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We needed to get off the treadmill of just getting into to playoffs or selecting 10th in the lottery. Pick a direction and commit to it. It seems obvious to me that the new regime absolutely has and is. WE ARE TANKING. Most of what the new regime have said points to it. aka "we are on step 2 of 9" in their plan to be an elite franchise.

We didn't bring a Center to cover for Mark as an FA this summer is what conclusively tipped it for me. Now, The Lingering booboo's keep us from racking up many unhelpful wins and help keep the young "stars" from actually getting seriously hurt too. Pretty clear that -They want to keep the pick and have it be a high one in what looks like a good draft. It's likely the right move.

I think that with the arena renovations finishing up this summer they will be more inclined to try to build a winner over the next couple of years after this final tanking one. Finish Refurbishing the arena, while building the new state of the art practice/medical facility and letting the new training staff get the young guys in shape as they get their skills honed. Give them a chance to Grow up too. The core should mostly all still be in college age wise and do not have their "grown man" core strength built up yet.

While it sucks to watch the roster be gutted by injuries (again) and lose a bunch, it now appears to be more strategic and helpful then Hayward or Batum sitting out while we cling to the 9th spot in a race to the play in or late lotto. I would rather them play Saluan for development purposes and get another top 3 pick.

We are not actually that far off or untalented. They have a bunch of young players who can be really good in a year or two. We do not have a bunch of really bad contracts going forward. They have 5 first round picks in the next 3 drafts for bargaining chips in trades or to keep talent coming in cheaply when the core gets paid. If stinking this season lands a difference maker in the top of the draft to add to a nice foundation, so be it. At least it LOOKS like we have a viable plan to get the kind of talent needed to compete at the top. Boston and the Cavs will be getting old in a couple of years too. That should be our timeline.

we've been in Maybe Next Year since Kemba. That's their plan and I don't expect them to ever be a serious playoff team.

We're looking at what, year 8 of Melo before expecting to field a serious roster? No serious team does that.

I'm okay with it. I'm not super emotionally invested so it exists as my outlet to talk sports with folks, but I've long since accepted that Charlotte will never be a serious franchise unless they bumble **** luck their way into it.

Excellent post, totally agree. Will add that a thing I harped on for years: be entertaining to watch if you are going to be losing is also mostly true for most of the games I’ve seen. Be the scrappy underdog that has to hit a bunch of 3s, but could have a good night against most teams… but probably loses in the end. The effort has been much improved.

Better get serious about winning soon. The Nat'l media is gonna start pushing Melo to demand out of Charlotte soon.

I'm seeing a lot of Melo is being wasted in Charlotte comments on all his highlight videos on social media. That's not a good sign for your franchise.

This next draft we have to get the right player. There is no missing on this draft pick. Luckily for us this draft is more than just Flagg. We have to get this pick right. No more excuses for this franchise we have plenty of talent.

There have been times this season when the best player on the court, sometimes best two, have been wearing teal/purple. It’s been a while since that has been the case, things are improving. There are often medical reports and reevaluation updates!
Edit: meant to quote Swedd

that "step 2 of 9 step master plan to elite franchise" has to be one of the biggest red flags of all that we didn't actually escape ownership hell. We'll see what happens but its insane to me to even be thinking about "paths to contention" with this team or organization right now. We can't even get 48 minutes of a healthy "core" together and the little bit we got looked maybe 5% better than our g-league lineups were looking a couple weeks ago.

Say we win the lottery this year against all odds and draft Cooper Flagg. Okay great, we've got an 18 year old rookie on this trash heap roster of guys who mostly have 0 idea how to win. You know who doesn't win playoff series in the NBA? teams that suck and are always injured + an 18 year old. So we have to wait for Cooper to maybe become a winning NBA player in what, 4 or 5 years? This isn't a Jayson Tatum getting drafted to a 50 win team ready to learn and contribute to deep playoff runs from ages 19-26 situation.

This team is a lot closer to needing a MAJOR reset button than it is organically following a path to contention with how its going right now. Like, 11:58 on the doomsday clock probably while we wait for the next inevitable major injury to push us to midnight

JustBuzzin wrote:Better get serious about winning soon. The Nat'l media is gonna start pushing Melo to demand out of Charlotte soon.

I'm seeing a lot of Melo is being wasted in Charlotte comments on all his highlight videos on social media. That's not a good sign for your franchise.

This next draft we have to get the right player. There is no missing on this draft pick. Luckily for us this draft is more than just Flagg. We have to get this pick right. No more excuses for this franchise we have plenty of talent.

pining hopes on the draft just doesn't make sense to me

Firstly you're significantly more likely to get a Salaun than you are a Melo

Now let's say you luck into Flagg, the likelihood that he makes a true impact as a rookie or soph is very low. So now you're going "yeah but wait another year or two" which is exactly where we're at now.

Maybe next year we'll get a generational draft pick who helps the franchise turn the page into contender

Yeah, maybe next year I win the lottery.


Maybe next year

Walt Cronkite wrote:There have been times this season when the best player on the court, sometimes best two, have been wearing teal/purple. It’s been a while since that has been the case, things are improving. There are often medical reports and reevaluation updates!
Edit: meant to quote Swedd

I agree that at least (when they're actually healthy) we (typically) have a fun to watch team between Melo going on heaters or Miller/Miles getting hot. So at least they have that going for them... I guess.

If that's their goal then own it though and stop trying to sell this whole venture capitalist scheme to success

SWedd523 wrote:

JustBuzzin wrote:Better get serious about winning soon. The Nat'l media is gonna start pushing Melo to demand out of Charlotte soon.

I'm seeing a lot of Melo is being wasted in Charlotte comments on all his highlight videos on social media. That's not a good sign for your franchise.

This next draft we have to get the right player. There is no missing on this draft pick. Luckily for us this draft is more than just Flagg. We have to get this pick right. No more excuses for this franchise we have plenty of talent.

pining hopes on the draft just doesn't make sense to me

Firstly you're significantly more likely to get a Salaun than you are a Melo

Now let's say you luck into Flagg, the likelihood that he makes a true impact as a rookie or soph is very low. So now you're going "yeah but wait another year or two" which is exactly where we're at now.

Maybe next year we'll get a generational draft pick who helps the franchise turn the page into contender

Yeah, maybe next year I win the lottery.


Maybe next year

So no trades and no draft. What are you hoping for?

This current group is not winning anything. Something has to happen were we upgrade the talent on the roster. If no trades then the draft is the only hope we have.

SWedd523 wrote:I agree that at least (when they're actually healthy) we (typically) have a fun to watch team between Melo going on heaters or Miller/Miles getting hot. So at least they have that going for them... I guess.

If that's their goal then own it though and stop trying to sell this whole venture capitalist scheme to success

I think that's fair. It's ultimately the entertainment business, so I understand why they don't just say come out and say it, but the multi step thing is definitely eyerolling, although it does feel like progress is being made. Its the hope that kills you--and sells season tickets!

There's being optimistic, and then there's being optimistic being a Hornets fan, the worst professional sports franchise of the NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL this century.

I really don't think you can get mad or blame the diehard fans for being negative or checking out. Every single fanbase would abandon a team with these results. Even the Royals, Rockies, Wizards, Browns, Lions, and Raiders have have good seasons and won playoff games/series in the past 20 years

JustBuzzin wrote:

SWedd523 wrote:

JustBuzzin wrote:Better get serious about winning soon. The Nat'l media is gonna start pushing Melo to demand out of Charlotte soon.

I'm seeing a lot of Melo is being wasted in Charlotte comments on all his highlight videos on social media. That's not a good sign for your franchise.

This next draft we have to get the right player. There is no missing on this draft pick. Luckily for us this draft is more than just Flagg. We have to get this pick right. No more excuses for this franchise we have plenty of talent.

pining hopes on the draft just doesn't make sense to me

Firstly you're significantly more likely to get a Salaun than you are a Melo

Now let's say you luck into Flagg, the likelihood that he makes a true impact as a rookie or soph is very low. So now you're going "yeah but wait another year or two" which is exactly where we're at now.

Maybe next year we'll get a generational draft pick who helps the franchise turn the page into contender

Yeah, maybe next year I win the lottery.


Maybe next year

So no trades and no draft. What are you hoping for?

This current group is not winning anything. Something has to happen were we upgrade the talent on the roster. If no trades then the draft is the only hope we have.

At what point in anything you quoted did I say that?

SWedd523 wrote:

JustBuzzin wrote:

SWedd523 wrote:pining hopes on the draft just doesn't make sense to me

Firstly you're significantly more likely to get a Salaun than you are a Melo

Now let's say you luck into Flagg, the likelihood that he makes a true impact as a rookie or soph is very low. So now you're going "yeah but wait another year or two" which is exactly where we're at now.

Maybe next year we'll get a generational draft pick who helps the franchise turn the page into contender

Yeah, maybe next year I win the lottery.


Maybe next year

So no trades and no draft. What are you hoping for?

This current group is not winning anything. Something has to happen were we upgrade the talent on the roster. If no trades then the draft is the only hope we have.

At what point in anything you quoted did I say that?

What is your plan for success?

I think the front office has handled the big picture strategy pretty much exactly how they should have thus far in the nine months they've been here. I think many of these complaints are absurd and if they were approaching things the way many of you are clamoring for I would probably already have lost all confidence in the new ownership and front office.

edit: I'm not sold on some of their key micro level moves, like the Peterson hiring and drafting Salaun, but its too early to tell on those for me and otherwise I think there have been plenty of positive developments this season. The only really bad thing thats happened is Grants horrific injury.

JustBuzzin wrote:Better get serious about winning soon. The Nat'l media is gonna start pushing Melo to demand out of Charlotte soon.

I'm seeing a lot of Melo is being wasted in Charlotte comments on all his highlight videos on social media. That's not a good sign for your franchise.

This next draft we have to get the right player. There is no missing on this draft pick. Luckily for us this draft is more than just Flagg. We have to get this pick right. No more excuses for this franchise we have plenty of talent.

Org seems way ahead of this starting year 1 of LaMelo's 5 year contract.

The strategy from day 1 of that multiyear deal is to hand LaMelo the keys of a developing offense which greenlights him to shoot at a volume where he can stamp his name atop the NBA leading scorer board.

The national media has to cover favorably someone who could win a scoring title.

Anything less than positive branding for the Hornets based on our feature player chasing a scoring title looks like defamation.

Braggins wrote:I think the front office has handled the big picture strategy pretty much exactly how they should have thus far in the nine months they've been here. I think many of these complaints are absurd and if they were approaching things the way many of you are clamoring for I would probably already have lost all confidence in the new ownership and front office.

This reminds me of the Salaun “already exceeding my expectations” stuff lol. I mean, if the expectation is doing literally nothing good outside of a couple piddly trades to rack up 2nd rounders and guys actual good teams don’t want whilst torpedoing another year of our lives to hope for a draft dice roll, setting us up with a coach and gm that have done almost nothing noteworthy to point at then yeah, they’re killing it

And I’m not even saying you’re wrong here, it’s just crazy to me that the bar for this team is so freakin low at this point that doing basically nothing exceeds the expectations of a large chunk of the fan base.

I’m personally not gonna credit them till they make a move that puts this franchise in a clear step ahead from where they were. Or a prospect takes a massive leap thanks to internal development or coaching. I don’t think that’s happened yet.

Braggins wrote:I think the front office has handled the big picture strategy pretty much exactly how they should have thus far in the nine months they've been here. I think many of these complaints are absurd and if they were approaching things the way many of you are clamoring for I would probably already have lost all confidence in the new ownership and front office.

edit: I'm not sold on some of their key micro level moves, like the Peterson hiring and drafting Salaun, but its too early to tell on those for me and otherwise I think there have been plenty of positive developments this season. The only really bad thing thats happened is Grants horrific injury.

7-19 and 6th worst record in the league


"Got them right where we want 'em"

Out of curiosity, when Jeff and the owners said at their introductory press conferences that they weren't going to take short cuts and were going to build for long term success:

(1) Did folks at that point in time think that was a bad approach?

(2) Have you seen something that suggests a change in philosophy?

I'm candidly surprised anyone else is surprised at their approach, given how consistent their message was about what they're trying to do.

Tanking for the draft is the laziest shortcut a team can pursue to build a good team

yosemiteben wrote:Out of curiosity, when Jeff and the owners said at their introductory press conferences that they weren't going to take short cuts and were going to build for long term success:

(1) Did folks at that point in time think that was a bad approach?

(2) Have you seen something that suggests a change in philosophy?

I'm candidly surprised anyone else is surprised at their approach, given how consistent their message was about what they're trying to do.

LaMelo's play caught me by surprise. I knew he was all-star caliber, but he has shown top 5 player ability with his scoring this season. If you have a potential top 10 player you have to speed up the process. By the time the process is done Melo will be a FA looking for other options.

I think due to the talent we have Melo/Miller/Mark we have to start making some noise sooner than later. With a likely high draft pick incoming we have to hit on that pick. Next year people are going to be looking at us with 2 all-star caliber players in Melo/Miller and saying why can't this team win with these 2 talents..

This long-term approach seems crazy if you ask me. We already have a foundation. It's about putting winning pieces around them.