[Project] Top 5 single season peaks by franchises: The Hornets

[HeartBreakKid]

howard/davis/lebron/kcp/rondo

divac/mourning/gerald wallace /eddie johnson/kemba

lakers have the clear cut 2 best offensive players on court and the better defense (most likely, charlotte frontcourt trio is pretty nice)

are we sure they could deal with lakers?

Outside of Kemba pretty much everyone else on CHA are killers on defense. I doubt the Lakers would be the better defensive team.

The Lakers had the two best offensive players against the Heat, and a better defense. They still lost two games and MIA did not even have Goran Dragic who is their 3rd best player (who wouldn't come close to starting on this CHA team).

It's very difficult to beat a team with 5 legitimate all-stars. This isn't the 2015 Hawks that have Jeff Teague on it. The worst player there by my estimate is peak Kemba Walker - that's a weak team in an all-franchise sense but incredibly beastly in real life. The Lakers have a chance, but they wouldn't be the favorites.

The 2020 Lakers could lose to a team like the 2000 Blazers or 2002 Kings or 2004 Pistons. I'd see the Hornets in the same vein as those teams, but deeper. The Hornets players might not look prestigious, but they're still guys who have slipped onto all-nba teams.

[70sFan]

1. 1994/95 Alonzo Mouring - monster defensive player with decent offensive game. It's clear choice to me, don't find anyone else close to that level.

2. 1999/00 Eddie Jones - great defender and solid offensive year for him, it's weak 2nd option for a franchise but he was good basketball player nonetheless.

3. 1996/97 Vlade Divac - always super-underrated, very skilled bigman and crafty defender. Could be higher with different year, but it's his best one in Hornets.

4. 1997/98 Anthony Mason - I"m probably biased, but I'm a big fan of his game. Excellent defender (could guard 5 positions reasonably well) and very good passer. One of the best ball-handlers ever at his size as well. I just love watching him posting up centers with ease

5. 2001/02 Baron Davis - pre-peak year, but already very strong offensive production. Very good playmaker and streaky shooter, but his defense held him back.

[falcolombardi]

the smaller the role the less difference it makes to play an all star or a role player, kemba is a better player than kcp. but is he that much better in a 3 and D mainly role?

remember that kemba having franchise player usage takes away from divac, gerald wallace, eddie jones usage, diminishing returns. two offensive superstars> 4 offensive all stars in most situations

lakers with lebron carrying the offense (best 1 man offense and offensive floor raiser ever probably), a nore offball and finisher star like davis then role players doing as much as they can in tjeir limited offensive roles is a mich more seamless fit imo

the lakers are a proven elite defense even without davis or lebron playing as we have seen this year, they are stacked with defense themselves

[penbeast0]

is a bit depressing when a franchise top 5 players dont look like a championship team, i thinl they are the first franchise where they wouldnt win a ring

would this 5 man roster even beat the lakers this year

divac/ mourning/ gerald wallace/ eddie jones/kemba?

also this makes me curipus to put franchises top 5 against litmus tests like

would your franchise top 5 beat the 2020 lakers?

or for extra hard mode

would it beat the 2017 warriors? and see how many of this board top 5's would pass the tests

Modern game wouldn't have Divac and Mourning playing next to each other, they would have GWallace at PF and a shooter (probably Glen Rice) at SF.

[penbeast0]

1. 1994/95 Alonzo Mouring - monster defensive player with decent offensive game. It's clear choice to me, don't find anyone else close to that level.

2. 1999/00 Eddie Jones - great defender and solid offensive year for him, it's weak 2nd option for a franchise but he was good basketball player nonetheless.

3. 1996/97 Vlade Divac - always super-underrated, very skilled bigman and crafty defender. Could be higher with different year, but it's his best one in Hornets.

4. 1997/98 Anthony Mason - I"m probably biased, but I'm a big fan of his game. Excellent defender (could guard 5 positions reasonably well) and very good passer. One of the best ball-handlers ever at his size as well. I just love watching him posting up centers with ease

5. 2001/02 Baron Davis - pre-peak year, but already very strong offensive production. Very good playmaker and streaky shooter, but his defense held him back.

Baron Davis was a pretty good PG defender when focused and during his early career, he was as focused as a young player generally is. It was injuries that held him back, he couldn't stay healthy.

[Dutchball97]

1. Eddie Jones, 1999/00 - Yeah this really puts in perspective just how bad this franchise has been. We're looking at a fringe All-Star as the best player they've ever had and he was only there for one season to boot. I do think it is simply the most complete season available here.

2. Gerald Wallace, 2009/10 - Slightly better post-season than Eddie Jones but I see Eddie Jones' regular season advantage as more significant. Another strong allround season though.

3. Alonzo Mourning, 1994/95 - Similar season to the two guys above tbh. Solid regular season with a decently strong but short post-season. I did consider putting him at #1 because of his defense but I don't rate his impact as highly as I do for Jones and Wallace in their respective seasons. I did move Mourning ahead of Rice because of the massive defensive gap though.

4. Glen Rice, 1996/97 - Yet another one of those fringe All-Star regular seasons with a decent performance in a quick first round loss. He was ridiculously efficient this season but he was a complete one-way player.

5. Baron Davis, 2000/01 - 2002 was the better regular season but I don't think the gap is that significant and he was way more efficient in the 2001 post-season than the 2002 post-season (.603 TS% vs .467 TS%). Davis was also a good defender so I thought about moving him ahead of Rice but I think Rice was still more impactful overall despite the defensive difference.

HM: Vlade Divac, Kemba Walker, Larry Johnson, Anthony Mason

[Owly]

I did not consider Vlade Divac. How was his defense at that point in his career?

It was very good. Unfortunately he was on a team with Glen Rice, Muggsy Bogues, Dell Curry and Tony Smith--all negative defenders.

The team was a ~105 defense with Vlade and ~111 without him.

Fwiw, qualitative feedback (mainly the Barry books but other bits too) had Smith as a very good defender that being what kept him in the league, though I do see a negative contribution on AScreaming...'s '97 DRAPM.

[Owly]

Sheesh, this franchise is depressing.

Moreso if you take the actual franchise lineage rather than the official one which gifted the original Charlotte Hornets' history to the rechristened Bobcats organization.

[LA Bird]

1. 1995 Alonzo Mourning
2. 2000 Eddie Jones
Solid 20ppg players with good two way impact. Mourning was not as great yet as he would later be in Miami but a 20/10 shot blocker with +9.2 on/off is still pretty good. He is underrated if people are putting Gerald Wallace above him.

3. 1997 Vlade Divac
4. 2010 Gerald Wallace
5. 2002 Baron Davis
Kind of scraping the barrel here but there aren't many choices. Divac was a low volume scorer but is otherwise pretty good at everything else. Wallace had an outlier rebounding and 3pt shooting season and was the best defender on the #1 defense but the Bobcats didn't really dropoff much without him. Davis shot too much at his negative efficiency but was still an impact player. Everyone is flawed in one way or another. It wouldn't surprise me if LaMelo Ball is on this list by next season already.

[Doctor MJ]

1. '94-95 Alonzo Mourning - Zo was strong on both sides of the ball right from the jump and so even though his peak would come on the Heat, he tops the list here.

2. '01-02 Baron Davis - I completely underrated Davis for a long time due to his tendency toward poor regular season efficiency, but this was a guy who was rather astonishingly top tier in +/- even during the regular season, and he became a new level entirely in the playoffs when he stopped conserving energy and attacked the rim more - he was quite the bowling ball. As with Zo, his peak would come on another team (Warriors), but he first grabbed our attention with that sterling '00-01 playoff performance in Charlotte, and he backed it up as an all-star campaign in '01-02.

3. '99-00 Eddie Jones - Eddie was such a Steady Eddie. From the time he was a rookie, he had a game with a lot of good and very little bad. I think it's rough for Eddie that he's known as the guy who got pushed aside by Kobe, Baron, and Wade. Had things gone a bit differently he could have been a revered institution somewhere, because he was damn good, but other guys had the potential to be better.

4. '96-97 Vlade Divac - I think it's pretty clear that no one at the time, I'm sure not even Vlade, understood just how impactful Divac was on both sides of the ball. While Divac is perhaps better known both for his tenure(s) on the Kings and his start on the Showtime Lakers, I believe what I'm seeing in the +/- numbers with him everywhere he went. Divac likely ranks higher on this list if the team had realized he was their best basketball player, and they should be looking to build around his strengths.

5. '92-93 Larry Johnson - the man who put the franchise on the map. While he'd quickly get surpassed by Zo, both by Zo's rise and his own early decline, this performance this year was special.

[Doctor MJ]

Sheesh, this franchise is depressing.

What's really sad to me is that no one in Bobcats/Hornets 2.0 era made my list. Here's hoping that changes soon.

[Odinn21]

The Hornets results;

Code: Select all

1. 5-2-1-0-0 / 69 points / 0.767 share / '00 Eddie Jones
2. 4-1-2-1-0 / 60 points / 0.667 share / '95 Alonzo Mourning
3. 0-4-0-2-1 / 35 points / 0.389 share / '10 Gerald Wallace
4. 0-1-3-2-1 / 29 points / 0.322 share / '97 Vlade Divac
5. 0-1-2-0-3 / 20 points / 0.222 share / '02 Baron Davis

6. 0-0-1-1-0 /  8 points / 0.089 share / '16 Kemba Walker
7. 0-0-0-2-1 /  7 points / 0.078 share / '97 Glen Rice
8. 0-0-0-1-1 /  4 points / 0.044 share / '98 Anthony Mason
9. 0-0-0-0-2 /  2 points / 0.022 share / '96 Larry Johnson

Results on Google Sheet

[70sFan]

Well, lack of Mason hurts especially given the weakness of this franchise. I probably overrate him a bit, but I don't see why Wallace got much more recognition.

[HeartBreakKid]

Has the Jazz one been done? That's the one I'm interested in.

Jazz thread is up

Well, lack of Mason hurts especially given the weakness of this franchise. I probably overrate him a bit, but I don't see why Wallace got much more recognition.

More evidence of his defensive impact. Scoring is probably the biggest factor.