Hornets Need Strong Draft To Rebound From Disappointing Season

This draft is rich, no pun intended, with talent at multiple positions, and many teams will be able to add players that will strengthen their rotation. The Charlotte Hornets have the ninth selection in the draft, and conventional wisdom suggests that they will look to this year‘s crop of swing men to identify their first round draft pick.one space 

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The Hornets finished with a disappointing record of 33-49 in the 2014-2015 season after posting a winning record, and making the playoffs in the 2013-2014 season. The Lance Stephenson acquisition was unsuccessful and the Hornets were one of the poorest shooting teams in the league.

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Under Cho‘s guidance, the organization has selected Kemba Walker, Bismack Biyombo, Michael Kidd Gilchrist, Cody Zeller, and Noah Vonleh. one space Safe to say, Cho has not exactly set the world on fire with his draft night work. The problem is not only their production on the court, but also their tradability as assets. None of these players would return value equal to that of their lofty draft selections. one space 

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Zeller looks to be a decent rotation player due to his athleticism, but he has yet to consistently knock down the mid-range jump shot that he has been working on since entering the league. one space 

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Vonleh is a raw power forward who did not see many meaningful minutes last season. one space Last year‘s choice of Vonleh seemed redundant with Zeller in the fold considering they play the same position and even attended the same university, though they did not play together at Indiana. The draft was not particularly strong last year, and Vonleh may have been worth a chance given the circumstances, but the selection still seemed questionable given the team‘s needs.one space 

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Kidd-Gilchrist is a nice player, one space but his jump shot is still a work in progress, though it looked much better last season. The lack of shooting ability makes him a nice complimentary player, who may never be able to carry the load offensively. MKG may also be considered somewhat injury prone, having missed significant portions of the last two seasons due to injury.

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Walker is a more than capable player at the point guard position, but point guard is the deepest position in the NBA. Nearly every team has at least one starting caliber point guard, and deserving point guards are consistently omitted from the All-Star Game. one space Walker is also small and a limited shooter, which means that he needs capable shooters around him in order for the offense to run efficiently because he is not very effective playing off the ball. one space This is why the Lance Stephenson experiment did not work out. Both players needed the ball in their hands to be effective, and neither shot particularly well last season.one space 

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I think it is obvious that Biyombo should not have been a lottery selection, especially given that his closest comparison heading into the draft was former Piston Ben Wallace, who was an undrafted free agent, that worked hard and found the perfect fit for his talents in Detroit. Biyombo has developed into a usable rotation player, but his slow development along with the opportunity cost of drafting him with a lottery selection in such a talented draft has to be considered a setback for the franchise.one space 

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The 2011 Draft class, in my opinion, is the best to date since the 2009 class that produced Stephen Curry, James Harden, and Blake Griffin, with the 2012 class that produced Anthony Davis not far behind.one space 

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The 2011 Draft produced talents such as Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler, Kenneth Faried, Nikola Vucecic, and other quality rotation players. one space 

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The Hornets franchise, who were the Bobcats at the time, had two lottery picks, seventh and ninth, in the 2011 draft and came away with Bismack Biyombo and Kemba Walker. All of the aforementioned players save for Irving were available when the Hornets picked.one space 

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I do not fault the franchise for selecting Walker, given his impressive NCAA tournament run and gritty play. However, the fact remains that the NBA is currently wing driven, and when you look at the contributions of the players such as Thompson, Leonard, and Butler to their team‘s success, you cannot help but feel as if the Hornets organization dealt themselves and their fans a substantial blow by missing on such readily available talent. one space Given that those players have all become All-Stars and play positions that were of need to the Hornets at the time of the 2011 draft, the effect is amplified.

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I do not say this only as a means of exercising revisionist history. Full disclosure, my wife and I were season ticket holders during the 2010-2011 season and the historically bad 2011-2012 season. The Bobcats traded away the beloved small forward, Gerald Wallace, midway through the 2010-2011 season, which was expected given the plans to rebuild, and then traded shooting guard Stephen Jackson as well during the 2011-2012 season. one space I thought, without a doubt, that they would draft one, if not both, of their replacements in the 2011 draft. Instead, we paid good money to watch the team trot out Derrick Brown and Jemario Moon on the perimeter. So, here we are.

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Wing players dominate the current style of NBA play. LeBron James, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler, and Kawhi Leonard are all wing players who have a tremendous impact on individual games and entire seasons. one space Both NBA Finals teams relied heavily on their wing rotation. The Cavaliers improved greatly with the additions of J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert alongside LeBron James, and the Warriors relied heavily on combinations that included Thompson, NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, Draymond Green, Harrison Barnes, and Leandro Barbosa, not to mention regular season MVP Stephen Curry.one space 

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Today, a successful team needs to be able to guard perimeter players as well as make the other team‘s perimeter players expend energy on defense. one space LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony each torched the then Bobcats for over 60 points during the 2013-14-season, in large part because the all world scorers did not have to work hard on defense, as the Bobcats perimeter players were extremely limited. So, James and Anthony were able to focus extensively on scoring. one space Michael Kidd Gilchrist fought valiantly against both players, but they are too talented to stop when all of their energy can be concentrated on offense.one space 

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With that said, it is obvious that the Hornets need a knock down shooter with size and athletic ability at this point in the proceedings. Last Season, the Hornets ranked dead last in the NBA in three-point shooting at just under 32 percent. Conversely, the Golden State Warriors were first at just under 40 percent. one space In fact, all four of the conference finalists were in the top half of the league in three-point shooting as a team. Only Houston was outside of the top six at number 14 and they had the MVP runner up, James Harden. one space So, teams either need a transcendent talent, collectively good shooting, or both to be successful in today‘s NBA.one space 

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Mario Hezonja of Croatia, Justise Winslow, Devin Booker, and Stanley Johnson are currently the highest rated wing players in the draft. one space 

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Hezonja appears to be the most complete of the four. He has good size at 6‘8‘ and checks all of the boxes you would like from a wing scorer. He can shoot from deep, get to the rim, and create for others. His size will allow him to play either wing position. Do not be surprised if teams quietly trade up in order to select him. one space Hezonja is only 20 years old and played for Barcelona in the Euroleague last season, so some question the level of competition that he has faced, but that appears to be his only downside. I would argue that playing against grown men as a professional was very good preparation for the NBA given his skill set.one space 

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Booker is arguably the best shooter in the draft. He played a reserve role as a freshman at Kentucky, but his talent suggested that he should probably be a starter. His shooting stroke is reminiscent of Klay Thompson‘s. He is not as athletic as Thompson, but he has good size for a shooting guard at 6‘ 6″ and may be more athletic than he is given credit for. one space At 18, Booker is the youngest player in the draft.one space 

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Stanley Johnson and Justise Winslow are very similar in that both have NBA bodies and athleticism. Johnson, an Arizona product, is probably the better ball handler and creator, while, the southpaw from Duke, Winslow looked to have a more NBA ready jump shot but that is debatable. Both players fit the mold of versatile wing players necessary to be successful in the NBA today.

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Other players like Kelly Oubre, R.J. Hunter, Justin Anderson, and Sam Dekker deserve consideration as well, should the Hornets choose to trade down to acquire more draft picks.

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In my opinion Hezonja and Johnson are the most talented, but Booker‘s pure shooting ability would fit the best with the Hornets. one space 

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The irony in all of this is that Michael Jordan was arguably the greatest wing player the game has ever seen. I am perplexed as to why, with all of the resources and scouting personnel the organization has available, the Hornets have so much difficulty identifying offensive perimeter talent through the draft.one space 

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The franchise‘s philosophy has been to build a sold defensive foundation which they have done, but if the 2015 playoffs are any indication, it may be time to scrap the old plan and consistently acquire players who are highly skilled at putting the ball in the basket from near and far. one space Al Jefferson, Kemba Walker, and MKG are a fine base to build around, but the Hornets cannot continue to have indifferent drafts if they want a realistic chance of playing for a championship in the near future.one space 

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Much will depend on how the draft unfolds, but if my job were on the line, as Rich Cho‘s may be, I would select Devin Booker with the ninth pick in the 2015 NBA Draft or trade up to get Mario Hezonja.one space 

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No matter who the Hornets choose, they need to get it right.one space