Charlotte Hornets: The Stakes Tonight
We start setting up the NBA Draft landscape for the Charlotte Hornets with a simple survey.
The Charlotte Hornets are less than twenty four hours away from the Draft. They have interviewed people at the combine. They have worked out people here in town. The stage is now set for them to pick somebody.
But who to pick? They have four pieces who are currently free agents that were important parts of the team last year. Those would be Nicolas Batum, Al Jefferson, Marvin Williams, and Jeremy Lin. The Hornets may view their draft choice as a replacement for one of the four of them (except Batum).
At the Combine the Hornets talked to shooting guard Malik Beasley, swingman Malcolm Brogdon, wing Daniel Hamilton and Justin Jackson. Jackson removed his name from the draft and returned to school. Those remaining three are still around.
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In the workouts, the Hornets have looked at Brogdon, Patrick McCaw, Anthony Barber, A.J. Hammons, Diamond Stone, Tyler Ulis, Stephen Zimmerman Jr. Chinanu Onuaku, and Thon Maker. That gives the team a total of two point guards, four wings, and five big men looked at.
The easy thing to notice is that the team did not work out anyone who could take over from Marvin Williams. Nor is there likely to be anybody at the Hornets pick that has that certain skill set of his.
The odd thing about the big men that the Hornets looked is all of them project to be around later than the Hornets pick. Now it is possible that they tried to bring in certain guys who turned them down rather than do it because they think they will be gone by 22. Only Thon Maker consistently projects as a first rounder out of those guys.
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Ulis and Barber are also borderline picks, and both should be available by the time the Hornets pick.
With so many guys not quite grading out at the Hornets pick level, should the Hornets try to trade down? There are a couple of teams with multiple picks early in the second round when many of these guys will be available. These teams include Milwaukee, Boston, and New Orleans.
Second round draft picks are cheaper, but they can also reach big free agency money sooner if they are successful. A first round pick is locked in for a set number of years. Since the Hornets need to find money this off season, any source of savings could be good.
Next: Old North Banter Mock Draft 3
So that is the landscape. Now let’s take the landscape apart and see what that tells us.