Charlotte early offseason in review (HW/bondom34/dbrandon/MotorKeepsGoing)

[HartfordWhalers]

Charlotte Offseason in Review

Hartfordwhalers Review

Key Losses:
Jeremy Lin
Courtney Lee

Lin was obviously gone given the cap situation and the market for pg's this offseason. Lee? Definitely a loss, especially given how he was replaced.

Losses:
Al Jefferson
Jorge Gutierrez
Tyler Hansbrough

I don't think you can argue that Al Jefferson was a key loss.

Draft:
#22 traded

Would have been nice to keep this pick.

Trades:
#22 for Marco Belinelli
Troy Daniels S&T for cash

This trade was horrible. Beyond horrible. And agreeing to it before the draft? Just an amazingly dumb trade and I will be docking the final grade entirely because of it.

Free Agency:
Nicolas Batum 5/120m (PO last year)
Marvin Williams 4/54.5m
Ramon Sessions 2/12.3 (TO last year)
Roy Hibbert 5m
Brian Roberts 1.1m
Christian Wood 2/1.9m (TO last year)

The Batum signing was amazing. They got the player they needed, got him for 4/5 years, and got him at less than the biggest possible max. This signing basically caps the floor of the offseason at a B. Marvin has been a key contributor, and in this cap environment worth it. Hibbert is a great buy low flier. And I have been flogging Wood as a prospect for a while, so that deal makes me happy. My issue is that to replace Lin and Lee Charlotte did the trade of #22 for Beli and then signed Sessions. For basically that same money they could have brought back Lee, and then used the room MLE (or #22) on a backup pg. Sessions is just not anything special and Beli I find a bad contract, so put me down as disliking that choice a lot.

Current Depth Chart: (as usual this is a rough draft taken from bbinsiders)
PG: Kemba Walker, Ramon Sessions, Brian Roberts
SG: Nicolas Batum, Marco Belinelli, Aaron Harrison
SF: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeremy Lamb
PF: Marvin Williams, Spencer Hawes
C: Roy Hibbert, Frank Kaminsky, Cody Zeller, Christian Wood

Needs: MKG to be healthy. Some combo of Hibbert/Kaminsky/Zeller to look like solid starting center. Anyone to take Hawes. A mulligan on the Beli trade (yeah, I really hate it for them).

Additional Thoughts: A really really good free agency for a team that isn't exactly known as a free agent hot spot. Just like Milwaukee a year ago, but hopefully with better results.

Projected Win/Loss: 47-35

Off-Season Grade: A- You know why it is not an A.

bondom34 Review

Key Losses:
Jeremy Lin
Courtney Lee


Losses:
Al Jefferson
Jorge Gutierrez
Tyler Hansbrough


Draft:
#22 traded


Trades:
#22 for Marco Belinelli
Troy Daniels S&T for cash

22 for Belli was just a bad trade, no two ways about it. It should have cost something to dump him, and the Kings got a pick. Just bad.

Free Agency:
Nicolas Batum 5/120m (PO last year)
Marvin Williams 4/54.5m
Ramon Sessions 2/12.3 (TO last year)
Roy Hibbert 5m
Brian Roberts 1.1m
Christian Wood 2/1.9m (TO last year)

They lost Lin and Lee, but kept the most important guy in Batum. Marv was a big keeper as well, and Hibbert on that deal isn't a bad pickup. Christian Wood could be a sleeper and Sessions is serviceable as well, overall a solid free agency.

Current Depth Chart: (as usual this is a rough draft taken from bbinsiders)
PG: Kemba Walker, Ramon Sessions, Brian Roberts
SG: Nicolas Batum, Marco Belinelli, Aaron Harrison
SF: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeremy Lamb
PF: Marvin Williams, Spencer Hawes
C: Cody Zeller, Frank Kaminsky, Roy Hibbert, Christian Wood

I don't see Hibbert starting over Frank or Zeller

Needs: Health for MKG and some bench wings would be nice. Also
Additional Thoughts:Great free agency, dumb draft trade.
Projected Win/Loss: 49-33{/u]

[u]Off-Season Grade: B+ Other than the trade, wish they could have kept Lee, but the trade was so baffling I'm bumping to a B+.

dbrandon Review

Key Losses:
Jeremy Lin
Courtney Lee

Lin's loss will really hurt them--he's not anywhere near as good as his legion of rabid fans would have you believe, but he's an excellent 6th man and borderline starter, and he plays both ends of the floor. Lee is another 2-way player, and they replaced him with MARCO BELINELLI.

Yes, that one.

Losses:
Al Jefferson
Jorge Gutierrez
Tyler Hansbrough

Man, I love Big Al. I'd love to say he's a key loss, but he's just not. He's a good backup center at this point in his career, since he can maul most backup centers in the post.

Draft:
#22 traded

Hate this, quite honestly. Especially considering it's MARCO BELINELLI.

Trades:
#22 for Marco Belinelli
Troy Daniels S&T for cash

This is real bad.

Free Agency:
Nicolas Batum 5/120m (PO last year)
Marvin Williams 4/54.5m
Ramon Sessions 2/12.3 (TO last year)
Roy Hibbert 5m
Brian Roberts 1.1m
Christian Wood 2/1.9m (TO last year)

I really like them bringing back Batum, who proved his worth last year. Williams is a solid signing as well, especially if he keeps up his shooting. Sessions is a bit of a crapshoot--he's been up and down over his career.

I actually like the Hibbert signing. Clifford's done good work with conservative defensive schemes before, and Charlotte is one of the few teams that can duplicate something similar to Indiana's defense by funneling to Hibbert. They did it with Jefferson, and he's nowhere near the rim protector Hibbert is.

Wood's a good one to take a flier on, and Roberts is a decent signing.

Current Depth Chart: (as usual this is a rough draft taken from bbinsiders)
PG: Kemba Walker, Ramon Sessions, Brian Roberts
SG: Nicolas Batum, Marco Belinelli, Aaron Harrison
SF: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeremy Lamb
PF: Marvin Williams, Spencer Hawes
C: Roy Hibbert, Frank Kaminsky, Cody Zeller, Christian Wood

Needs: Not Marco Belinelli.

Sessions needs to be decent as a backup. Belinelli needs to be not Belinelli. MKG needs to be healthy. One of the centers needs to show himself starting-quality. Lamb needs to look like he cares.

Additional Thoughts: It's a solid team. IDK if it's as good as last year, but it's solid.

Projected Win/Loss: 42

Off-Season Grade: A- I HATE the Belinelli signing, but I really can't fault anything else.

Motorkeepsgoing Review

Key Losses:
Jeremy Lin
Courtney Lee

Losses:
Al Jefferson
Jorge Gutierrez
Tyler Hansbrough

Draft:
#22 traded

Trades:
#22 for Marco Belinelli
Troy Daniels S&T for cash

Free Agency:
Nicolas Batum 5/120m (PO last year)
Marvin Williams 4/54.5m
Ramon Sessions 2/12.3 (TO last year)
Roy Hibbert 5m
Brian Roberts 1.1m
Christian Wood 2/1.9m (TO last year)
Mike Tobey (Training camp deal)

Current Depth Chart: (as usual this is a rough draft taken from bbinsiders) - MAKING SOME CHANGES HERE SINCE BBINSIDERS FRONTCOURT LINEUP WAS A DISASTER
PG: Kemba Walker, Ramon Sessions, Brian Roberts
SG: Nicolas Batum, Marco Belinelli, Aaron Harrison (unguaranteed)
SF: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeremy Lamb
PF: Marvin Williams, Frank Kaminsky, Christian Wood
C: Cody Zeller, Roy Hibbert, Spencer Hawes, Mike Tobey (camp deal)

Needs:
-> Lots more defense off the bench. Roy Hibbert is the only player outside of the starting five that plays a lick of defense. If/when MKG misses time, we are going to see some epic defensive collapses.
-> Can always use more shooting
-> Less Spencer Haweses

Additional Thoughts:
-> Cho did a good job despite losing a ton of decent players. We didn't overpay for a single free agent while insane contracts got handed out, Nic and Marvin both took less to stay put. Despite Lin and Jefferson leaving, Sessions and Hibbert should be able to fill the voids just fine. Bellinelli was an odd acquisition and Daniels should've been retained, but these are guys that likely won't play more than 15 mpg. He's got to find some MKG insurance somehow, and we're saddled with a couple annoying (but not awful) contracts in Hawes and Bellinelli. But we kept our core intact and still have a decent bench that should be potent on offense, and still didn't destroy our financial situation like so many other teams did. I can't complain.

Projected Win/Loss:
50-55 wins

Off-Season Grade: B

[Woody Allen]

They didn't make any terrible mistakes but not an impressive offseason either. Still a low-ceiling team, with no prospects of making it into the next level. They definitely should have gotten more adventurous with that #22 pick.

[Slava]

Eww I just realized how terribly thin that line up is from 1-3 and they sink pretty fast if a couple of injury prone players like Kidd Gilchrist and Batum miss any significant time.

That's a 42 win team at best, pushing 45 if they are healthy. If Batum misses time, Walker is the only creator and that sucks. Not a fan of the roster balance at all.

[shangrila]

Yeah, that 22nd pick trade was all sorts of weird.

Overall I'd say they took a step back, but at the same time I can't really fault any of the moves they made (except the draft one, obviously). I'd give them a B.

[LofJ]

I'm just going to comment on the Bellineli trade because it was by far the most controversial part of our offseason.

That said given how much the team has struggled with the draft it's hard for me to be overly mad that we traded out. Our coach had said that they didn't think there was a single player that would be available at 22 that could be a rotation player in less than 3 years. Again it's hard to take them at their word given our history with the draft. And it's also hard to understand how they knew who would be available at 22 when the trade was made before the draft even started.

However, I do know that we were rumored to really like Beasley and surprisingly Papagiannis. The fact that the Kings took Papagiannis at 13 makes me believe that the Kings told us beforehand they were taking Papagiannis in the lottery. And we were unable to trade up to get Beasley and didn't think he would still be available at 22. Therefore we made the call to trade out since we knew we wouldn't be able to get who we wanted.

Regardless of how the draft played out it's obvious our front office REALLY likes Bellineli. We wanted to sign him over Lin last summer and our GM went on record and said that we tried to trade for him during the season. We'll see in the coming season how smart or dumb their valuation of him ends up looking. As a fan of the team I'm obviously hoping for the former rather than the latter.

[Laimbeer]

I wish you guys were my college professors with this kind of grading.

C- (And that's generous)

They held on to Batum, which saves them from a D or worse. The Marco trade was awful while they lost quality depth without really replacing it with equal pieces. The Williams signing would make me a little nervous.

[basketballwacko2]

Trades:
#22 for Marco Belinelli
Troy Daniels S&T for cash

This trade was horrible. Beyond horrible. And agreeing to it before the draft? Just an amazingly dumb trade and I will be docking the final grade entirely because of it.

This trade was dumb beyond dumb! It's like someone trading you a piece of ABC chewing gum for your lunch. Belinelli could have been had for a 2nd or even a top 55 protected 2nd. He's a good shooter at times but he's just not worth a #22 pick. If you're giving a #22 pick for him you should be able to attach out going salary and get something you need coming back, unless you're just some how in love with Marco! A better deal would have been Marco a future 2nd to the Hornets for Lamb and #22, at least you don't have 2 guys at the same spot doing the same things not real well which is the case now.

[basketballwacko2]

I wish you guys were my college professors with this kind of grading.

C- (And that's generous)

They held on to Batum, which saves them from a D or worse. The Marco trade was awful while they lost quality depth without really replacing it with equal pieces. The Williams signing would make me a little nervous.

I gave them a C mostly for keeping their guys like Batum and Williams and the cheap signing of Hibbert for 1 yr. Good that they didn't give him more and more years.

[HartfordWhalers]

I wish you guys were my college professors with this kind of grading.

C- (And that's generous)

They held on to Batum, which saves them from a D or worse. The Marco trade was awful while they lost quality depth without really replacing it with equal pieces. The Williams signing would make me a little nervous.

I'm not normally accused of being too kind to other teams.

But so far, I loved what Miami and Charlotte did (A and A-). For Atlanta, I look to be the second lowest grade in the poll so far (C+). Rest assured, there are some offseasons I really didn't like.

I don't see how re-signing Batum to the deal they did doesn't guarantee a B at a minimum here.

[loserX]

My feelings generally echo what's been said already.

Best move: bringing back Batum and Marv, their top FAs, for less than they could have gotten elsewhere. Great in a vacuum, of course, but it also says to me that the FO is building a culture that good players want to be part of, even if it's not the biggest market or the biggest money. That's a great sign.

Worst move: are they actually a better team than last year? Lee, Lin, Big Al out; Belinelli, Sessions, Hibbert in. I dunno, man. This team is trying to get over a playoff hump (they finally won their first post-season game, now they're after their first series win). Clifford is doing a lot of things well, and internal growth/continuity count for a lot, but it would have been nice to see a little more aggression in adding pieces so the team can make the next step.

I'm a big fan of what they did, not a fan of what they didn't do. I'm struggling with their grade but I can't put it in the A range.

[Laimbeer]

I wish you guys were my college professors with this kind of grading.

C- (And that's generous)

They held on to Batum, which saves them from a D or worse. The Marco trade was awful while they lost quality depth without really replacing it with equal pieces. The Williams signing would make me a little nervous.

I'm not normally accused of being too kind to other teams.

But so far, I loved what Miami and Charlotte did (A and A-). For Atlanta, I look to be the second lowest grade in the poll so far (C+). Rest assured, there are some offseasons I really didn't like.

I don't see how re-signing Batum to the deal they did doesn't guarantee a B at a minimum here.

OK, I was looking at their net gains/losses rather than the potential of how bad it could have been. Batum was up in the air and Hornet fans would probably take this at the beginning of the summer. But with the balance of the offseason I can't take it higher than a C.

[Kings2013]

Underrated coach. Want to see fully healthy over a consistent period of time

[fatlever]

More than anything the Hornets offseason was about trying to keep the status quo, while retaining future flexibility and banking on a healthy MKG being the catalyst to an improved team.

If MKG goes down again for any long stretch of games, then the team is in trouble, because the options behind him are thin and it will be hard to find another perfect midseason trade like the trade for Lee last year to cover for a missing MKG.

Retaining Batum and Marvin on those deals was fantastic. Like most, I don't understand the Marco trade as constructed. At the very least the Hornets should have found a way back into the 2nd round to land one of the many solid wings that were available. The front office seems to really love Marco, and Cho/Clifford have a really good track record of reclamation projects.

Getting Wood on the cheap feels like an extra first round draft pick.

Most media/fans outside of Charlotte (and Utah), really overstate the loss of Jefferson, at least in terms of on-court value. Despite some flukey on-/off numbers from late last season, he has been really bad the past two years as he keeps getting slower and slower in a league headed in the other direction. I will not miss seeing every team target Al with an endless parade of pick and rolls involving his man.

That being said, Al's presence in the lockerroom was huge and could be missed, however, the Hornets did a great job of retaining the core and they continue to build a team based on players with high character. Ever player that has come thru Charlotte in the past few years raves about the culture of that lockerroom. Many career journeymen like CDR, Lin, Jefferson and Marvin, who have played for a lot of teams, have been very vocal about claiming that lockerrrom to be the best they've been a part of in their careers.

I'm not sold on Hibbert bouncing back to his Pacer days, but he should prove to be better than what he showed in LA - would be hard for him to be worse. Ewing and Clifford will get him playing better, but I'm just not sure he has the footspeed to guard much these days. However, with the bigs in the SouthEast - Howard, Whiteside, Biyombo/Vucevic - getting someone bigger was very important. Cody will remain the starter and one of the most underrated players in the league, but he'll still struggle vs some of the larger centers in the league, many of which reside in the same division.

Expect Frank to show a lot of improvement. He's too smart and too talented to not make a jump. He's added 20 lbs of muscle since the start of last year and that will do him a world of good. We'll see more of Frank at center this year, even though he's still the backup PF on the depth chart. There are not many bigs his size that have his combination of shooting, passing and ability to drive the ball. Charlotte can go small with Frank at center and unleash a very versatile 5-man lineup of Kemba-Batum-MKG-Marvin-Frank that will be tough to guard.

Lin was good last year, albeit very inconsistent. At times he was a luxury that was wasted as a corner shot-up shooter, when asked to play next to Kemba and Batum. Sessions has a lot of the same strengths as Lin, particularly the ability to drive and get fouled. Where Lin will be missed is his ability to get red hot and take over a game for stretches at a time. If a corner spot up shooter is needed Marco will fill that role better. Obviously if Kemba or Batum go down, that is when losing Lin would hurt the most. Sessions doesn't have the high ceiling like Lin, that ability to will a team to victory on his own. But most nights, Sessions will be more than adequate as a backup, which should be enough.

Overall Grade: B-
It was mostly a boring offseason for Charlotte, but one that kept their floor high (and perhaps their ceiling lower), while keeping their future cap space in a good place.

Predicted Wins (assuming decent health to main core): 40-50 wins, anywhere from 10th to 4th seed in East

[Slava]

I've had better body coordination after finishing half a bottle of bourbon in a night than Hibbert during NBA games. He's fine as a third big but if you're looking at him as a difference making addition, you'd be sorely disappointed. I haven't seen a human being tumble over so many times sober.

Games after game, team after team roasted him by putting his man in a pick and roll. He's unplayable in the modern NBA in a bad way.

[BuzzCity]

I know everybody bashes the Marco trade...I get it. But maybe Courtney Lee made it clear he wants to go somewhere that he can start. That wouldn't happen in Charlotte with Batum at SG and MKG at SF. So they went out and got somebody who could contribute.

Would Marco be my first choice? Heck no! But he's gunna do way more than what any player at 22 would have done for us this year. Marco is on a very cheap deal over the next 2 years, given the new salary cap. So while I don't love it, I don't hate it.

[giberish]

I know everybody bashes the Marco trade...I get it. But maybe Courtney Lee made it clear he wants to go somewhere that he can start. That wouldn't happen in Charlotte with Batum at SG and MKG at SF. So they went out and got somebody who could contribute.

Would Marco be my first choice? Heck no! But he's gunna do way more than what any player at 22 would have done for us this year. Marco is on a very cheap deal over the next 2 years, given the new salary cap. So while I don't love it, I don't hate it.

By +/- metrics Marco's been below replacement-level the last 2 years. So it certainly isn't clear that he'll be more useful than a #22 pick rookie (or cheap vet FA). It's mostly driven by Marco being horrible on defense and even if you feel that was due to coaching/team disfunction in Sacramento it also held true the year before in San Antonio.

It's really tough to see any useful rotation players off the bench at PG/SG/SF for Charlotte. That could be a real problem.

[jazzfan1971]

That frontcourt looks really bad to me. Couldn't they bring in anyone better than Hibbert?

[Mich3006]

I wish you guys were my college professors with this kind of grading.

C- (And that's generous)

They held on to Batum, which saves them from a D or worse. The Marco trade was awful while they lost quality depth without really replacing it with equal pieces. The Williams signing would make me a little nervous.

Williams´ contract is solid but they don´t have any depth in the backcourt. If Kemba gets injured, their season could be done.
On the other hand, their frontcourt has depth but all of them (except Marv) are average at best.

Maybe it´s another Belinelli but the one I know isn´t even worth a 2nd, one of the worst trades in history.

That frontcourt looks really bad to me. Couldn't they bring in anyone better than Hibbert?

You´re a Jazz fan, most frontcourts looks bad compared to yours

[QRich3]

That frontcourt looks really bad to me. Couldn't they bring in anyone better than Hibbert?

I actually think it's one of their strengths. I think Hibbert is gonna be awesome and well used again under Clifford, like he was under Vogel, and between him and Zeller, having a C that can play defense at all times is gonna make their team a lot better.

Now spacing is still gonna be tricky for them, but I have them getting homecourt in the first round this year.

[Golabki]

I rated it a D. It wasn't disastrous, but it wasn't good.

Trading number 22 for Beli is just inexplicable. The fit is fine (3pt shooting 2 guard), but he should be a fringe rotation player on a playoff team and you can't give up a 1st for that.

Losing Lin will hurt them a fair amount. Sessions is okay, but no where near as good as Lin.

On Batum - I know he's good and I know they needed to keep him, but I still wouldn't be that happy about paying so much for a guy that I don't think could be a top 3 player on a true contender. Put another way, what would he have gotten paid if he went 125 for 399 instead of 139 for 399 on 3s?

On Willaims - last year when so many people, including Cha fans, thought he was garbage and wanted to add assets just to dump him, I strongly defended Williams as a decent rotation 4. Now I think we've swung a bit far the other direction.

I'm also fairly disturbed by all the depth charts listing Zeller as the 3rd center, when I think he's pretty clearly the best big they have on the roster.

If things go well your core 7 is... Kemba / Beli / Batum / MKG / Williams / Frank / Zeller, with Sessions and Hibbert playing 10-15 mpg in more limited roles. With great coaching (which they have)... That's still a playoff team.