RealGM

"Michael Jordan’s humbling reality as Hornets lurch to embarrassing lowpoint"

https://www.news.com.au/sport/american-sports/nba/michael-jordans-humbling-reality-as-hornets-lurch-to-embarrassing-lowpoint/news-story/a7e2d7426816788fb7129ce78671f4d4

I've actually been thinking about this for a while. Michael made most of his fortune from playing, from commercials and endorsements and from his Nike deal. He didn't make a ton of money like other owners from running a business, building it up, knowing what works in business, making connections, relying on others, empowering his people, and growing to be a billionaire, and knowing how a successful business runs. Like every other owner. I think MJ approaches life like an athlete, meaning that he was naturally more talented, was able to jump higher, had bigger hands, etc, so everything works out for him. He doesn't think he needs scouting (like Toronto and Masai looking at African players like Pascal), or putting the right people in place (Pop and RC and front office infrastructure). He doesn't know that you need to spend money and hire the best progressive thinking people in order to have a successful business or product. In Lowe and Woj's reporting, they basically say that Michael cuts corners, not in player contracts because our payroll is bloated, but in his front office, in the organization, and in the people around him. In his mind, why pay for all this scouting, when he can just decide on his own (or his son or brother will tell him, who are worse because they have the same mentality, without the talent). Want to know why we don't go and make creative deals? Because we don't have the infrastructure to be able to have opinions on other team's young talent or hidden gems. We've always just dealt for temporary fixes, known commodities at the end of their usefulness. Instead of planning for a long term future, we give $19m a year to Terry Rozier, who had that one run in the playoffs two years ago, and is at best a temporary patch job for the gaping hole that Kemba left. Woj and Lowe openly wonder what we are doing. I don't disagree. And I'm sure Kemba also felt the same.

And unless the fans are vocal, and stop spending money on merch and tickets, nothing is going to change. MJ is still making money, so he won't change. The Hornets rebrand is basically lipstick on the Bobcats pig. Nothing has changed, we're still the same sorry organization. But since fans "love" the Hornets and nostalgia and the new retro court and the new unis, we go and support this badly run organization, and we delude ourselves into thinking it is better now. Fire Higgins, bring in Cho, fire Cho, bring in Mitch, nothing changed. Sometimes I wish we didn't rebrand, that way Michael would actually have to try and build a successful organization and team. I live here, love this place too much to blindly support this incompetence. The "Hornets" allowed MJ to be slack. I wish we were the "Bobcats" so that MJ would have to work, be humble, and do it right.

MJ's very first pick as an NBA exec was the #1 overall pick and it was a dud. Ever since then, he has not been able to shake that narrative. I think it's partly due to bad luck and partly due to what _tijo_ mentioned regarding his approach and people he has around him from a scouting perspective. I mean, the organization is basically run like a startup. However, if you go back to the original Hornets and how they were successful for so long - it was due to the luck of having the #1 and #2 picks in the right drafts back to back. Even when we lost those players, we were able to replace them with other good players (of lesser name usually) which demonstrated the fact that we had a great executive making decisions. MJ was a great player but he has not shown or proven to be anything close to good at evaluating NBA talent.

TheKingofSting wrote:https://clutchpoints.com/ranking-the-five-worst-owners-currently-in-the-nba/?fbclid=IwAR0enlChSBuMaoiBOKr7_kdQJ4oxSeRNOHJWe2O3CnBHpzPk4y7yos7PsiQ

they missed sarver

I remember years ago thinking it was the brain/drive of MJ that made him so great.
The Last Dance has highlighted that for me again. The ultimate competitor who bullied his team mates to their best as well.

Imagine if he was in the body of a Shaq or Lebron? It would have been ridiculous.
(Heck put him in Diop's body, we win several championshiops )

Diop wrote:I remember years ago thinking it was the brain/drive of MJ that made him so great.
The Last Dance has highlighted that for me again. The ultimate competitor who bullied his team mates to their best as well.

Imagine if he was in the body of a Shaq or Lebron? It would have been ridiculous.
(Heck put him in Diop's body, we win several championshiops )

What an incredible documentary

Liver_Pooty wrote:

Diop wrote:I remember years ago thinking it was the brain/drive of MJ that made him so great.
The Last Dance has highlighted that for me again. The ultimate competitor who bullied his team mates to their best as well.

Imagine if he was in the body of a Shaq or Lebron? It would have been ridiculous.
(Heck put him in Diop's body, we win several championshiops )

What an incredible documentary

yep, I loved every part of it.

fun fact, Longley changed his number just before it came out as he new Aussie media would hassle him for a comment.

totally forgot bj armstrong played for the hornets

fatlever wrote:totally forgot bj armstrong played for the hornets

so did BJ

Jordan and I are the same height and weight when he entered the league. I always thought that was the perfect playing size growing up. Now it seems like that is short and the perfect size is 6'8"

My apoligies as I didn't mean it if it sounded like my height is the perfect size for playing... When I grew up most thought everything Jordan did was great so they loved his height and often coaches loved it because it was a height that could switch and guard/play multiple positions... but I didn't mean it as it being the perfect height for playing... One of the reasons the bulls were great because they had so many guys who were long and athletic who could guard anyone at anytime.

_tijo_ wrote: He doesn't know that you need to spend money and hire the best progressive thinking people in order to have a successful business or product. In Lowe and Woj's reporting, they basically say that Michael cuts corners, not in player contracts because our payroll is bloated, but in his front office, in the organization, and in the people around him. In his mind, why pay for all this scouting, when he can just decide on his own (or his son or brother will tell him, who are worse because they have the same mentality, without the talent). Want to know why we don't go and make creative deals? Because we don't have the infrastructure to be able to have opinions on other team's young talent or hidden gems. We've always just dealt for temporary fixes, known commodities at the end of their usefulness. Instead of planning for a long term future, we give $19m a year to Terry Rozier, who had that one run in the playoffs two years ago, and is at best a temporary patch job for the gaping hole that Kemba left. Woj and Lowe openly wonder what we are doing. I don't disagree. And I'm sure Kemba also felt the same.

I'm not a Hornets fan, but this is a great post and this is the part that really highlights it.

MJ has a penchant for going with the known commodities, as you said. That's why he seemingly has a fetish for drafting only the known NCAA players from successful known programs: Sean May, Felton, Adam Morrison, DJ Augustin, MKG, Zeller, Kaminsky. All these guys had success playing at well known programs and most also had success in the NCAA tournament. They were the "name" players in the NCAA.

The outlier and opposite of that would be Biyombo (who I'm sure Cho was high on). That probably turned him off on those kind of raw/unknown prospects.

But the result is that the Hornets end up only seeing the league 2 dimensionally. They only just see what's on the surface, and they don't have any further insights on hidden gems, as you mentioned. To have an edge in this league, you have to see some things that others aren't seeing.

Basically, you want to be the team that unearths Ben Wallace from the depths of the unknown (like the Pistons did). You DON'T want to be the team that overpays Ben Wallace by the time he's past his prime (like the Bulls did). The Hornets need to be less like the latter and more like the former. Easier said than done, of course, but that's the gist of it.

Well, that is...different.

JDR720 wrote:

Read on Twitter

Well, that is...different.

Will have Joe Gibbs power behind the car so its time to see if the guy can actually drive or not.

Bubba's no slouch behind the wheel. He's won at just about every level he's competed at and I fully expect he'll consistently finish around the top 10. Hopefully MJ lets Denny run everything and he just provides the dollars

I was reading what LaMelo and Malik were saying about the the chemistry of the team, how there’s no cliques and everyone really digs each other.

We’ve heard this about our locker room for years and years and years now - that everyone is so close and it’s such a great atmosphere etc....even with all the losing.

Like every team, we’ve had consistent turn over in our franchise. We’ve had coaches come and go, players come and go, front office staff come and go etc yet the Locker room chemistry has always been super strong.

The only single consistent over all this time has been the owner - MJ.

So, how much of the continual excellent team chemistry can be attributed to the leadership of MJ?

BigSlam wrote:I was reading what LaMelo and Malik were saying about the the chemistry of the team, how there’s no cliques and everyone really digs each other.

We’ve heard this about our locker room for years and years and years now - that everyone is so close and it’s such a great atmosphere etc....even with all the losing.

Like every team, we’ve had consistent turn over in our franchise. We’ve had coaches come and go, players come and go, front office staff come and go etc yet the Locker room chemistry has always been super strong.

The only single consistent over all this time has been the owner - MJ.

So, how much of the continual excellent team chemistry can be attributed to the leadership of MJ?

I guess a lot can be attributed to MJ and I think he is typically influencing decisions that take players personality and attitude into account. We have a lot of really good personalities on this team and have for a while. At the end of the day though, in the NBA talent is what elevates you. It'd be great to have both of course and winning sure does create a good locker room atmosphere too.