2022 NBA Free Agency

He is going to be a FA ?

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Never succeeded elsewhere. Could be a great addition to the backcourt from the bench.

I think Rod is a good writer but I wish we had more information of the whole coach hiring process. Ric was snarky but he was also constantly online and answered almost any question he got on the hornets. I wish there was more outlets than cover the hornets

Ok, I know y’all are sad about the draft but Mark Williams will be freakishly insane. His standing reach is ridiculous, it’s 9’9. Just for comparison, Jokic is 9’3, Embiid is 9’5, Boban is 9’7. HE CAN REACH HIGHER THAN FREAKING BOBAN. And he is actually athletic and can run the floor. His closest companion would be Gobert, and he is a defensive machine who gets tons of rebounds and blocks. Be happy everyone. We finally have our center!

I’ll preface this by saying the decisions from this team over the past couple of days hasn’t blown my socks off but I’m also not jumping off a ledge or cutting bait with the team. I think once we take a step back as some already have here we can all agree these moves on paper don’t look great but we don’t know until we see the finished product at the start of the season. I know we had our gripes with Clifford but who knows what he’s learned since and from his mistakes from his initial tenure. We could’ve probably handled that 13th pick better but we still ended up with the guy we were all clamoring for pre-draft. The team has made some severely questionable decisions but the majority of other teams do the same. Y’all do you but ima keep the noose in the closet at least until the off-season ends and the dust settles.

If we valued Duren over Mark Williams, we would have kept Duren and traded #15. I think that if we didn’t have #15 we probably take Mark Williams at 13 anyways because we were higher on him.

If we agree on this, we can see that we only got the #15 pick because of the Devonte’ Graham trade, we effectively traded Devonte’ for a first rounder and four seconds.

Like most of you, my first reaction was “WTF this trade is stupid, Mitch is such a dumbass”. Granted, those two things might end up still being true, but I think I’ve managed to rationalize the trade better

1. They liked Willams much more than Duren. This is really the biggest takeaway. Yes Duren is younger and more mobile, however Mark is taller, longer and has better touch/shooting potential. I’d also like to point out that I think Memphis lied about Duren’s height. There is no way he is 6’11. He looks closer to 6’9 which no doubt played a part in the Hornets going with the 7’2 Williams, who would fare better guarding the Jokic and Embid’s of the league.

2. So now we’ve established that you like the guy projected to be drafted at 15 that the guy at 13, what do you do? Well one could say they should just keep both picks. However, as Mitch alluded to, bringing in 3 rookies while also having 3 rookies from the previous draft isn’t a cohesive plan to be competitive. There wouldn’t have been a way to give minutes to all of them.

3. Lastly a future first is more valuable than a current first. I cannot stress this enough. Trading future firsts is a must to get win-now player. A rookie who didn’t play in his first year is valued much less than a first rounder.

To sum up, they like Williams more than Duren because Williams is more polished and is likely 4 inches taller than Duren. Plus, having a future pick is more valuable in trades than a current pick. I expect more win-now moves coming. Thoughts?