Fake Trade Thread #6

[MPM]

Read on Twitter

no idea what this is about.

WTF? Is HornetsCentral a reputable source?

[CuseMayne]

No chance that's happening lol...

[MPM]

No chance that's happening lol...

Yeah, one of my worst-case type of trade scenarios - trade value (while tanking) for a declining oldie on a massive player option contract.

[fatlever]

It's either a troll account or it's someone run by a 13 year old who doesn't understand anything about the salary cap. The only way we could trade for Jimmy Butler would be
- melo, Plus another thirteen million in filler, aka grant
- Miles plus almost 20 million in filler, and that trade couldnt happen until mid January
- or pretty much everyone else, cody Martin, Josh Green, Nick Richards, vasa, and Grant

[fatlever]

Either way posting that kind of nonsense got him unfollowed and also removed from my Hornets Twitter list.

[JMAC3]

Yeah this is usually how these garbage accounts gain followers, they post fake news and then try to act like it never happened. Same account said we were trading for Lonzo like a 5 days ago haha with exact same wording.

[yosemiteben]

You guys are gonna feel real stupid when that 3rd grader who is Tik Tok's new Woj scooped this.

[JustBuzzin]

Read on Twitter

no idea what this is about. lol. the salaries cant work w/out melo or miles... miles cant be traded til mid jan. so, at this

Smh

[HornetJail]

Read on Twitter

no idea what this is about.

WTF? Is HornetsCentral a reputable source?

the L is an "I" in the handle so definitely not lol

[GoBobs]

I feel like the signing of wong means a guard is 100% being traded. Maybe, I am wong though....

[fatlever]

I feel like the signing of wong means a guard is 100% being traded. Maybe, I am wong though....

My take away from that was that they're going to take their time with both mann and lamelo. Or mann's back injury is a little more concerning than they're letting on

But also maybe a motivation warning shot for a Nick Smith junior to get it together or spend the rest of the season in Greensboro. In his defense Nsj did play a little better last night.

[amcoolio]

I think its fairly obvious we are waving the white flagg and tanking. Don't expect any trades for win now players. Sorry to the posters on here who thought we'd try to win this season. Maybe you'll finally get your wish next year

Edit: Yes the team is playing hard but the team isn't/wasn't putting serious effort to win with the players around Ball and Miller. I think GM and coach decided to go into the season willing to tank but were going to give it a shot the first 20 games and see if Mark was going to play, and when they saw he wasn't + all the other injuries they are using this as a development/tank year.

I will be livid and probably give up watching the NBA if the team doesn't start winning next year though. Its been 20 years and only 1 season did the bugs even have a chance at winning a playoff series. Thats a large chunk of life

[JMAC3]

I think its fairly obvious we are waving the white flagg and tanking. Don't expect any trades for win now players. Sorry to the posters on here who thought we'd try to win this season. Maybe you'll finally get your wish next year

I disagree, I think the front office is likely looking to add talent to this team in more ways than just the draft. Especially when Salaun was a guy that we are investing in long term. We traded away starting players Terry Rozier and PJ Washington and replaced them with lower performing players in Mann/Grant along with picks. Expecting the team to improve when you remove talent is probably not the way you get better.

If you are going to just wait until the team is good before adding talent then you may never improve. What happens if the team isn't better next year, do you delay adding talent again? We added those future picks with idea that we would flip them for different talent.

It would be different if we didn't own our own picks, because then you are risking your long-term ability to add talent to improve now. We really have two extra picks that are basically burning a hole in our pocket, trading those for a win now guy isn't all that risky.

[JMAC3]

I feel like the signing of wong means a guard is 100% being traded. Maybe, I am wong though....

My take away from that was that they're going to take their time with both mann and lamelo. Or mann's back injury is a little more concerning than they're letting on

But also maybe a motivation warning shot for a Nick Smith junior to get it together or spend the rest of the season in Greensboro. In his defense Nsj did play a little better last night.

I mean all they did was waive Rhoden who never played. I just look at them shuffling the bottom of the roster to try to find the next Moussa, rather than be content. Wong might be terrible, but he can't contribute less than what Jared Rhoden was doing so might as well take the free flyer.

It would also be different if they waived someone like Seth or Taj, who are valuable assets to the team whether they play or not.

[amcoolio]

I think its fairly obvious we are waving the white flagg and tanking. Don't expect any trades for win now players. Sorry to the posters on here who thought we'd try to win this season. Maybe you'll finally get your wish next year

I disagree, I think the front office is likely looking to add talent to this team in more ways than just the draft. Especially when Salaun was a guy that we are investing in long term. We traded away starting players Terry Rozier and PJ Washington and replaced them with lower performing players in Mann/Grant along with picks. Expecting the team to improve when you remove talent is probably not the way you get better.

If you are going to just wait until the team is good before adding talent then you may never improve. What happens if the team isn't better next year, do you delay adding talent again? We added those future picks with idea that we would flip them for different talent.

It would be different if we didn't own our own picks, because then you are risking your long-term ability to add talent to improve now. We really have two extra picks that are basically burning a hole in our pocket, trading those for a win now guy isn't all that risky.

Yeah, still think they are tanking. They weren't serious about the team's front court situation going into the year.

It is risky trading for a win now guy during this season because the season is already lost and the draft is very good. Those picks and some young players will be traded this offseason if they get a top 2 pick. I can't fathom them adding a franchise player in the draft and then just going along status quo hoping to become the Thunder

[JMAC3]

I think its fairly obvious we are waving the white flagg and tanking. Don't expect any trades for win now players. Sorry to the posters on here who thought we'd try to win this season. Maybe you'll finally get your wish next year

I disagree, I think the front office is likely looking to add talent to this team in more ways than just the draft. Especially when Salaun was a guy that we are investing in long term. We traded away starting players Terry Rozier and PJ Washington and replaced them with lower performing players in Mann/Grant along with picks. Expecting the team to improve when you remove talent is probably not the way you get better.

If you are going to just wait until the team is good before adding talent then you may never improve. What happens if the team isn't better next year, do you delay adding talent again? We added those future picks with idea that we would flip them for different talent.

It would be different if we didn't own our own picks, because then you are risking your long-term ability to add talent to improve now. We really have two extra picks that are basically burning a hole in our pocket, trading those for a win now guy isn't all that risky.

Yeah, still think they are tanking. They weren't serious about the team's front court situation going into the year.

It is risky trading for a win now guy during this season because the season is already lost and the draft is very good. Those picks and some young players will be traded this offseason if they get a top 2 pick. I can't fathom them adding a franchise player in the draft and then just going along status quo hoping to become the Thunder

It depends on which type of player. We just saw the Blazers trade for Deni Avdija and they are one of the worst teams in the West, why? Because he is under contract long term and it was never about them winning this year. Also you have to forecast what our cap situation is this summer, we are not projected to be players in FA so if a trade is the route then moving guys before their contracts expire makes a lot of sense.

Also, we traded for Josh Green this summer who was under contract long term. Adding him was not us thinking we were contenders, we just saw it as it made us better for the right price.

[JMAC3]

Idk what thread this best belongs in, but I also think tanking is kind of dead in the NBA. Why? Because if you look typically you have to have a top 3 pick in order to land a superstar talent in the draft minimum. A lot of times even picking 3rd you see a huge drop off in talent. With the new lottery odds it just doesn't make sense to purposefully lose games unless you are just completely void of young talent.

Like I get the Nets, Wizards or even the Jazz tanking because they really have no foundational young star players. For teams like the Hornets, who already have a great young combo in Miller/Melo it just isn't worth purposefully losing games to end up picking more than likely somewhere 4-8.

Just look at the last 6 drafts. Here are the guys that were drafted in those slots by year
2024- Castle, Holland, Salaun, Clingan, Dillingham
2023- Amen, Ausar, Black, Coulibaly, Walker
2022- Keegan, Ivey, Mathurin, Sharpe, Daniels
2021- Barnes, Suggs, Giddey, Kuminga, Franz
2020- PWill, Okoro, Onyeka, Killian, Obi
2019- Hunter, Garland, Culver, Coby, Jaxson

What is there 3 allstar talents out of 30 picks? Garland, Franz and Barnes.

It is not going to be much different this year more than likely. Flagg, Bailey, Harper look like a clear top 3 and then pickings gets real slim. And before we start arguing about this guy or that guy, just look at recent history, there is like a 10% chance you are drafting an allstar in that range.

[JMAC3]

Idk what thread this best belongs in, but I also think tanking is kind of dead in the NBA. Why? Because if you look typically you have to have a top 3 pick in order to land a superstar talent in the draft minimum. A lot of times even picking 3rd you see a huge drop off in talent. With the new lottery odds it just doesn't make sense to purposefully lose games unless you are just completely void of young talent.

Like I get the Nets, Wizards or even the Jazz tanking because they really have no foundational young star players. For teams like the Hornets, who already have a great young combo in Miller/Melo it just isn't worth purposefully losing games to end up picking more than likely somewhere 4-8.

Just look at the last 6 drafts. Here are the guys that were drafted in those slots by year
2024- Castle, Holland, Salaun, Clingan, Dillingham
2023- Amen, Ausar, Black, Coulibaly, Walker
2022- Keegan, Ivey, Mathurin, Sharpe, Daniels
2021- Barnes, Suggs, Giddey, Kuminga, Franz
2020- PWill, Okoro, Onyeka, Killian, Obi
2019- Hunter, Garland, Culver, Coby, Jaxson

What is there 3 allstar talents out of 30 picks? Garland, Franz and Barnes.

It is not going to be much different this year more than likely. Flagg, Bailey, Harper look like a clear top 3 and then pickings gets real slim. And before we start arguing about this guy or that guy, just look at recent history, there is like a 10% chance you are drafting an allstar in that range.

This isn't me saying we can't pick up a useful player either because you most certainly can add talent but in terms of adding a franchise altering guy you really need to get lucky and pick top 3. For instance, Jaden Ivey, Mathurin, Onyeka etc are all decent players but none of them are turning us into a contender with this current roster, chances are they don't even swing us into a playoff team.

Again going back and looking at the differences. Here are the 18 players drafted top 3 those same 6 drafts. Zion, Ja, Barrett, Ant Man, Wiseman, LaMelo, Cade, Jalen Green, Mobley, Paolo, Chet, Jabari, Wemby, Miller, Scoot, Risacher, Sarr, Sheppard.

Even with this draft too soon to tell there are probably 10 guys out of the 18 that are allstar, franchise type young players. Compared to 3/30 in the previous group.

If we had no Miller, no LaMelo. I would say tank until we land a top 3 pick but we aren't the Nets. We aren't the Jazz. We have a good foundation, what we need is another top 50-60 player at least.

[Rich4114]

I think they are stealth tanking. Basically not going out of their way to add serious talent and being ultra conservative with injuries. They all but said this over the summer too, some of us just didn't want to accept it because 3 years of losing really blows. I personally think the odds of us landing a top 3 pick that will need 2-3 seasons minimum to develop into a reliable star anyway are worth less than getting our young core some high stakes games experience. But if they wanted to do that, then they would've had a better depth chart beyond the starters and they wouldn't have simply banked on Mark Williams being both healthy and a net positive contributor. I think the thing to remember though is this is the new owners first year, so they don't feel it the same way us fans who have been following the team for decades feel it. Do I want sustained success? 100% Do we need another top 3 pick to accomplish that? I mean it's one way of getting there but if we land Flagg/Bailey/Harper we'll still be bad next season without a better roster around the young guys. 1-4 year players don't win in the NBA. They just don't. If they do, it's extremely rare.

I would 100% be thinking about adding a good player with some of our draft capital at this point. We don't need Cody Martin AND Josh Green on the roster for example. Saloon should be learning in the G League not NBA games at 19 years old. We don't need all of these combo guards on the roster either. Nick Richards is not going to lead to wins. We need some impactful veterans with high basketball IQ to compliment LaMelo and Miller whether it's this season or next.

[JMAC3]

I think they are stealth tanking. Basically not going out of their way to add serious talent and being ultra conservative with injuries. They all but said this over the summer too, some of us just didn't want to accept it because 3 years of losing really blows. I personally think the odds of us landing a top 3 pick that will need 2-3 seasons minimum to develop into a reliable star anyway are worth less than getting our young core some high stakes games experience. But if they wanted to do that, then they would've had a better depth chart beyond the starters and they wouldn't have simply banked on Mark Williams being both healthy and a net positive contributor. I think the thing to remember though is this is the new owners first year, so they don't feel it the same way us fans who have been following the team for decades feel it. Do I want sustained success? 100% Do we need another top 3 pick to accomplish that? I mean it's one way of getting there but if we land Flagg/Bailey/Harper we'll still be bad next season without a better roster around the young guys. 1-4 year players don't win in the NBA. They just don't. If they do, it's extremely rare.

I would 100% be thinking about adding a good player with some of our draft capital at this point. We don't need Cody Martin AND Josh Green on the roster for example. Saloon should be learning in the G League not NBA games at 19 years old. We don't need all of these combo guards on the roster either. Nick Richards is not going to lead to wins. We need some impactful veterans with high basketball IQ to compliment LaMelo and Miller whether it's this season or next.

Nick Richards is the13th best Off EPM center this year.
Overall he is 33rd in EPM (that includes guys like DFS, Klove, Draymond, Mobley listed above him who are not really centers).

Here are the overall EPM ranks for the Centers that people have been saying we should have signed or traded for.
Poeltl 29th
Edey 31st
Ayton 46th
JVal 48th
Duren 50th
Claxton 53rd
Clingan 58th

Moussa 45th

Nick Richards is Daniel Gafford but our fan base treats him like he is Alex Len.

Literally Moussa has been better than Duren, Claxton and Clingan and half of you would trade 2 firsts for those guys because you recognize the name and don't actually have to watch them play basketball every night.