With Steve Clifford in the fold its more like -150 odds
You seriously underestimate the Charlotte franchise. We are talking about forces beyond manās control
1 Like
Filipowski is more of a Guard skillset in a Big body. Heās a bit of a point forward/centre who can stretch the floor. Where he lacks is finishing at the rim. He isnāt strong enough, at the moment. Iād like to think an extra 15 lbs or so, and a bit more man strength, would alleviate a lot of that. I donāt think heāll ever be genuinely good at the rim, but I also donāt think thatās really his game. That said, he gets defensive rebounds pretty well.
A really interesting player, who would have a defined and important role on our roster. I think he compliments Mark very well as a big 4 alongside him, as well as a small 5 in relief of him. I think Iām higher on him than most and ultimately see him as developing into a really good 6th/7th man, mainly due to his not traditional skillset.
All of this under the caveat that Iāve seen enough of him to have a broad opinion, but not enough to think I have him nailed down.
If losing more absolutely guaranteed you a higher pick that would be one thing, but it doesnāt.
1 Like
Bargnani or Mehmet okur like?
In terms of spacing the floor / shooting, heās getting there, but heās a playmaker and facilitator too. A really versatile Big. Kelly Olynyk would be my comp and I know youāve mentioned Kelly as being a good fit on this roster. Heās worth a watch.
Miles, Grant, Mark, Filipowski & Nnaji, with Thor on the outside looking in or gone, is a really promising and versatile Big group. Iād love to get an experienced vet in that mix, like we have with Seth in the Guard group.
1 Like
I agree completely. But, after seeing the new Hornets, I donāt see how this group doesnāt compete every night and win their share of games. I still think top 8 is probable. Maybe Iām wrong and they continue with loosing 8 out 10 games and remain top 4.
I hear you, and 9.5/10 Iām right there with you, but this draft Iām less worried about that. This draft hs more depth than top heavy talent. In my opinion of course.
Also, I donāt think weāre going to have to worry about sliding out of the top 8. Tons of talent that fits our needs in the 5-10 range. Iām just not in love with the top 5 in this draft.
Filipowski is not a polished three point shooter like Olynyk. I wonder how Kyleās game translates into the nba, as I donāt see him as particularly athletic.
To me, this is a great example of this draft. Iām not against Filipowski as a talent (despite the shit hole if a university he plays for). In most good drafts, Kyle is a back end of the first round kind of guy, but this year he very well may creep into the lottery picks.
Iām just not super high on this draft. Thereās talent, Kyle is fine, Iām just not attached to anything in this draft.
So just doing the math, thereās 29 games left. Letās say we approach .500 and go 14-15 the rest of the way (with 2 wins already, the new roster would be 16-15).
We are currently in 4th in the lottery game. Despite our best efforts, we could never overtake the horrors of the Pistons, Wiz, and Spurs. Thatās with as awful basketball as you can play, and 4th was as high as we could get.
Winning 14 more games will give us 26 wins for the year. Looking at the standings, the Hawks only need 2 more wins to get there, the Nets 5 wins. Iām guessing the play-in caliber Hawks will go better than 2-26 to close the year, and the Nets will do better than 5-24.
In the best (worst) case scenario, we fall 3 spots from 4th to 7th, with all our winning. If Toronto goes better than 7-17 to close the year, weāll only fall to 6. Grizzlies are free falling, so theyāll likely jump into the top 4, but Portland seems to be competing and going for wins, so they might keep ahead. And the Spurs are only a game back of us, Wembyās growth could be enough to stay with us.
So if we suck like normal, weāre probably in the 4-5 spot, if we go .500 the rest of the way, then itās probably 6-7.
But because of this, weāre likely to go 23-6 the rest of the way, win the 10th spot by a tiebreaker over the hawks, then lose by 30 to Miami in the play in.
This is the way.
2 Likes
Yea, heās not that level of shooter from 3 yet, but itās coming along.
Sadly, agree too on the grade. I absolutely see him as a lottery pick in this draft, borderline top 10 IMHO, but a mid to late 20s pick in last years.
Good news! According to Tankathon when all those 2nd round picks were swapped around in last weeks trade we did come out with Houstonās pick (currently #40) and gave Dallas Bostonās pick (#60). Last week was one of the best trading days in franchise history. Now we all need to pull against the Rockets.
5 Likes
You know, this has been a funny season.
Apparently MJ was very influential in the Miller draft pick. And then MJ sold his majority shares.
GM Mitch executes these trades, and then is relieved of his GM duties after the trade deadline. (Yeah, it was probably more the new owners, but it doesnāt fit my narrative lol).
Whatās up with people doing good things and then stepping away?
Really happy with this. Better chance of selecting a solid rotation player or making a move up. Options. Good to have.
If this draft is mostly role players thats all the reason to have a top 5 pick. We are right there with Detroit, Washington and SA right now and have been nost of the season. If you are worst in the league you guarantee a top 5 pick. If you are 7th yoh could get 10th pick or worse. Its a really big difference and we need to control what we can control. I think bottom 3 odds would be safest which can happen if we are smart with it like we werenāt last season (we could have had bottom 3 but won 18 out of 30 games when the season was well over at one point, and the 3rd worst team got #1 pick)
But again, how do you actually ācontrolā this short of telling guys not to play to win? And more specific to us, how do you tell guys like Mann and Micic, who are playing to establish themselves in the league to give half effort? How do you tell Seth and Grant Williams who are living their dream playing for their hometown teams to tank? How do you alter a teamās losing DNA by trying to lose? I get maybe hoping we lose or thinking it may be beneficial in theory, but youāre talking about actually trying to lose on purpose and I just donāt see how you operationalize that without destroying the culture these trades were executed to create.
3 Likes
Iām not really in love with anyone who may go top 5.
Then maybe we should just sell the pick for a million lol. An asset is an asset you want to maximize the value of it when play in/playoffs are out of reach
Other teams do it just fine but the Hornets have always had too much pride to tank, even last year
Which would you prefer after this season?
2 more miserable losing seasons, then 3 winning seasons and a franchise pinnacle of a 2029 NBA finals loss.
Winning seasons and playoff appearances only(!) the rest of the decade, but never quite reaching the conference finals.