Quote:
|
Originally Posted by RedBlackAttack
...which is not where I would want to be if I were a NO fan. In my experiences with the NBA, you are best off either being an elite team or a really bad team.
Right now, New Orleans has the 2nd worst record in the league. That gives them one of the highest probabilities to land a top pick in this extremely good draft on the horizon. If they finish the season where they are in the standings right now, they are guaranteed the 4th pick at worst.
That Minnesota pick in this particular draft is very valuable. Right now, they are looking at, what? The 12th pick?
So, say they get lucky and get the top pick (entirely possible) and the T-Wolves pick stays where it is...
You are talking about bringing in Anthony Davis and another elite prospect based on what they choose to do with Gordon. If they re-sign Gordon, maybe they get Quincy Miller at 12. If they let Gordon walk, maybe Jeremy Lamb or Bradley Beal?
So, if things stay where they are and the ping-pong balls bounce their way, they could be looking at this lineup next year...
Jarrett Jack
Eric Gordon
Quincy Miller/Trevor Ariza
Anthony Davis
Okafor/Kaman
or
Jarrett Jack
Jeremy Lamb
Trevor Ariza
Anthony Davis
Okafor/Kaman
Would you rather have one of those teams or be a 7th or 8th seed that gets ousted easily in the first round and has a few aging guys with bloated contracts?
New Orleans would actually probably be better off just telling Gordon to take the season off and shoot for Drummond or Davis... At worst MKG.
Use that 12th pick on another nice prospect and look toward the future.
As a Cavs fan, the way the team was playing when everyone was healthy was making me nervous. Once again, the last thing I wanted that team to be was .500 and a lamb being led to the slaughter in the first round. We need another high draft pick. Injuries have made that more likely.
And, our franchise will be better for it in the long run, as will NO.
|
That "Be awful"tactic works out about as well as the "Give a huge sum of money to an injury prone swingman who has never won anything" tactic. And they might have to do both. It all comes down to the bounce of a few balls in the lottery and having a wise enough GM to not just draft a name.
Especially when the top prospect is another jumping jack bigman who dominates college like 90% of other huge wingspan jumping jacks. There have been 12#1 overall picks be "cant miss" bigmen since Webber and id only want 4 as a franchise player and one of those 4 retired at 30 having missed half his career. These guys set franchises back just as quickly as massive deals to guys who have proven nothing.
Shitty team building makes a team fall flat on its face more often than it saves them suddenly in the lottery. Especially when even if it gets a lottery pick it pairs it with a presumed franchise player who has looked like one for maybe one 35 game stretch in 4 years.
The Hornets couldnt sell Chris Paul and a playoff team to NO. They had 2 for 1 tickets just to sell enough so the arena couldnt opt out of the lease. That level of fan disinterest suggests they just need to get out of there. But if they stay....and build around Gordon? With a GM that gets overruled and back stabbed?
Just seems like a shitty situation. shitty from a roster, front office, and fan stand point. Thats an unholy trinity many teams suffer through for years. Some.....decades. The draft doesnt fix you when your team is truly truly awful, you have a castrated front office, a big contract middling injury prone swingman leader, and fans who dont care even when the team is good.
In those cases...more often than not....the draft makes you the Bobcats.
You can luck into Chris Webber. Sometimes....the Warriors still stay the Warriors. You can luck into Duncan or Dwight. More often you luck into Bargnani...or Kenyon Martin. Or Kwame Brown. Or Bogut. Or Curry. Or Emeka. Or Oden. Or Joe Smith. Or Darko. Or Elton Brand. Or Thabeet. Or Olowokandi. Or Tyrus Thomas. Or Al Horford. Or Swift. Or Raef. Or Camby. Or Drew gooden. Or chandler. Any of those cant miss young bigmen. Fine players all(well...most). But put most of them on a team with 50 games of Eric Gordon and you are hoping for the top pick for the next 6 years. Eternal lottery saves some teams. But more often than not eternal lottery teams are that for reasons bigger than their luck in the draft.
The Hornets might just need to be over in that town. In 3 years they might be the current Clippers. Or they might be what the clippers were between like...1978 and November.
A shitty team, with shitty ownership, forever waiting for the year after next. Getting an injury riddled franchise player to probably give 58-60 million dollars, a GM with no balls left after what happened, and owners who backstab each other and dont want the team taking on salary sure seems to have them on their way.
I think the team would have been better off being sold to Ellison or one of the others who wanted the team but wouldnt promise to keep them in NO. Thats the biggest roadblock. Not finding a buyer. They had at least one confirmed offer 50 million over what the NBA paid. Its finding a buyer down to fight it out in a shitty situation in NO with fans who dont care.
Right now that team is looking like a trainwreck at every angle. Maybe they get the next Blake and all this doesnt matter. But really...if the Clippers kept Gordon instead of Paul...Blake doesnt make the Clippers matter either with Gordon having his 3rd straight derailed season.
I could just see this going so terribly. Too many warning signs of an eternally bad team.
Destroy and rebuild is justified. I just dont know that 30 games to start last season makes Gordon the one to lead it. But I dont see how they justify letting him leave when they can match his soon to be large offers and they sold the "fans" on him as the core to their youth movement.
Give me Odom and Martins expiring deals to move or let expire and let me roll with my 3 contracts for sure going into 2013(well...2 plus arizas option and whoever they draft). We would still be a bad team. But not a bad team about to pay Gordon more than Scola is due when there is no evidence hes a difference maker or healthy.
If Gordon turns to a healthy Wade out of the blue and they draft the next Blake....fine. But how often do those things happen to teams run like shit owned by owners with a conflict of interest who want to save money?
They are a mess from the top down and Icould see it being the kind of mess that lasts longer than it has to with the moves they made, players they almost have to resign, and a GM who had his authority stepped on by "owners" who for the most part are better off not having the Hornets improve as far as their own teams are concerned.
The NBA owning that team was just a bad idea from the jump. All parties would probably be better if Ellison bought them and moved them already. At least the owner wouldnt be a group of 29 people who each have basketball reasons to make the team bad because it helps his bigger concern.
Re: Eric Gordon to undergo another arthoscopic knee surgery, out six more weeks
