Offseason 2025 Thread

[fatlever]

getting this cranked up for season recaps/rants. forward looking thoughts.

[JustBuzzin]

Brace yourselves Cooper Flagg is coming.

[GiggitySmalls]

Brace yourselves Cooper Flagg is coming.

He is and its gonna be glorious. Eric Collins head is gonns explode. It gonna be huuuge for this franchise.

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[fatlever]

Where does this season rank in terms of the least entertaining and the least enjoyable Hornets seasons of all time? I can for sure say that I enjoyed watching the 7 win bobcats season more than this one. There was at least some excitement about kemba, And as bad as Byron was it was at least entertaining.

I think the only other season that compares is last season, But I think even that was more exciting because of the newness of Brandon Miller, plus the good version of micic.

[Braggins]

I feel like we should get a lot more clarity about what is up with this front office this offseason. Their draft pick situation has been resolved, so there is no more incentive to take it slow. The grace period is over and they have to make a significant jump in the process of putting a good team around their young core. Any other result from this offseason should be considered a failure.

[SWedd523]

Where does this season rank in terms of the least entertaining and the least enjoyable Hornets seasons of all time? I can for sure say that I enjoyed watching the 7 win bobcats season more than this one. There was at least some excitement about kemba, And as bad as Byron was it was at least entertaining.

I think the only other season that compares is last season, But I think even that was more exciting because of the newness of Brandon Miller, plus the good version of micic.

This season has been the lowest point for me.

Part of it is cumulative from the previous couple seasons.

Part of it is seeing folks manufacturing sunshine and getting defensive for criticizing how disastrous the year has been.

Part of it is the disappointment borne from the continued reinforcement that we'll likely never see a healthy Melo or Mark.

Part of it is seeing other bad teams like Detroit, Houston, Sacramento, etc come out of the doldrums while we're still going "yeah but long term vision" after 20 years of horrible results.

Part of it is seeing the plan be daily affirmations and hope for hitting 14% lottery odds



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[amcoolio]

This was way worse than 7-59. I checked out in December. It was fairly clear we chose the wrong coach by December. If was clear that our draft pick was years away and likely won't amount to anything but a role player. Detroit was worse than us, didn't really add anything in the draft like us, and still managed to secure top 6 record with basic changes that we could have made but didn't want to do. And Sweed is right on some people here manufacturing optimism and its super frustrating.... this franchise is completely hopeless. They are basically just hoping to get a generational player in the draft at this point, and if we don't, we are tanking again next year and I have zero interest in watching any minutes if that's the case

[KembaWalker]

It was truly awful. The 7 win team was truly awful as well, but it didn’t come with this degree of disappointment because that was pretty clearly always going to be a team that sucked. This team could have been decent, but our supposed young dynamic duo in Ball and Miller both significantly regressed on the court and showed little to nothing to give anyone hope for the future

The gaslighting fans part was just funny, maybe the highlight of the season. While the team provided basically no entertainment at all after November , watching some of these fans scramble around pivoting their arguments day to day from “we would have been good if no injuries!” to “obviously the plan was always to be bad, dummy”

I dunno, in 2011 nobody thought there was a core or foundation in place or anything, it was just a trash team at step 0 of a build. 2025 some people still think Ball/Miller/Williams/Bridges is a foundation to a perennial winner. In reality both teams are at step 0, waiting for a draft pick to bail them out of hell, it didn’t happen for 2011, let’s see if it does for this team

[Braggins]

The thing is, they are objectively just not in a bad position at all. They have plenty of assets and everything they need to drastically improve the team from this point and IF (HUGE IF) the front office is competent they should not have any trouble turning things around.

At this point I would lean towards thinking the front office (and coach) are more likely to not be good and if you put a gun to my head I would say I feel like they are more likely to blow it than succeed, but I also don't think its clear thats the case yet.

What I find kind of odd is that it seems that some people were expecting the new regime to turn the Hornets into a model franchise overnight and erase 20 years of the pain of failures of the past, which is just completely unrealistic. This franchise didn't even have up to date basic infrastructure when the new regime took over (jury is still out on if they do now) and it also would have literally been stupid of the front office to push their chips in last offseason due to the pick obligations they still owed from the last GMs terrible decisions.

At this point the owners have had over a year to get all their people in and update the infrastructure. The front office no longer has any relevant pick obligations to worry about and they are kind of loaded with assets. If they continue to flounder I am ready to throw them all under the bus at the drop of a hat.

[SWedd523]

What I find kind of odd is that it seems that some people were expecting the new regime to turn the Hornets into a model franchise overnight and erase 20 years of the pain of failures of the past, which is just completely unrealistic. This franchise didn't even have up to date basic infrastructure when the new regime took over (jury is still out on if they do now) and it also would have literally been stupid of the front office to push their chips in last offseason due to the pick obligations they still owed from the last GMs terrible decisions.

What I find kind of odd is why it has to be one or the other?

Did Houston or Detroit mortgage their future or "push their chips in"?

No. they hired the right people, made the right choices, and have benefitted from it.

This entire season was a waste. They have preached daily improvement and hard work and togetherness and whatever other bull terms HR and PR cleared yet....... where is it?

They've had a full season and I can honestly say I'm less optimistic than I was at this point last year. FO? looks like a dud. Coaching? looks like a dud. Lotto pick? Looks like a dud. The team is not better in any real way over last year so they spent an entire season doing a burnout in front of Fats hotel room.

No forward progress whatsoever.

There was absolutely room between "push all the chips in" and whatever the hell it is they did all year.

[Braggins]

What I find kind of odd is that it seems that some people were expecting the new regime to turn the Hornets into a model franchise overnight and erase 20 years of the pain of failures of the past, which is just completely unrealistic. This franchise didn't even have up to date basic infrastructure when the new regime took over (jury is still out on if they do now) and it also would have literally been stupid of the front office to push their chips in last offseason due to the pick obligations they still owed from the last GMs terrible decisions.

What I find kind of odd is why it has to be one or the other?

Did Houston or Detroit mortgage their future or "push their chips in"?

No. they hired the right people, made the right choices, and have benefitted from it.

This entire season was a waste. They have preached daily improvement and hard work and togetherness and whatever other bull terms HR and PR cleared yet....... where is it?

They've had a full season and I can honestly say I'm less optimistic than I was at this point last year. FO? looks like a dud. Coaching? looks like a dud. Lotto pick? Looks like a dud. The team is not better in any real way over last year so they spent an entire season doing a burnout in front of Fats hotel room.

No forward progress whatsoever.

There was absolutely room between "push all the chips in" and whatever the hell it is they did all year.

I'm also less optimistic about the coaches and front office after this season. What happened on the court this season was disastrous. I think a lot of it was due to circumstance out of their control (health mainly), but they also didn't show anything to be optimistic about.

I don't mind the losses so much. I think it made sense to plan to not be very good this season and once so many players got injured I think it made sense to lean into the tank and just be terrible, but its not good to have so many question marks moving forward about players health and basic things like coaching and front office competence (iffy draft pick and Mark Williams fiasco aren't excused by the one year tank window).

One way I look at it though is that for basically the entire time Ive followed this team they have usually not had many assets to work with at any given time and Ive nearly always been positive that their owner, front office, and coaches (exception for Borrego/Triano), were terrible. Right now they have the most talented player theyve had since I started following, a bunch of assets to work with, and I'm at least not certain that their front office and coaches suck yet.

A coaching change wouldn't actually be a big deal so I'm not too worried about Lee potentially sucking, but if the front office sucks things could go south very quickly. They are in a good position, but one that could easily be squandered, and having to "reset" again when they are in some ways already at rock bottom would be dreadful.

[SWedd523]

You could also argue that those assets are at a lower value than they were this time last year.

I'm lower on Melo right now than I was at the start of the year. Same for Brandon. I think Mark has topped out as "he is what he is" and his value is likely tanked after the rescinded trade. Tiddy hasn't shown anything. Miles has shown some, but only as the #1 or #2. Nick looks like a 9th man. Who knows the long term prognosis for Mann and Grant?

Nobody really increased their value from the start of the year save maybe Miles, but he's still radioactive.

The only real positive value asset I see is the draft picks, and that's mostly from being owned by the most inept team in the league.

[fatlever]

If you would have told me before this season started that this season would be our worst injury season in the past 5 years I would have probably put a gun to my head.

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[Bassman]

Well, hard to know where to rank this season amongst the worst of history. Not THE worst to me, but uniquely bad. These are the stand out themes I will remember about it:

> INJURY CITY - Bad, so bad, and at a time when the front office brought in massive healthcare reinforcements before the season. WTH good was it? Team truly seems cursed.
> CASTING CALL - Never seen so many tryouts wound through an NBA team. That kind of made it interesting, and gave hope of landing a surprise, but ultimately it was a bust.
> NEW REGIME, SAME RESULT - Started with a GM’s reach in the draft, and went nowhere from there. Coach with a quality assistant’s pedigree hasn’t shown me he can be a HEAD coach difference maker yet.
> TANKS FOR TANKING - This team actually executed the tank very well. And they competed hard almost every game. The two best things they pulled off this season.

I’ll wait till after tomorrow for my rundown on players.

[LofJ]

This season killed my desire to follow the team. Until the organization proves that it actually cares about competing and not just being content cashing checks that they don't deserve I'm out as a fan.

[EmpireFalls]

Jeff Peterson’s first three acquisitions:

Charles Lee, Josh Green, and Tidjane Salaun.

If this is the future of Hornets basketball, I want no part of it. I’ll give it another year just praying that the Salaun pick was an aberration; if not, then I’m out on the entire thing.

[fatlever]

There really only are two acceptable paths forward this summer in my opinion.

Option A- The team realizes they are much further away from competing and decides to cash in on melo, Even if his value is low at the moment, Trading him for a package of future picks and or promising young player.
option B - Use some of our future picks to add some actual veteran talent around Melo, And try to take that Houston Detroit type leap into the playoffs next year.

Having melo go into year 2 of a Super Max while trying to tank again for the 4th straight season would be a failure at all levels.

[GiggitySmalls]

I really hope we played it safe with Mann this year injurywise and not rushing him back. If we drafted a guy like Edgecombe and id assume we bring back okogie id like to see as little of Josh Green as possible. A healthy Mann and a really Solid rookie year from Edgecombe would alone do wonders for this team. We could essentially split the minuets at the 2 with them both 24 and 24 and see what's what. Okogie fits the 2 or 3 if one goes down or Miller moves to the 2 for a lineup and we can put Okogie at the 3. Just really don't want to see Josh Green at all. A realistic excellent draft for us would be picking smart within our range Edgecombe, and trading back into the 1st for Rasheer Fleming while being smart with our 2nds and taking the best players who happen to fall and players who might be more NBA ready and less potential projects. In Free agency we gotta find a solid backup pg and center. We need talent and depth. I dont know whos available at those positions, but that would be my thought process. It makes sense though so it won't happen.

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[fatlever]

Just to be clear Tre mann is a restricted free agent next season. We have until end of June to make a qualifying offer.
I see no reason the Hornets wouldn't make him a qualifying offer
Given his mysterious back injury I'd be surprised to see any teams making and enticing offer to sign him in free agency
I also wouldn't expect the hornets to offer him much long term money unless they are 100% positive the back injury stuff is over and not an issue moving forward
My best guess is he accepts the qualifying offer to play on a one year deal and becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer.

other notes
We also have until the end of June to pick up the unguaranteed contracts of okogie and mid oct for moose- Which I assume we will do. Moose is certainly a formality.

Mark also becomes eligible for an extension in July. This is another one I don't see the Hornets rushing to do. Assume they will not reach an agreement with him before the start of the season and he will end up as a restricted free agent next summer. Would be wonderful if they could lock him up on a fairly cheap deal but I don't see that happening. Not sure what either party gains by committing to a long term contract this off the offseason.

Cap nerds, let me know if I'm wrong about any of the stuff. spotrac

[GoBobs]

Hard to know how to feel about this season. It was one of the worst to go through. On the other hand, how many seasons have I seen us barely make or miss the play in.

This is the first time we have had extra futrue draft picks I can rememeber. Trust the process, maybe...