Offseason 2025 Thread

[JustBuzzin]

The interesting thing, to me, is they didn't mention Miles.

Also basically confirmed what we've been saying about the draft. They think Melo and Brandon are the teams core pieces, this offseason was/is about finding guys who can play with them and increasing the depth in case of injury.

I'm confused when they say open up the floor for Melo/Miller. Those guys don't really drive as is. Miller was primarily a 3pt shooter last season. Hopefully this means they plan to get Miller back in the mid range and get him attacking the basket more.

[yosemiteben]

The interesting thing, to me, is they didn't mention Miles.

Also basically confirmed what we've been saying about the draft. They think Melo and Brandon are the teams core pieces, this offseason was/is about finding guys who can play with them and increasing the depth in case of injury.

I'm confused when they say open up the floor for Melo/Miller. Those guys don't really drive as is.

I don't think the stats bare that out.

If you combine restricted area and paint (non-RA) shots, Melo averaged 8.3 attempts per game and Brandon averaged 5.7. Melo was third on the team, behind only Mark and Miles with only one less FGA per game, and Brandon was fifth, behind only those guys and Tre Mann.

Melo was actually like top 20 in the league among guards in non-RA paint shots, tied with Kyrie Irving and barely behind guys like Booker, Doncic, Trae Young, and Jaylen Brown (randomly the NBA stat site considers Doncic and Brown to be guards). Add RA and non-RA paint shots together and Melo has more than most of those guys.

[JustBuzzin]

The interesting thing, to me, is they didn't mention Miles.

Also basically confirmed what we've been saying about the draft. They think Melo and Brandon are the teams core pieces, this offseason was/is about finding guys who can play with them and increasing the depth in case of injury.

I'm confused when they say open up the floor for Melo/Miller. Those guys don't really drive as is.

I don't think the stats bare that out.

If you combine restricted area and paint (non-RA) shots, Melo averaged 8.3 attempts per game and Brandon averaged 5.7. Melo was third on the team, behind only Mark and Miles with only one less FGA per game, and Brandon was fifth, behind only those guys and Tre Mann.

Melo was actually like top 20 in the league among guards in non-RA paint shots, tied with Kyrie Irving and barely behind guys like Booker, Doncic, Trae Young, and Jaylen Brown (randomly the NBA stat site considers Doncic and Brown to be guards). Add RA and non-RA paint shots together and Melo has more than most of those guys.

Interesting

Hopefully Miller can start driving more. I felt like Lee didn't really know how to use him in his limited time last season. I swear it seemed like all he did was catch n shoot 3's. Would love to see more mid range and creating off the dribble. His sophomore season didn't really impress me tbh.

[MasterIchiro]

I'm getting the sense all these GM's hoarding centers and charging gross premiums wouldn't affect the Hornets at all if Jeff had just simply selected Donovan Clingan.

[MasterIchiro]

I'm getting the sense all these GM's hoarding centers and charging gross premiums wouldn't affect the Hornets at all if Jeff had just simply selected Donovan Clingan.

We could just tell them all to eat ****. Man, what I would give for that right now. But instead, these **** are serving up a plate of Plumlee on a vet min, and Grant coming off ACL not until January as part of the solution.

They literally cited both players as part of their plan to address the gaping hole. The audacity astounds me. They also cited Kalkbrenner after watching him struggle to rebound against players 1 foot shorter than him.

I couldn't be more pissed off about how they've handled the position. And I'm still fuming about the Salaün pick. He's a **** clown.

[Rich4114]

I'm getting the sense all these GM's hoarding centers and charging gross premiums wouldn't affect the Hornets at all if Jeff had just simply selected Donovan Clingan.

It will be hard for me to ever look passed taking Salaun over Clingan when there couldn't be a more obvious, BPA easy pick at that moment in time. I thought FOR SURE it would be Clingan. We would be setup so much better right now.

[MasterIchiro]

I'm getting the sense all these GM's hoarding centers and charging gross premiums wouldn't affect the Hornets at all if Jeff had just simply selected Donovan Clingan.

It will be hard for me to ever look passed taking Salaun over Clingan when there couldn't be a more obvious, BPA easy pick at that moment in time. I thought FOR SURE it would be Clingan. We would be setup so much better right now.

It was a destructive pick man, total misread on the market for centers. And Clingan is such a great kid. Still hurting us.

[vexco]

I just dont see why yall are infatuated with clingan. Hes a slow, hacking machine. Good on the boards tho.

[Bassman]

ESPN puts out an article on how close the 14 teams who missed the playoffs in 2025 are to contending. The top 2 were easy (Spurs and Mavs) since they “lucked” their way to top picks (odds are odds says Skeletor). They put the Hornets 7th. Here is their somewhat sloppy synopsis that does characterize the dilemma they will be in if things don’t work soon:

Players under 25: 12
Tradeable first-round picks: 8
Players on rookie-scale contracts: 7

The strategy: The Hornets, coming off their first full season with the new regime of executive vice president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson and head coach Charles Lee, feel stuck between timelines.

Charlotte has a group of players it drafted the past three years under the new ownership group -- Brandon Miller, Tidjane Salaun and Kon Knueppel -- and the remnants of the past regime's drafts led by LaMelo Ball (entering his sixth NBA season) and Miles Bridges. Had the Hornets landed Flagg, perhaps we would be talking about a team ready to hit the gas pedal. Instead, they traded Mark Williams at the draft and could potentially start second-round selection Ryan Kalkbrenner at center, signaling another season headed for a high draft pick.

Is it working? The Hornets have done things right over the past few years, but landing a franchise player also requires some luck. So far, Charlotte hasn't had it. Based on how this offseason plays out, the Hornets will be taking another swing at it next summer, too.

Estimated return to relevance: Charlotte has the potential to jump-start its rebuild in 2026-27 if it lands a top selection. Or, the Hornets could go the complete opposite way if a blockbuster haul materializes for Ball. That would push back this group's timeline even further, but with more cracks at landing a franchise cornerstone in the draft.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45798048/2025-nba-rebuild-rankings-14-teams-mavericks-spurs-blazers-suns

[HornetJail]

gotta agree with most of that, we very easily could've made a run at the playoffs this summer with like one acquisition, but the FO just chose to set the rebuild back multiple years with that Mark trade. Not a fan.

But .... it is kind of odd to pretend the Hornets are between timelines when the headliner of the "first" timeline is just one year older than the headliner of the younger timeline.
Melo is 23 going on 24
Miller is 22, 23 soon after the start of the season
Kon is 20
are really the only players we REALLY need to care about long term.

the elder statesmen of our rotation are Sexton (26) and Miles (27) and even if they were core level pieces, I wouldn't consider them out of our timeline.

Save the "two timelines" talk for the Warriors of a couple years ago when they were trying to fit their core of Steph/Klay/Draymond with rookies 12-15 years younger than them.

[Bassman]

I think by timelines they confuse that term with decision time on LaMelo. If he doesn’t fully become our star and stay healthy, dealing him away sets the timeline back some years.

[Chapelchilla]

I am not sure that trading Mark was even a negative. He really was not making a positive 2 way impact when he played. Sorta like Dwight's year but with even less defense.
I do wish we had brought in the young center from Brooklyn or someone like that though to tide us over. I still think a good center is coming, maybe even later this year but only the FO knows that timeline.

[JDR720]

The Mark trade being good or bad totally depends on if he's ever healthy and can figure out how to defend again or not.

Rookie year Mark was a much more useful/positive impact player than last season Mark was.

[KembaWalker]

Melos more or less a rehab project value-wise at this point imo, dont think there is any reasonable market for him or Bridges so you're kind of stuck with playing them and hoping for some unlikely outcomes that make them moveable.

[fatlever]

discussions of hornets 24-25 season and 25-26 season begins and ends with injuries. it doesnt get discussed enough whenever national media tries to talk about hornets future or prev season.
last year - 5 top rotation guys, plus best two players dealt with serious injuries
this year - 4 top rotation guys returning from serious injuries - melo, miller, mann, grant. season depends on their health and how quickly each can ramp up to their prev level of play. until we know that answer, everything else is noise.

[HornetJail]

we are better equipped to handle a Melo injury this year. Sexton and Mann can pretend to be PGs a hell of a lot better than Micic or Damion Baugh

[vexco]

gotta agree with most of that, we very easily could've made a run at the playoffs this summer with like one acquisition, but the FO just chose to set the rebuild back multiple years with that Mark trade. Not a fan.

But .... it is kind of odd to pretend the Hornets are between timelines when the headliner of the "first" timeline is just one year older than the headliner of the younger timeline.
Melo is 23 going on 24
Miller is 22, 23 soon after the start of the season
Kon is 20
are really the only players we REALLY need to care about long term.

the elder statesmen of our rotation are Sexton (26) and Miles (27) and even if they were core level pieces, I wouldn't consider them out of our timeline.

Save the "two timelines" talk for the Warriors of a couple years ago when they were trying to fit their core of Steph/Klay/Draymond with rookies 12-15 years younger than them.

I just don't see how trading Mark set anything back, honestly. Are people just looking at the stats and age and thinking he was something special?

[HornetJail]

gotta agree with most of that, we very easily could've made a run at the playoffs this summer with like one acquisition, but the FO just chose to set the rebuild back multiple years with that Mark trade. Not a fan.

But .... it is kind of odd to pretend the Hornets are between timelines when the headliner of the "first" timeline is just one year older than the headliner of the younger timeline.
Melo is 23 going on 24
Miller is 22, 23 soon after the start of the season
Kon is 20
are really the only players we REALLY need to care about long term.

the elder statesmen of our rotation are Sexton (26) and Miles (27) and even if they were core level pieces, I wouldn't consider them out of our timeline.

Save the "two timelines" talk for the Warriors of a couple years ago when they were trying to fit their core of Steph/Klay/Draymond with rookies 12-15 years younger than them.

I just don't see how trading Mark set anything back, honestly. Are people just looking at the stats and age and thinking he was something special?

are people pretending that 0 games of quality center play is somehow better than 40-50?

[MPM]

are people pretending that 0 games of quality center play is somehow better than 40-50?

Serious question - are you saying 0 relative to 40-50 last season (or 40-50 from player(s) X we failed to trade for/sign this offseason)? If last season, would love to know where those quality center minutes came from - not from Mark or Nurkic - almost all of the positive impact minutes came from Moussa.

[fatlever]

hornets had a def rating of 118 with mark on the floor, and an overall net rating of -12
he was bad in almost all 40-50 games. and for all his great empty stats on offense, he had a lower off rating than moose 106.9 to 106.3, while moose was much better defensively 110.

i get being worried about our center position, but mark wasnt the answer.

what about rebounding???? nope

on/off
hornets with moose grabbed 52.9% of rebounds, best of all rotation players
mark was 48.9, the worst of all rotaion player

opponents fg%? nope

on/off
moose - 46.6
mark - 48.2 (again worst on team among rotation players)

you have to dig deeeeeeep to find a single meaningful stat where the team played better with mark on the floor vs literally any other big on the roster last year.

he was legitimately abysmal. stop looking at points/rebound (almost all of which were 2nd half garbage stats). go look at his 1st quarter stats if you dont believe me. hornets were correct to balk at paying him 100 mil.