Game, Stop! - The Hornets Ownership Thread

[KembaWalker]

It takes a lot more than bad draft luck at #1 to have our outcomes. The Pacers of course exist and put this franchise to shame, both managing to trade for a young budding star, trade for an established all star in Siakam, and sign a serious NBA coach in Carlisle with serious assistants like Lloyd Pierce and Jim Boylen who have real experience, while we trot out Lee and a bunch of literal nobodies.

This is on top of them having no real reliance of the draft AND having cycled through 2-3 fully separate competitive cores with varying degrees of success during the time period this franchise has existed and had zero

[MasterIchiro]

It takes a lot more than bad draft luck at #1 to have our outcomes. The Pacers of course exist and put this franchise to shame, both managing to trade for a young budding star, trade for an established all star in Siakam, and sign a serious NBA coach in Carlisle with serious assistants like Lloyd Pierce and Jim Boylen who have real experience, while we trot out Lee and a bunch of literal nobodies.

This is on top of them having no real reliance of the draft AND having cycled through 2-3 fully separate competitive cores with varying degrees of success during the time period this franchise has existed and had zero

I focused on Lee's assistants in the background in the first half. Taj Gibson probably sees it too. He's older than the coach.

They looked frantic. Did not look at all in command of this situation. Looked afraid of losing their jobs.

So yeah, the owners want to save money on coaching, same situation with Kenny Atkinson when MJ was on his way out already in talks with them on the transition budget.

[Bassman]

It takes a lot more than bad draft luck at #1 to have our outcomes. The Pacers of course exist and put this franchise to shame, both managing to trade for a young budding star, trade for an established all star in Siakam, and sign a serious NBA coach in Carlisle with serious assistants like Lloyd Pierce and Jim Boylen who have real experience, while we trot out Lee and a bunch of literal nobodies.

This is on top of them having no real reliance of the draft AND having cycled through 2-3 fully separate competitive cores with varying degrees of success during the time period this franchise has existed and had zero

I focused on Lee's assistants in the background in the first half. Taj Gibson probably sees it too. He's older than the coach.

They looked frantic. Did not look at all in command of this situation. Looked afraid of losing their jobs.

So yeah, the owners want to save money on coaching, same situation with Kenny Atkinson when MJ was on his way out already in talks with them on the transition budget.

No matter how much success you had as an assistant, the first head coaching gig isn’t guaranteed anything. Lee’s idea of changing the culture and establishing his footprint is admirable but will only have a chance to work when he breaks some eggs. Lee is also doing what I feared, which is implementing a system because of the “system” he knew in Boston. If it doesn’t fit the players and talent level, you adapt.

Loved MasterIchiro’s take on the second half energy following Taj’s spanking of players at the half. Hopefully it starts something better for future games. Hopefully Coach Lee isn’t already becoming a broken record for these guys. At practices Lee seems to be very mouthy with his constant jabber. Sometimes less is more. Sometimes actions speak louder than words.

[MasterIchiro]

It takes a lot more than bad draft luck at #1 to have our outcomes. The Pacers of course exist and put this franchise to shame, both managing to trade for a young budding star, trade for an established all star in Siakam, and sign a serious NBA coach in Carlisle with serious assistants like Lloyd Pierce and Jim Boylen who have real experience, while we trot out Lee and a bunch of literal nobodies.

This is on top of them having no real reliance of the draft AND having cycled through 2-3 fully separate competitive cores with varying degrees of success during the time period this franchise has existed and had zero

I focused on Lee's assistants in the background in the first half. Taj Gibson probably sees it too. He's older than the coach.

They looked frantic. Did not look at all in command of this situation. Looked afraid of losing their jobs.

So yeah, the owners want to save money on coaching, same situation with Kenny Atkinson when MJ was on his way out already in talks with them on the transition budget.

No matter how much success you had as an assistant, the first head coaching gig isn’t guaranteed anything. Lee’s idea of changing the culture and establishing his footprint is admirable but will only have a chance to work when he breaks some eggs. Lee is also doing what I feared, which is implementing a system because of the “system” he knew in Boston. If it doesn’t fit the players and talent level, you adapt.

Loved MasterIchiro’s take on the second half energy following Taj’s spanking of players at the half. Hopefully it starts something better for future games. Hopefully Coach Lee isn’t already becoming a broken record for these guys. At practices Lee seems to be very mouthy with his constant jabber. Sometimes less is more. Sometimes actions speak louder than words.

Initially, I wanted to wait and see how the offense looked with Mark back, and with a big LaMelo could use to create space.

But the offense still looks predictable where unpredictability was something JB preached in press conferences, and something we watched with our own eyes when the Hornets were darlings of League Pass for their relentless attacks.

The Lee offense is predictable and you draft some huge 6' 10" project to just roam around the perimeter so far out that he has to hoist a bomb - he's definitely not breaking the defense out there with his dribble penetration. Then you take touches in the paint away when you broadcast you want Miller taking fewer midrange. When LaMelo and Mann and Miles were out, defenses frustrated Miller and just took away everything.

We are not developing these players in a system that works.

Scary to think JB needed 4 years to build an offense that tallied 43 wins with no rim protector for the defense.

The new owners heard the booes last night. They know about the players meeting at halftime if we the fans know.

Start thinking about maybe capping Lee at 2 years and instruct JP to begin searching silently for a pricey coach after this first season. You also have to hope your target doesn't lock in somewhere. And you can't go with another experimental hire given the core talent and what JB did with less.

[fatlever]

random thought...

One thing that gives me a little bit of hope about this new ownership and our new front office is the complete 180 of the Greensboro swarm this season. Of course it could just be a fluke, but the swarm never had a single winning season in the entirety of the Jordan regime. In fact they had the all time worst winning percentage in the history of the G league. And our summer league teams were completely unwatchable for pretty much 80 per cent of every summer league, And it was obvious constructing those rosters was a complete afterthought.

The new ownership clearly put a lot more effort and resources into the G League and Summer League. Our summer league team last year was probably the best one we've had that I can remember. And the swarm, including both regular season and tip off tournament, are 30-18. No matter which players we've been shuffling back and forth the team keeps on playing well. The players we have brought in from the swarm don't look completely overwhelmed.

They are running the same system in Greensboro that we are running here. Same system we ran in Summer League essentially. They have consistently identified a particular type of player they're going after.

The other thing that gives me hope that the front office isnt braindead is the fact that Peterson has been aggressively shuffling fringe level guys in and out of Greensboro and in and out of our roster on 10 day contracts. This is something that used to drive me crazy with both previous general managers. We would be in the middle of a terrible season, it would be after the All Star break so it's tanking time, and instead of rotating young hungry players for a tryout just to get a look at them in your system to see if maybe you find a diamond in the rough, we would bring in these old random washed up has-beens. It was completely nonsensical.

There is at least a plan,. Which is more than we ever had before. Now of course we still need lottery luck, Talent, and to get through the curse with injuries.. But if you squint really hard you can see how the ownership/front office change is already paying dividends in Greensboro and hopefully we will see that pay off here in Charlotte soon.

[SWedd523]

they're so dedicated to building out a successful g league team that they've filled the NBA team roster with g league level players

[HornetJail]

The other thing that gives me hope that the front office isnt braindead is the fact that Peterson has been aggressively shuffling fringe level guys in and out of Greensboro and in and out of our roster on 10 day contracts. This is something that used to drive me crazy with both previous general managers. We would be in the middle of a terrible season, it would be after the All Star break so it's tanking time, and instead of rotating young hungry players for a tryout just to get a look at them in your system to see if maybe you find a diamond in the rough, we would bring in these old random washed up has-beens. It was completely nonsensical.

There is at least a plan,. Which is more than we ever had before. Now of course we still need lottery luck, Talent, and to get through the curse with injuries.. But if you squint really hard you can see how the ownership/front office change is already paying dividends in Greensboro and hopefully we will see that pay off here in Charlotte soon.

I have been clamoring for the revolving door of fringe guys for years and am glad to see it

However, Jeff Peterson seems to be able to spot exactly one type of player: the scrappy hustle guy who is completely worthless offensively. It's honestly been even worse than Kupchak's obsession with combo guards, and has had a much more severe effect on our key players' offense.

[fatlever]

The other thing that gives me hope that the front office isnt braindead is the fact that Peterson has been aggressively shuffling fringe level guys in and out of Greensboro and in and out of our roster on 10 day contracts. This is something that used to drive me crazy with both previous general managers. We would be in the middle of a terrible season, it would be after the All Star break so it's tanking time, and instead of rotating young hungry players for a tryout just to get a look at them in your system to see if maybe you find a diamond in the rough, we would bring in these old random washed up has-beens. It was completely nonsensical.

There is at least a plan,. Which is more than we ever had before. Now of course we still need lottery luck, Talent, and to get through the curse with injuries.. But if you squint really hard you can see how the ownership/front office change is already paying dividends in Greensboro and hopefully we will see that pay off here in Charlotte soon.

I have been clamoring for the revolving door of fringe guys for years and am glad to see it

However, Jeff Peterson seems to be able to spot exactly one type of player: the scrappy hustle guy who is completely worthless offensively. It's honestly been even worse than Kupchak's obsession with combo guards, and has had a much more severe effect on our key players' offense.

No doubt it has been pretty much the same type of player. And maybe that's because those energy hustle guys that can't shoot are in abundance in the G League. But teams like the Heat and the cavs lately always seem to be able to pluck these random three point snipers out of nowhere they just show up at the end of their roster and then rain threes on us. That's been happening for a decade. Or maybe try out a couple of those centers that can stretch the floor like we had in the summer league. All of it is better than bringing Ish Smith in for another stint.

[fatlever]

That being said, I am fine with them kind of using this year to try to build that culture that this is going to be a team that plays hard hustles has a lot of energy etc. Almost every player they've brought in since they took over have had that mindset. And perhaps that culture change was desperately needed here after what the last front office left us. And it's probably going to take more than a year to kind of inject that culture shift. But yeah at some point you have to shift away from the energy hustle defensive guys and get some dudes that can play on both ends or also balance it out with some talented shooters.

[SWedd523]

That being said, I am fine with them kind of using this year to try to build that culture that this is going to be a team that plays hard hustles has a lot of energy etc. Almost every player they've brought in since they took over have had that mindset. And perhaps that culture change was desperately needed here after what the last front office left us. And it's probably going to take more than a year to kind of inject that culture shift. But yeah at some point you have to shift away from the energy hustle defensive guys and get some dudes that can play on both ends or also balance it out with some talented shooters.

How much culture change have you seen?

They've looked pretty rotten since about the first week or so