RealGM

With Zeller Elf on the shelf for a month or two, the Hornets are woefully deficient with really tall people. Looking at options:

INTERNAL
Biyombo, Richards, Carey; small ball Miles, Washington

TRADE
Poachable? Hayes, Allen, Damian Jones (Suns) - leave this topic for the fake trade thread.

*Personal opinion: leave trades alone. Charlotte has two 2nd round centers already and trading a 2nd for another player makes little sense. Going for an established player for a 1st rounder is buying low. Better to add a free agent as opposed to a trade.

FREE AGENT
Ante Zizic, John Henson (always loved his standing reach), Justin Patton, Kyle O'Quinn, Ian Mahnimi (old dude)

HOW SHOULD THE HORNETS ADDRESS THIS SITUATION?

Merry Christmas, by the way!

Let the rookies play. We arent going anywhere anyway

Honestly surprised we haven't signed Dewayne Dedmon yet, he's better than Zeller and Biz anyway

we're gonna end up callin kaminsky at this rate

Rays Pompadour wrote:FREE AGENT
Ante Zizic, John Henson (always loved his standing reach), Justin Patton, Kyle O'Quinn, Ian Mahnimi (old dude)

Would love to see you give Zizic a shot, for selfish reasons. He's one of my personal big whiffs. Predicted he was going to be solid. Was looking on track after year two with CLE, when he went 7.8 / 5.4

Still only 23, anyway.

Rays Pompadour wrote:With Zeller Elf on the shelf for a month or two, the Hornets are woefully deficient with really tall people. Looking at options:

INTERNAL
Biyombo, Richards, Carey; small ball Miles, Washington

TRADE
Poachable? Hayes, Allen, Damian Jones (Suns) - leave this topic for the fake trade thread.

*Personal opinion: leave trades alone. Charlotte has two 2nd round centers already and trading a 2nd for another player makes little sense. Going for an established player for a 1st rounder is buying low. Better to add a free agent as opposed to a trade.

FREE AGENT
Ante Zizic, John Henson (always loved his standing reach), Justin Patton, Kyle O'Quinn, Ian Mahnimi (old dude)

HOW SHOULD THE HORNETS ADDRESS THIS SITUATION?

All of those guys are too big. We need to be looking at the 6'7-6'9 range. Big "lumbering" Centers are antiques.

SMALL BALL

DY_nasty wrote:We're gonna end up callin Kaminsky at this rate.

No, no, please no!

Big Frank is back with the Suns. So we’ve dodged that one.


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amcoolio wrote:Honestly surprised we haven't signed Dewayne Dedmon yet, he's better than Zeller and Biz anyway

Dedmon seems like a reasonable move. I don't think he has much left in the tank but he's 7 feet and can rebound.

I think the delay to us signing someone is partial due to covid but also us wanting to keep open a roster spot for trades.

I might go with Kyle O'Quinn honestly.

My vote's for John Henson. He's pretty solid if I recall.

While we don't need a big advantage at center we can't really be a serious playoff team with a huge disadvantage there every single game. On so many levels it's not working.

The championship Lakers have an advantage over us at the position and they only needed the MLE for it. We don't have 2 superstars like the Lakers so we can't afford a huge disadvantage there.

I definitely see a reason to add personnel now because Zeller is in a contract year and his injury can put the team out of contention for a spot in a hurry wasting one contract year of two borderline all star talents in Rozier and Hayward. Why wait to resolve the center position long-term when Zeller is not part of the plan beyond this year? I don't like the idea of putting it off. And it's like after Harrell turned down the Hornets offer, Kupchak had no immediate contingency plan. He was just going to delay the inevitable.

I want to do this right starting now. And no I don't regret missing out on Wiseman because I think we can acquire an above average center with a piece worth a hell of a lot less than a top 3 pick and erase our huge disadvantage here.

Zeller's injury is like pulling off a bandaid. It hurts. It should hurt. Time to move on. I'm grateful Kupchak didn't attach picks at any point to Marvin, MKG, Batum and Zeller. He's very patient and waited out contracts that were expensive to move and could have mortgaged our future.

We're the youngest NBA team so I want the center to be young. My targets are Allen and Turner. Allen is 22. He's an elite rebounder. He runs the floor, protects the rim and can finish in transition. He's also flashing playmaking ability lately. He's looking for a Clint Capela contract but the Nets didn't extend him. They're paying 50+ million in luxury tax and 10 million to DeAndre Jordan.

I know perimeter defense was an issue for us all last year. But some of that can be addressed with a rim protector. Our defenders can creep away from the paint out to the line.

Turner had 8 blocks in the first game and is an established elite shot blocker who blocks and alters shots, causing guards like Sexton to hesitate before driving to the rim. Turner is 24 and also shoots threes.

It's time for Kupchak to bring in a center who can grow with this rebuild.

But I think we will see a good month of PJ Washington playing small ball center and Biz starting before any trade. Prices could come down and I don't want to overpay. Hopefully Richards can step up.

Braggins wrote:I might go with Kyle O'Quinn honestly.

Same.

And while I know we'll probably give Henson a call, we need space eaters bad.

So many posters professed it was super easy to acquire a starting 5 in the NBA so surely our FO will have a bunch of options to choose from.

Right?

I could see us bringing in someone like Taj Gibson.


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BigSlam wrote:So many posters professed it was super easy to acquire a starting 5 in the NBA so surely our FO will have a bunch of options to choose from.

Right?

I could see us bringing in someone like Taj Gibson.


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I'd say it's a little different once the season has started compared to free agency. Wouldn't you?

I am surprised we didn't add Henson before the season even started but he certainly fits a need now. Let him bang against the big bigs and let PJ play his way into shape guarding the mobile 5s.

BigSlam wrote:So many posters professed it was super easy to acquire a starting 5 in the NBA so surely our FO will have a bunch of options to choose from.

Right?

I could see us bringing in someone like Taj Gibson.


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too good to be true, watch OKC pick him up and then dump him at the deadline for a late 1st

I’ve always liked zizic, he wouldn’t bring much more than zeller could though.

I’d rather play youth with Bismack as godfather

Vernon Carey Jr please. Playing Biz as anything other than a mentor or backup is pointless. He has no potential for improvement and he's not up to starting standard.


Let's see just how good or bad Vernon Carey Jr or Nick Richards are. I couldn't care less whether we win or lose. We are first round playoffs fodder at best anyway.

Failing that trade for some young guy being undervalued or underutilised by their present team.