I have no words that can adequately express the abject absurdity of this. An NBA basketball team gives two twins with local ties but limited credentials a great opportunity to play for them. In time the team realizes that it could not and likely should not keep both, so they let go the apparent lesser one.
Then of those two twins, the one they chose immediately succumbs to a a chronic knee injury while the other goes on to become the MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals while playing for that teams most despised rival.
You’d think there was a curse or something on that franchise. But you don’t really believe in such things.
It’s so absurd that’s it’s hilarious to me. This is the most hornets thing to happen.
It’s so funny. Hornets have both Martins via 2nd round pick and UDFA. They keep the one that played better.
The “lesser” Martin, Caleb, goes to Miami and signs a contract for less than the hornets paid Cody. He goes on to play well in Miami and probably should’ve won MVP for the ECF.
Cody Martin in charlotte: paid more than Caleb, sits out the entire season due to injury. And now his career is in limbo.
That’s the most charlotte hornets thing in the world. And the funny part is that the hornets made the right choice and didn’t do anything wrong to deserve it.
I have planted my flag on this hill: this franchise is CURSED. I’m serious. There has to be something borderline supernatural going on.
Probably right on that front. The underdog/hard working guy that came out of nowhere is always irresistible in American sports. That combined with how fitting it is according to hornets law that Caleb Martin is playing super well probably led me to side towards Caleb. But yeah, it probably is butler.
I don’t think we can just easily dismiss this as Hornets law though. There were indications that Caleb was capable of doing some good work early in his career. And I disagreed then and now that he was the lesser of the two, although I was high on both.
Some people saw it as just a feel good story or a gimmick, but the truth is, they both had game. Too bad the FO couldn’t see that earlier.
I definitely saw promise in both guys as significant contributors, but I’m not sure any reasonable person would have said that either guy would be the second best player on a team playing in the finals. I think the Hornets Law is that we pick between them, our guy gets hurt, and the other guy exceeds all expectations in another city. That they’re twins certainly makes it feel worse.
That being said, a key take away for me is that we can’t keep writing off our own guys when the larger issue is culture. We do need the right players with the right mentality and a leadership team that can build a winning culture with a clear direction. And it’s true that you can’t pay big money to role players. But also, we can’t constantly cycle through players and expect to build any momentum.
That’s one of the reasons why I’m ready to mostly run it back with the crew that finished the season and showed some heart and identity. I think you bring back a hopefully healthy Melo, add a significant rookie, build on the group that was playing together end of season, and trade some of your vets at break for needed pieces.
Who knows though. This is a fickle game where plenty of teams look like they have everything they need and still flounder. Or a busted up 8th seed makes a run to the finals.
I’m in full agreement with the first two paragraphs, but conflicted by the third. I definitely want some continuity, and agree that a culture can’t be built if the players keep on being changed out. That said, it’s the vets I have questions over, as it was principally the younger players who showed the heart and created an identity.
So I’m hoping for continuity and playing time for our younger guys; LaMelo, Bryce, Thor, Williams & Richards (maybe Kai too, if he finally knows where to be and what to do on the court). I’m hoping we bring Scoot and Kris Murray into the rotation. I’m hoping Cody can get healthy and that DSJ can be brought back to continue to demonstrate his intensity and toughness, and that it proves to be contagious. I’d also welcome Svi back.
It goes without saying, in a conversation about character and culture, that I do not want Miles on this roster.
I think I mostly agree with what you’re saying here. And again, not saying I predicted that he’d go on to become arguably the best player in a conference final, but I do think it was clear that he was a quality player worth keeping around. I guess where I push back against the Hornets law thing is that it assumes that we HAD to choose between them and thus, fate dictated that we chose the one who got hurt and not the one who exploded on the scene. But we didn’t have to choose. We had them both and we could have kept them both, for relatively little money. So I don’t think that’s Hornets law. We just have to own that decision.
But I otherwise agree with running it back. I’ve felt strongly for a while that we’ve got a lot of the right pieces. I tend to value our our pieces more than some and I agree that you can’t keep tearing it down and hitting the reset button. That’s also why I’d like to hang on to Miles. We can’t afford to keep squandering assets. Build on what you have and add pieces where you can.
There’s one and only one team that can give him over $200m period and that’s Boston. Any other team would be - at max - a 180m range for a 4-year contract.
With all respect, I’m not sure this is completely fair. I thought Terry, Kelly and PJ showed a ton of heart throughout the season, carrying the load when guys were repeatedly in and out of the lineup. Kelly and PJ in particular probably had the best seasons of their careers. And it was those vets plus Miles who were largely responsible for our best season in several years last year, and for establishing our identity of being one of the up and coming teams in the EC.
Don’t get me wrong, I too am high on Svi, DSJ, Theo, Bryce, etc, and I did love their energy. I hope we bring most of them back. But the fact that we won some games down the stretch against rosters that were ravaged by injury, tanking or had just shut it down for whatever reason and, conclude from that that the vets don’t have as much heart as they do isn’t fair imo. I think when you’re losing, it can be easy to say, “out with the old, in with the new”. But in fairness to the vets, we rarely if ever had a full roster this season. When we have we’ve been pretty good.
You’re right, in that they carried the offensive load. Without doubt, they stepped up and took the scoring weight. However, I struggle to get on board with Terry and Kelly as vets I can count on to lead the culture. Neither of them is reliable on D. I’d flat out question their efforts on that side of the ball, which rules them out as leaders for me. I do like them both, and they seem like good locker room guys, but they’re not who I want at the head of the roster hierarchy.
I like PJ and would be happy to see him back, for the right money. He’s one of our better defenders, is valuable as a small ball #5 option, and can space the floor.
You’re absolutely right, and there is an element of that in my comments. But at full strength, this roster is unbalanced. We win by outscoring, which is a fun but unreliable way of winning. It’s not Terry’s fault, for example, that he’s miscast here. He would be one of the best 6th men in the league, if we only had a starting SG to complement LaMelo. Kelly is a great spark plug off the bench, a real energy guy. What neither of them is, is a two-way player who leads by example, and that’s what I want from vets on this roster. There’s definitely bias on my part, no doubt about it. but it’s bias based around my philosophy on leadership.
As one of the original victimized disciples (OVD) of Hornets Law (class of ‘88), the first tenet of our holy creed that is involuntarily waterboarded into our souls is:
You will always end up disappointed
This omni-inclusive dictum covers both fate and incompetence. It was written in the stars during the first epoch of the universe. It transcends all things logical or illogical, illusory or tangible, real or imagined. Whatever decisions the power brokers of the team make, reasonable or unreasonable, will always end in the exact same place from the start.
Unless an owner can obtain all five of the infinity starters (and one infinity super-sub). Then, and only then, can a snap of the finger redress pass ills and set the universe on a different path.