RealGM

23 of first 36 games on road. nov-dec are brutal, back half much easier
gotta start hot to tread water, be below .500 on jan 15th of course, then go on late run for 8th seed as usual.

Really thought Melo would get us more national games. Not yet.

yosemiteben wrote:Really thought Melo would get us more national games. Not yet.

Didn't they release the television schedule in two halves last year? Seems to hold up here too, maybe those are 4 natty games for just the first half of the year.

Eh, maybe not actually. Only 26 more games after Feb 9 vs Chicago...we do have 4 NBATV games as well on the schedule.

4 espn /4 nbatv... so 8 games. i bet they add more on nbatv if he/we are playing well

4 games on ESPN plus 4 games on NBATV plus 2 more games against Toronto just means 10 games I wont be able to watch live via the NBA League Pass Teams app I subscribe to because of the stupid arse black out dumb crap.

Even though I live in bloody Ottawa, Canada.

Welp. Good thing the team has depth for the Hayward injury that's likely to result.

fatlever wrote:23 of first 36 games on road. nov-dec are brutal, back half much easier
gotta start hot to tread water, be below .500 on jan 15th of course, then go on late run for 8th seed as usual.

Will we live to see this team be above .500 on Jan 15th? I really hope we can stay healthy, get a rhythm and be in contention for a top 4 seed by the end. It was working out that way last year, but which of the top 8 teams will be taking steps back rather than forward? Miami will be better. Indy isn’t going away. Maybe NYK regress but I doubt it. The East won’t be easy. We missed that train as the balance of power is shifting to the East finally.

It's Nets + Bucks.

Then everyone else.

Then Orlando and Detroit.

It wouldn't shock me if we we're 4th. It wouldn't shock me if we're 12th. Most of the East teams have pretty large ranges they could land in.

That video clip was really fun. Eric Collins is good for the soul, I'm going to be depressed when he's no longer commenting for the Hornets.

One positive from this offseason is that the team got bigger. We won't be quite as disadvantaged as we were before against the huge teams like the Jazz, 76ers, Grizzlies, Lakers, etc. that always crush us.

Smith = Graham
Bouknight > Monk
Plumlee = Zeller
Jones > Biz
Oubre > Martin

If we could add another big guard like LaMelo or turn Carey/McDaniels/Iwundu, etc. into a rotation big with size we might actually be able to compete with the huge teams mentioned above.

Hmm.

Oubre < Graham (Not having Devonte' is going to cost the Hornets at least a game or 2 and it's Oubre who is going to eat Devonte's mintues not Smith.)

Bouknight < Monk (This year only. Long term this is all Bouk)

Plumlee + Kai > Zeller + Biz (I think that Plum is going to be a very pleasant surprise here)

Smith = Martin

Vanderbilt_Grad wrote:Hmm.

Oubre < Graham (Not having Devonte' is going to cost the Hornets at least a game or 2 and it's Oubre who is going to eat Devonte's mintues not Smith.)

Bouknight < Monk (This year only. Long term this is all Bouk)

Plumlee + Kai > Zeller + Biz (I think that Plum is going to be a very pleasant surprise here)

Smith = Martin

I wasn't making a determination on which players are better (now or the future). I was saying that we got bigger as a team. And I hope that will make us more competitive when we play huge teams like the Jazz, Grizzlies, 76ers, etc.

I don't think we're bigger. At least functionally. We may even be slightly smaller.

Plumlee is the only player in the regular rotation who is taller than 6-9. Kai would be too, but he is too weak to do much.

Monk and Bouknight are both undersized.

Kai is taller than Biz, but Biz is stronger. Biz probably has a longer wingspan too.

Oubre is bigger than Martin is. That's really our only notable size-gaining move. Everything else is either negligible or slightly smaller.

JDR720 wrote:I don't think we're bigger. At least functionally. We may even be slightly smaller.

Plumlee is the only player in the regular rotation who is taller than 6-9. Kai would be too, but he is too weak to do much.

Monk and Bouknight are both undersized.

Kai is taller than Biz, but Biz is stronger. Biz probably has a longer wingspan too.

Oubre is bigger than Martin is. That's really our only notable size-gaining move. Everything else is either negligible or slightly smaller.

We no longer have 4 guards that deserve 25+ minutes a game, so there's a good chance at Oubre gets a lot of time at SG that Malik or Devonte' would've gotten last year. So that's a difference of 4-5 inches plus he's got a ludicrous wingspan that basically makes him another Hayward size wise. But you're right that's it, Plumlee has Zeller's dimensions he's just stronger. Kai is a skinnier Biz size wise, Bouk is Monk sized.

JDR720 wrote:I don't think we're bigger. At least functionally. We may even be slightly smaller.

I had to actually check the numbers after this.

Average team height
2020-21 ... 6' 6.4"
2021-22 ... 6' 7.3"

The team as a whole definitely got taller. I'm not going to bother with the numbers, but the average weight went down slightly with that increase in height. Basically the Kai and Thor effect.

However, to JDR's point, if you just take the top 8 guys in total minutes last year vs the 8 guys most likely to get minutes this year?
2020-21 ... 6' 6.6"
2021-22 ... 6' 6.6"

It's pretty much the same.