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BigSlam wrote:

JMAC3 wrote:Nuts the Raptors are 2-7

I know I was super down on the OG signing. Hit only 14/51 threes so far good for 27.5%. Surprising he is hitting nearly 41% of his attempts from the corner? If I am doing the math right he has 22 corner threes and made 9 of them? meaning he is shooting 5/29 on all other threes good for 17%. Yikes. Oh and all 14 threes he has made this year have been assisted.

Nothing like paying a guy 72 Million dollars to not be able to shoot off the dribble.

They’re a weird team and I can’t figure what they are.

They kinda seem a mismatch of players that are just a collective of average to below average players who are left over after a mass walk out of all the good to great players......which I guess is essentially what they are!!

It would annoy me how they would say they were such an amazing front office because they were a championship team without a single lottery pick on their roster.

They’ve had PLENTY of lottery picks - it just that very few of them panned out. So really, their front office is crap at drafting and just good at trades and signing FA’s.

I think they are paying the price for being a crap drafting front office. They don’t have any quality players on rookie contracts because they pushed all their chips in on a very, very small window by bringing in high priced pieces like Kawhi, Ibaka, Gasol etc.

Now they are left having to overpay for sub talent like OG.

yosemiteben wrote:As someone who thinks Kyrie has MVP level talent and loves watching him play, he is an extremely frustrating player.

BigSlam wrote:This is a massive hypothetical, so go with me...

Let's say LaMelo continues his rookie play and then really improves during his 2nd year to a point where by the start of his year 3 he is a legit super star.

And let's say by the 3rd year of his contract with us (at the same time LaMelo is going into his 3rd year) Gordon is continuing to play at his current consistent rate (20/5/5 on great shooting).

Then we landed a third player, either by draft, FA signing or trade, who was a gun SG (think Thompson) or big (think Embiid).

Would a combination of LaMelo, Gordon and the mystery 3rd player give us a legit, NBA level "Big Three" that could compete with other NBA level Big Three's?

BigSlam wrote:This is a massive hypothetical, so go with me...

Let's say LaMelo continues his rookie play and then really improves during his 2nd year to a point where by the start of his year 3 he is a legit super star.

And let's say by the 3rd year of his contract with us (at the same time LaMelo is going into his 3rd year) Gordon is continuing to play at his current consistent rate (20/5/5 on great shooting).

Then we landed a third player, either by draft, FA signing or trade, who was a gun SG (think Thompson) or big (think Embiid).

Would a combination of LaMelo, Gordon and the mystery 3rd player give us a legit, NBA level "Big Three" that could compete with other NBA level Big Three's?

JMAC3 wrote:

BigSlam wrote:This is a massive hypothetical, so go with me...

Let's say LaMelo continues his rookie play and then really improves during his 2nd year to a point where by the start of his year 3 he is a legit super star.

And let's say by the 3rd year of his contract with us (at the same time LaMelo is going into his 3rd year) Gordon is continuing to play at his current consistent rate (20/5/5 on great shooting).

Then we landed a third player, either by draft, FA signing or trade, who was a gun SG (think Thompson) or big (think Embiid).

Would a combination of LaMelo, Gordon and the mystery 3rd player give us a legit, NBA level "Big Three" that could compete with other NBA level Big Three's?

Of course. LaMelo and Gordon are so versatile so it will be easy to build around them moving forward as well. If you aren't excited about the possibilities as a Hornet fan right now then I am not sure what would get you excited....

Gordon has been the perfect signing so far. Consistent, a leader, helps run the offense and is taking the scoring load off Melo shoulders so he can play within himself and be a opportunistic scorer and not having to force offense out of necessity.

James Gatz wrote:Depends what you mean by compete. If the 3rd player was better than LaMelo or Hayward like Embiid than definitely. If the 3rd player was say Jure Holiday, than probably not.

I think the later team would still be a top 4 seed though.

JMAC3 wrote:If you are looking at how we build from here..

I think we have some really good options and PJ Washington is also a big tool moving foward as well because like Ball and Hayward he is so versatile and can do so many things at an average-to-above average level. It is really hard to pinpoint just how good LaMelo can be at this point, so it is hard to say how good our third player would need to be.

I do know LaMelo on a point per minute basis in fantasy basketball he is a top 10 scorer. Meaning he gets pts, threes, assists, rebounds, steals, blocks at a near superstar rate and he is only 11 games in. And before you tell me this stat doesn't matter because it is used for fantasy basketball.. the players ahead of him are Jokic, Embiid, Curry, Greek Freak, Luka, KAT, Durant, LeBron and Harden.

SWedd523 wrote:At some point the team will have to decide to keep either PJ or Miles

Neither one is looking like a consistent All Star so ideally you'd move on from both and keep rolling the dice until you find a better player.

Melo, Hayward, PJ (OR) Miles, Devonte (OR) Rozier, work from there. Replace as better options present themselves