prioritize development and playing hard. The roster likely won't be good enough to compete anyways, and even though it's possible we play ourselves out of the top 3 or 4 in the draft, 6 or 7 isn't a bad place to be at.


Overall, a successful season for me = young players getting better, keeping our reputation as a smart, tough team, and establishing a playstyle/culture that can be built upon each season.

I think internal growth and player development are the key, regardless of whether we decide to reset/rebuild or to continue to try to build around Kemba, so my answer would be a combination of options 1&4.

Unless we get a can't-miss rebuilding package for Kemba, I am firmly in the "maximize" group, though I'm not opposed to trading #11 or next year's first for someone who can become Kemba's right hand man

MotorKeepsGoing wrote:Unless we get a can't-miss rebuilding package for Kemba, I am firmly in the "maximize" group, though I'm not opposed to trading #11 or next year's first for someone who can become Kemba's right hand man

I agree. I lean towards maximizing in general and feel that this is the best way to keep Kemba long term. I'm willing to accept the risk that he might not resign.

The only way to rebuild is with multiple picks over multiple years ... and Boston was lucky enough to be able to do that without tanking themselves. The draft always has elements of luck. Statistically speaking only a certain number of picks each year work out and even teams with good draft records miss frequently. Only way to beat that luck is to make a lot of picks.

can we just not lose the same way for 40 games?

Develop teammates for Kemba because we're keeping him: Monk, Lamb, Miles Bridges, Kaminsky, Zeller, Hernangomez, Bacon.

DY_nasty wrote:can we just not lose the same way for 40 games?

If we were just mediocre in close games, we would have been a playoff team. I really think the best move is minor adjustments and an actual backup point guard.

Rich4114 wrote:

DY_nasty wrote:can we just not lose the same way for 40 games?

If we were just mediocre in close games, we would have been a playoff team. I really think the best move is minor adjustments and an actual backup point guard.

we lost the same way constantly

i dont mind creative failure. that's exciting in its own way. taking repetitive Ls to prove we've learned nothing only wastes the time of everyone involved. just mix it up is all im saying. if we're gonna be bad, show me every possible way we can be bad. i don't even know if last year's squad was capable of shooting it out now that i think about it

Rich4114 wrote:I really think the best move is minor adjustments and an actual backup point guard.

I feel like I've heard the "minor adjustments" quip for a few years now.

Every season with this team is like Groundhog Day

SWedd523 wrote:

Rich4114 wrote:I really think the best move is minor adjustments and an actual backup point guard.

I feel like I've heard the "minor adjustments" quip for a few years now.

Every season with this team is like Groundhog Day

Yeah, but unfortunately we had a coach that couldn't make an adjustment to save his life. As evidenced by the fact that we missed the playoffs the last two years despite having a positive net rating. That has never happened before in the history of the league.

Clifford is a great person, but my god man...

I guess development. Seeing the players we've got actually make leaps would be the biggest break away from LolCats tradition. That's the only thing that would excite me, outside of drafting an actual transcendental talent but that's more a luck thing than a franchise direction.

I'd prefer we offload some of these terrible contracts and sort of mini-rebuild/retool but that'll require making water run uphill type magic so I'm fine if we just let the deadwood slowly drift off the books. Just no more desperation trades please.

#1) Don't draft or sign any SGs
#2) Find a capable replacement for Kemba
#3) Trade Kemba for draft picks
#4) Build around new guys, don't base playing time on contract, but performance
#5) Top 5 pick 2019

We almost HAVE to go the maximize route...

Sure, we could trade Kemba and rebuild. Most of what I've seen has us getting back MAYBE a late lotto pick and middling prospect for him in this current situation (undersized, nearly 30 year old with 1 year remaining). Can this city handle a multi-year rebuild? who knows...but boy would we be terrible without Kemba...not to mention what he means to the city and franchise.

As it stands our team is far better on paper (and net rating) than we perform. Maybe a coaching/front office change fixes that? I liked Clifford a lot but something had to give. I know everyone is frustrated but we have some decent pieces on this team if they can be fit together in the right ways...I like the prospect of a fast paced run and gun offense that JB has mentioned.

Some of you are all about unloading our ugly contracts....to what end? Who's coming to sign with us, especially if we have to trade Kemba to unload them? What's the point? Trade our All-Star in the hopes that we can sign an All-Star to replace him? Huh?

If we can get a decent #2 option I'd be OK with trading this years pick/next years pick (which would theoretically be mid round so...meh) or one of our younger assets. Otherwise, I'm fine standing pat, drafting a hopefully decent guy, developing our current players, hoping Kemba gives us a good guy price on a new contract and waiting it out a couple years till our crap contracts are off the books...THEN we can see what we have and see whether a rebuild is in the cards.

Maximize.

This is what will happen, no doubt about it in my mind. MJ wants to show off a respectable franchise at ASG 2019, will try to be a low-tier playoff contender this year and then either build on that success in 2020 or be incredibly pissed we failed and order a hard reboot.

It would be nice to get Zion Williamson

We already made a major change by getting a new coach. I want to see what he has got. GIve him the same roster as clifford had and if he don't make the playoffs, fire his ass too