yosemiteben wrote:Now that some time has passed from the Hayward news, I'm realizing that my negative reaction is not so much about Hayward and all about the strategy. I haven't really tracked Hayward's career closely and honestly I'm not sure whether he's terrible or ok value for his contract. I just don't have strong feelings on that subject.
My bigger issue is I just didn't think we were ready to be an above the cap team. I'm not sold that our core is good enough to stop a rebuild. I liked the idea of using cap space to continue to accumulate draft picks and assets, and I really didn't think we would exit the rebuild after one year without acquiring a single first round draft pick or young player via trade.
Like most on here know, I actually hated the idea of a rebuild to begin with, so it's super weird now to be defending a prolonging of the rebuild. I get that maybe Hayward was better than any FA we felt we could grab next summer. Maybe the 2021 and 2022 drafts are too coveted and we weren't going to be able to use cap space to pick up meaningful draft compensation. Maybe we are concerned about the franchise cratering due to COVID and not recovering financially without splashy moves. There are reasons that maybe this is the right move, but it feels to me very much like Kemba walking and us pivoting to the Rozier S&T - just like then, feels like we are not being intentional enough with our moves and not following a disciplined strategy, but rather are kind of stuck trying to build the plane while we're flying it and just hoping it doesn't crash.
I think I wanted one more season before we bring in a big FA. Give me a high 2021 draft pick, move Batum to someone who will give another draft pick for an expiring, get better certainty on who is part of our core (read: figure out if Graham, Bridges, and/or Monk are long term keepers) and be proactive in moving guys for value who aren't, and then build on those additional pieces next summer with a FA signing. If I were in charge, that's what I would have done.
I tend to agree that this feels like we are shutting the rebuild down a year early. However the counter point to that is that typically teams who enter a rebuild are starting with nothing of value and are tearing everything down to the absolute bones.
Even though we attempted to do that, I feel we were able to rebuild at a quicker pace because of several factors. The first was finding Devonte Graham in the second round who looks like was worthy of a top 10 pick. That helped accelerate the rebuild by a year at least potentially. Next was finding PJ at pick 12 and him showcasing himself to have the potential of a top 5-6 pick in a redraft and his shooting, size, length are in the make of where the NBA is heading. Lastly was jumping into the top 3 and landing Lamelo Ball after we were expected to have the 8th overall pick.
Synopsis of what we should of had: 12th pick and 8th pick
vs
What we have now: 6th pick, 3rd pick, 10th pick. With Bridges and Monk looking like solid players as well.
Also, many teams who enter a rebuild have a horrible looking cap sheet due to either just coming off attempting to compete or collecting horrible contracts for late firsts and extra second rounders. I feel like Hornets skipped over this step potentially because we probably entered a rebuild a year too late and were already getting out from under guys like MKG, Marv, Biz large contracts. After this year we will be out of Zeller deal and potentially worst one with Batum (dead cap?).
I consider us very lucky so far and don't hate the Franchise for potentially trying to compete sooner than expected. We have a ton of room for internal growth, cap space on the horizon and all of our picks moving forward. A lot of teams are in far worse situations then us, so I am just happy that we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
