I spent 2-1/2 hours studying the players that are in the NBA draft. The one thing I discovered is that if a player in the top 6 to 7 doesn’t fall to us, we may want to look into trading down. I only say this because most of the projections that they have the Hornets drafting at 9 have a big plus and a big minus. At least 3 that I looked at has great offense and bad to questionable defense. We want to get someone that would play both sides of the ball…at least I think we do. Let me start with the 9 players we have under contract to show needs. By the way, McRoberts is a free agent now…
PGs
Kemba Walker
SGs
Gerald Henderson
Gary Neal
SFs
Michael Kidd-Glichrist
Jeffery Taylor
PFs
Cody Zeller
Cs
Al Jefferson
Bismack Biyombo
Brendan Haywood
These are the 9 under contract. Adding Seth Curry could help at PG (he was in D-League undrafted). Ramon Sessions is a FA, so he could also be a PG option. Don’t draft a PG.
Re-signing McRoberts gives you 2 good options at PF.
Drafting McDermott or Aaron Gordon (#9) would eliminate the need for McRoberts in my opinion (similar game style), but you would have to look for a vet like Jeff Adrien to add to the rotation. He was putting up really good numbers in Milwaukee. Picking one of those guys makes me wonder about their faith in Zeller, unless they are cool with drafting a guy to come off the bench at 9. Looking at age and long term, we may not want to look for a PF at this spot.
Drafting LaVine (#9) gives an athletic PG/SG with time to learn the NBA game. It makes more sense because it gives more youth at the SG spot where we don’t have youth. Jeffery Taylor is a young and viable backup at SG or SF. He could start at SG. I’m not fond of Henderson anymore, so I’d look for a trade there. Trading Hendo may cost the #9.
The only other spots to draft where youth is lacking is C. If Biz doesn’t have a breakout season, we only have Al and Haywood. Haywood isn’t an option in my opinion. We should probably shop for a FA center and try to buy out Haywood. This draft doesn’t have any Cs we should chase. Honestly, we could look at Greg Oden, Chris Andersen, or even Marcin Gortat. We need a solid backup for Al.
How about this scenario:
PGs
Kemba Walker
Ramon Sessions
Seth Curry
SGs
Gerald Henderson – Trade Hendo and the #9 pick to Orlando for Aflallo and the #12 pick
Gary Neal
Try to Sign Lance Stephenson
Draft PJ Hairston @ #24
SFs
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Jeffery Taylor
Draft TJ Warren @ #12
PFs
Cody Zeller
Josh McRoberts
Jeff Adrien
Cs
Al Jefferson
Oden or Andersen
Biz
Haywood – Buy him out
Come on Trade Street Post readers, Hornets fans…have I lost my mind? Am I a genius?
Give me some feedback
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