2019 Offseason Thread

[MasterIchiro]

Rozier is the guy. Reality check.

[316Hornets]

Westbrook? Come on man. East isn't that tough. If we want a 6th seed finish, we can do better with less risk. Go grab some guy on an expiring or something.

If this team upgrades, it'll be similar to last season where we look at where the team is at the deadline and what players are available that could get us into the playoffs. If the team isn't capable to the playoffs, even with an addition, then no point.

[HornetsFan29]

You could have posted this in the other thread but I'll bite. How do you figure the ultimate empty stats guy is going to do anything more than a 1st round exit in the playoffs, 2nd if we're lucky?

You all kill me we talk about MJ and unable to embrace a rebuild but anytime a decent players name gets thrown around we start talking about trading 1st round picks (what it would take to get Russ)

The team should have no other goal than a championship and he does not get us there, he's been surrounded by more talent then we could ever have during his window and hasn't do it. Major pass

making the playoffs is good enough for MJ thats all he cares about and adding Westbrook would make us a playoff team cause he way better than Kemba and once carried a thunder team the year after durant left to the playoffs in the west with no help(before pg13 joined) so just imagine what he do in the east which much weaker than the stacked west.

[amcoolio]

Give Scarence Terrence a chance. He just needs to improve his shooting and Kemba was as bad a shooter when he was Rozier's age

[BlackOutBuzz]

The Thunder are certainly trying to clear the cap sheet. They aren't likely to find a way out of the tax this year as most of the league's space has dried up, so I imagine we could actually put together a pretty competitive offer with our collection of expiring deals.

Just saying... could totally see MJ doing it.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[yosemiteben]

It actually would make as much sense to me to trade for Westbrook as it would have to pay a supermax to Kemba.

[JDuaneWayne]

You could have posted this in the other thread but I'll bite. How do you figure the ultimate empty stats guy is going to do anything more than a 1st round exit in the playoffs, 2nd if we're lucky?

You all kill me we talk about MJ and unable to embrace a rebuild but anytime a decent players name gets thrown around we start talking about trading 1st round picks (what it would take to get Russ)

The team should have no other goal than a championship and he does not get us there, he's been surrounded by more talent then we could ever have during his window and hasn't do it. Major pass

making the playoffs is good enough for MJ thats all he cares about and adding Westbrook would make us a playoff team cause he way better than Kemba and once carried a thunder team the year after durant left to the playoffs in the west with no help(before pg13 joined) so just imagine what he do in the east which much weaker than the stacked west.

Then we should all pull for a new team or at least a new owner. The goal every year should be moving closer to an NBA championship

[Diop]

Westbrook won’t be happy with just making the playoffs

[Rich4114]

I’ll bite on this Russ debate. I think the Thunder are looking to blow it up and rebuild. Just look at the Western Conference right now. As it stands, no way in hell are the Thunder competing with LAL, LAC, GSW, Utah, Denver or Portland. You figure San Antonio will also be better. So they’d be fighting for an 8th seed in all likelihood. Exactly where we have been. Except their leadership recognizes this and is cashing in on their assets. I do think if they were in the eastern conference, they’d keep him though.

All that being said, we should be doing the exact same thing. We do not have a star player anymore, so our only assets are unproven prospects and our own future draft picks plus a few extra seconds. The objective should be to acquire more of those, not ship what little we have to put us in an even worse situation than we have been in. If we traded for Russ after letting Kemba go, my head might implode. He will elevate us to a playoff contender, yes - but around where we were with Kemba except he’s older and we’d be paying him a lot more. Just no.

Go find a team that needs help after the free agent market has dried up and see what can be had for the useful Marvin Williams. See if there’s a market for Zeller or MKG. I highly doubt we move Batum, but we need to accept our place as a contract dumping ground like Memphis and Atlanta until we draft or develop enough talent for one or two free agents will provide us years of playoff competitiveness. The clock is ticking. We’ve got 2-3 years to see where we are and make our move.

[geraldwallace]

How to get likes on realgm in 2019

[Diop]

This whole time my preferred option for starters point guard has been hiding out here in Perth

Spoiler:

[LofJ]

Those people aren't wrong, a lot of luck is the only way an MJ owned team will ever win a championship. He certainly won't win one through shrewd management and a willingness to think long-term.

[Snidely FC]

Zach Lowe feeling our pain in his Offseason Winners & Losers Column:

Losers: The woebegone Hornets
I just cannot get over the Charlotte Hornets failing to make a real run at trading Kemba Walker if they knew they would not come close to offering him a max contract, let alone the supermax. They then let Jeremy Lamb -- a good wing who just turned 27 -- walk for nothing, and finished the trifecta by paying Terry Rozier nearly twice as much as the Pacers paid Lamb.

Yeah, Rozier plays a position of need with Walker in Boston. There is just not much evidence he plays it all that well -- he has shot less than 40 percent overall in all four career seasons -- and certainly not well enough to merit almost $20 million per season.

Also, what in the world is this tweet?

Charlotte Hornets
@hornets
Follow Follow @hornets
“We feel like if he was in the draft this year, Terry Rozier would have been a lottery pick.” - Mitch Kupchak
6:46 PM - 6 Jul 2019

Is Charlotte saying that the college version of Rozier -- the one who went 16th in the 2015 draft, two picks outside the lottery -- would have been a lottery pick in this draft? Or worse: Are the Hornets arguing present-day 25-year-old Rozier would have been a lottery pick in 2019?

Umm, yeah: The veteran you just agreed to pay $58 million should probably rank in the top 14 of the draft that just happened.

But why are we surprised? This team turned down four first-round picks to draft Frank Kaminsky. Charlotte apologists can pretend this didn't happen, but it absolutely did, and current and former higher-ups have more or less admitted it. The Hornets turned down two more picks -- from Chicago -- to draft Noah Vonleh, sources have told ESPN. In a whirlwind last summer, they turned Dwight Howard into Bismack Biyombo and second-round picks instead of simply buying out Howard -- as the Nets did after acquiring Howard days later.

The Hornets had the bad luck of several players hitting free agency in the summer of 2016 -- i.e., the summer of the cap orgy. Drafting well requires good luck. But the Hornets missed on every top-10 pick aside from Walker. Drafting may be an inexact science, but any franchise needs a higher hit rate than this.

At least now we get to see what the kiddos can do. Unleash Malik Monk!

[Rich4114]

It’s all just so depressing. Ugh.

[LofJ]

It’s all just so depressing. Ugh.

Life viewed through the lens of hindsight is always depressing.

Yes, the Hornets have made more bad decisions than good. But it's pointless to waste time thinking about what could have been. You learn from your mistakes and move on.

[MasterIchiro]

Games are still fun and this upcoming team will feature more minutes and court time for more entertaining players. Miles, Monk, PJ, Rozier and Bacon are far more entertaining than Marvin, MKG, Biz, Cody, Batum and Parker. I will miss Kemba though. He was an entertainer.

[Robot Rock]

It’s all just so depressing. Ugh.

Life viewed through the lens of hindsight is always depressing.

Yes, the Hornets have made more bad decisions than good. But it's pointless to waste time thinking about what could have been. You learn from your mistakes and move on.

Or, in this team’s case, they don’t learn from their mistakes. They just compound them.

[Robot Rock]

How to get likes on realgm in 2019

MJ isn’t cheap. He’s just incompetent and he surrounds himself with incompetent people.

[Rays Pompadour]

What's that you hear coming from the Hornets' front office?

Turn up the sound on your computer...

[shrug]

Hornets fans want a team that cares about winning. [shrug]
Hornets fans want to know there's a plan for improvement. [shrug]
Hornets fans want to have reason to buy a jersey. [whisper...Terry Rozier] [aka shrug]
Hornets fans want to see roster corrections, any roster corrections. [shrug]
Hornets fans want more first round picks. [shrug]
Second round picks? [shrug]
A free agent signing? [shrug]
Anything? [shrug]

Criticism from just about everyone in and around the NBA. [shrug]
Image as an inept franchise. [shrug]
An embarrassment to the Carolinas. [shrug]

The cry, loud and clear from the collective Charlotte Hornets fan base: GIVE US HOPE..ANY RAY OF HOPE!

That sound you hear from the Hornets' front office?

Turn up your computer...

[at least we're not the Knicks}

[Great]

Success is closer than failure.

Finding new homes for Gilchrist and Williams has to happen.

They need to add a defensive playmaking SG/SF.

Maybe Kulboka, McDaniels, or Thornwell can fill that role

Kavell Bigby Williams got away.
Maybe they’ll get him back.

Maybe even a vet 3rd PG:

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