2025 General Draft Discussion 2

[fatlever]

see old thread here
viewtopic.php?f=53&t=2417404

[fatlever]

https://www.noceilingsnba.com/p/so-you-think-you-can-be-an-nba-role-97f

the path to role player wings

[fatlever]

Watch on YouTube

;t=3861s
solid listen, new pod
little hornets talk
they would take tre at 4 over ace and vj - if all were there.

[fatlever]

Watch on YouTube

;t=484s

Second podcast I've listened to today that had tre as number three on their big board. I'm starting to get swayed. There's something to be said about a dude to can just flat out shot. How long have we been desperate for shooters on this roster? The bobcats never had it. We haven't really had it recently. Maybe one of those borrego years?

[luciano-davidwesley]

Watching a bit more tape, I have VJ clear tier above Ace. Ace worries the **** out of me, he lacks feel outside of comfort in his pull up/fade away mid range jumpers.

VJ plays a lot smarter than Ace and is a better athlete. Ace's height was also heavily exaggerated pre combine.

I'll be very surprised if the Sixers pick Ace.

[JustBuzzin]

Watching a bit more tape, I have VJ clear tier above Ace. Ace worries the **** out of me, he lacks feel outside of comfort in his pull up/fade away mid range jumpers.

VJ plays a lot smarter than Ace and is a better athlete. Ace's height was also heavily exaggerated pre combine.

I'll be very surprised if the Sixers pick Ace.

We must be watching different tape. Ace has more to offer with his size imo.

Neither are great ball handlers, but Ace offense is clearly above VJ. I give VJ the edge on defense, but Ace is not a bad defender by any stretch. I'm taking the wing over the smaller guard every time.

[GoBobs]

I feel like we are going to do something stupid.

[SWedd523]

I feel like we are going to do something stupid.

Going out on a limb with that prognostication

[JustBuzzin]

I feel like we are going to do something stupid.

I wouldn't doubt it.

[amcoolio]

I can't get excited because we will pass up on the guy we needed and take the guy that barely misses the all-rookie 2nd team. It's the Charlotte way

Like we had the 6th pick this last draft and a bad team with plenty of minutes and opportunity available and yet we couldn't even select one of the top 10 rookies. We are just a "have not" franchise.

I think VJ goes 3rd and becomes the star we needed, and Charlotte is "just a pick away, again" as we argue over whether the front office is doing the right thing on route to a 24-58 record and get hyped for the 2026 draft.

I would love this team to prove me wrong. We just really, really needed Flagg or Harper. And those two teams that got them absolutely didn't need to be rewarded like that

[fatlever]

Whoever we pick will end up be worse then whoever gets selected at three and five. You can take that to the bank.

Sent from my SM-G973U using RealGM mobile app

[Hornet Mania]

At this point I'm good with VJ, Tre or (to a lesser extent) the mystery box that is Ace.

As long as it's one of those trio I think we took a decent swing in the correct draft range for the prospect we chose and we'll see how the chips fall from there. So feeling very chill so far about that whole thing.

If Silver steps up to the podium and says Kon or Malauch though it may be the straw that breaks me.

[luciano-davidwesley]

Watching a bit more tape, I have VJ clear tier above Ace. Ace worries the **** out of me, he lacks feel outside of comfort in his pull up/fade away mid range jumpers.

VJ plays a lot smarter than Ace and is a better athlete. Ace's height was also heavily exaggerated pre combine.

I'll be very surprised if the Sixers pick Ace.

We must be watching different tape. Ace has more to offer with his size imo.

Neither are great ball handlers, but Ace offense is clearly above VJ. I give VJ the edge on defense, but Ace is not a bad defender by any stretch. I'm taking the wing over the smaller guard every time.

Ace primarily takes contested fade away or pull up jumpers, and when he cuts or comes off screens he favours going right almost exclusively. With no handle and these tendencies he's going to be easy to gameplan against longer NBA players.

Also pretty sure he went ice cold to end the year, I think he shot 19% from 3 for quite a sample of games and shot under 70% FT for the year which is another small concern.

VJ is no Harper by any means but still gets to the rack a lot more comfortably than Ace and plays so much harder and smarter than Ace.

I feel like Ace got hype all year on the premise that he's a 6'10 KD lite that will get his shot off whenever regardless, but now the lies about his height have been laid bare, that puts that assumption clearly into question. I mean his camp had to know he was nowhere near 6'10 but hid it until the combine.

Not saying I'd be devastated if we took him at 4 if VJ is gone. Just feel VJ is clearly the guy with far superior feel and basketball IQ.

Moot point because I dont think VJ is going to be on the board at 4 anyway.

[amcoolio]

Kon or Malauch would be picks for a team that is a player away from contending for a top 6 seed. We aren't that. That won't stop us through . I hate this franchise

[JDR720]

We're in the perfect spot of doom. Just outside the obvious picks, and with 3-4 potential picks who all have significant flaws.

What makes it worse is we have to nail this, or at least get someone good. After the Kai/Bouknight and maybe Salaun drafts, we can't whiff again.

Hornets draft trauma is real.

[HornetJail]

i feel pretty confident in our ability to pick the worst player between the regularly mock 3th-5th players in this draft. We just have to hope that
1) the worst of Ace/VJ/Johnson is still a damn good player
2) Jeff Peterson doesn't go bat **** insane again and uses this pick on another out of left field guy we never heard of until about 2 weeks before the draft


all sunshine and rainbows out in these streets

[vexco]

Watching a bit more tape, I have VJ clear tier above Ace. Ace worries the **** out of me, he lacks feel outside of comfort in his pull up/fade away mid range jumpers.

VJ plays a lot smarter than Ace and is a better athlete. Ace's height was also heavily exaggerated pre combine.

I'll be very surprised if the Sixers pick Ace.

We must be watching different tape. Ace has more to offer with his size imo.

Neither are great ball handlers, but Ace offense is clearly above VJ. I give VJ the edge on defense, but Ace is not a bad defender by any stretch. I'm taking the wing over the smaller guard every time.

Ace primarily takes contested fade away or pull up jumpers, and when he cuts or comes off screens he favours going right almost exclusively. With no handle and these tendencies he's going to be easy to gameplan against longer NBA players.

Also pretty sure he went ice cold to end the year, I think he shot 19% from 3 for quite a sample of games and shot under 70% FT for the year which is another small concern.

VJ is no Harper by any means but still gets to the rack a lot more comfortably than Ace and plays so much harder and smarter than Ace.

I feel like Ace got hype all year on the premise that he's a 6'10 KD lite that will get his shot off whenever regardless, but now the lies about his height have been laid bare, that puts that assumption clearly into question. I mean his camp had to know he was nowhere near 6'10 but hid it until the combine.

Not saying I'd be devastated if we took him at 4 if VJ is gone. Just feel VJ is clearly the guy with far superior feel and basketball IQ.

Moot point because I dont think VJ is going to be on the board at 4 anyway.

TBH if you feel like Ace takes bad shots then his FG% is impressive as hell. Ace's FT% is kinda misleading I think. He had like 6 or 7 games out of 30 where he shot under 70% from FT, 2 of those were just really bad(1 of 8 type ****).

I have no doubts about Ace as a 3 level scorer. The question is his supposed immaturity only. He has the 3rd highest ceiling in the draft for me, with clear separation from VJ but I'm happy with either.

[LurkCobain]

This is a draft discussion. The “we will always make the worst pick” guys need to go hibernate. One of the reasons the league thinks the team sucks is because a lot of our “fans” are extreme with their lack of confidence. You can’t change the past, but you can hope for the future. Jeez.

VJ, Ace or Tre would be fine picks.

[JustBuzzin]

I'm convinced a Miller/Ace wing duo is our best chance at future success.

I will always take the taller wing over the smaller guard.


If VJ had Dylan Harper skills then obviously you would go with him, but he doesn't. His lack of handle and playmaking has me concerned about his potential. It's only so much you can do as a 6'4 athletic guard with no handle.

Dude could be the next Shannon Brown or there is a very slim chance he could be the next Dwade. Given his lack of handle I would say he's much closer to being the next Shannon Brown.

[JDR720]

This is a draft discussion. The “we will always make the worst pick” guys need to go hibernate. One of the reasons the league thinks the team sucks is because a lot of our “fans” are extreme with their lack of confidence. You can’t change the past, but you can hope for the future. Jeez.

VJ, Ace or Tre would be fine picks.

To be fair, Hornets fans have become so accustomed to bad things happening that it's almost a foregone conclusion that bad things will happen no matter what. Like I mentioned, draft trauma.

The Mavs fans suffered for a few months... and now get Cooper Flagg. The Spurs fans suffered for, what, 3-4 seasons the past 30 years? And now they get Wemby and Harper and Castle just won ROY too. It's an outside chance they'll have 3 ROY's in a row.

Meanwhile we've suffered for basically the entire existence of this franchise. It'll take time, and good things happening that aren't fluky, for many of us to not default to doom.

We could be the Pacers, like I mentioned in the NBA thread. But I think most of us would be very content to be the Hawks. Not great, but at least competitive and entertaining. And that includes generally making decent draft selections, so hopefully this draft will be that.