Who should the Hornets draft?

[projeck33]

I heard the Hornets was looking at dat pg from IONA Scott Machado,good look cause this guy is a true pg which we need,this guy is averaging a double double,him and Anthony Davis can be immediate help,so lets get rid of Okafor and get a 3rd pick and really clean up this offseason,We have $ we have draft picks and a nice core to REBUILD in a hurry!!!Trade Gordon he don't want be here so trade him for Danny Granger,BRING HIM HOME & PUT HIS FACE ON THE ARENA!!! PG.Scott Machado
SG.Trevor Ariza
SF.Danny Granger
PF.Anthony Davis
C.Chris Kaman
Young Players and Veterans should = Quick TURNAROUND!!!GO HORNETS!!!

[projeck33]

I heard the Hornets was looking at dat pg from IONA Scott Machado,good look cause this guy is a true pg which we need,this guy is averaging a double double,him and Anthony Davis can be immediate help,so lets get rid of Okafor and get a 3rd pick and really clean up this offseason,We have $ we have draft picks and a nice core to REBUILD in a hurry!!!Trade Gordon he don't want be here so trade him for Danny Granger,BRING HIM HOME & PUT HIS FACE ON THE ARENA!!! PG.Scott Machado
SG.Trevor Ariza
SF.Danny Granger
PF.Anthony Davis
C.Chris Kaman
Young Players and Veterans should = Quick TURNAROUND!!!GO HORNETS!!!

[Danchrism]

Originally Posted by ALLSAINTS66

I agree with Lamb... but there's no guarantee he's
going to the NBA this year. I think it's LIKLEY, but
not a given.

Well... yeah.

Last year everyone KNEW Sullinger and Barnes were turning pro.
Neither did.

If he comes out, I think he'd be a great add with our second first-rounder, which seems more likely to be at the end of the lottery.

[HennessyRob]

Originally Posted by projeck33

I heard the Hornets was looking at dat pg from IONA Scott Machado,good look cause this guy is a true pg which we need,this guy is averaging a double double,him and Anthony Davis can be immediate help,so lets get rid of Okafor and get a 3rd pick and really clean up this offseason,We have $ we have draft picks and a nice core to REBUILD in a hurry!!!Trade Gordon he don't want be here so trade him for Danny Granger,BRING HIM HOME & PUT HIS FACE ON THE ARENA!!! PG.Scott Machado
SG.Trevor Ariza
SF.Danny Granger
PF.Anthony Davis
C.Chris Kaman
Young Players and Veterans should = Quick TURNAROUND!!!GO HORNETS!!!

I'd really like that.

[nolafan33]

Trading Eric Gordon for Danny Granger makes no sense.

[projeck33]

y, i think Granger for Gordon makes alot of sense...Gordon don't want be here!!!

[Danchrism]

Originally Posted by projeck33

y, i think Granger for Gordon makes alot of sense...Gordon don't want be here!!!

The Pacers would have to initiate that trade, because after the situation that got Gordon here in the first place, the Hornets pretty much can't initiate anything.

[SonOfNOLA]

Harrison Barnes and Jeremy Lamb. Trade Gordon and the Minny pick to a team that's also picking in the top 5 to get both Barnes and Lamb, along with getting another quality big in that trade. It's probably a long shot to happen, but I'd be excited like a mf for next season if this could be our squad

C - Okafor/Kaman (if we can re-sign Kaman)
PF - Kaman/Ayon, another big man acquired thru trade..maybe re-sign Landry to another cheap deal
SF - Barnes, Ariza, Aminu
SG - Lamb, Belinelli, Henry
PG - Jack, Vasquez


After seeing what Kaman and Ayon have been doing lately, I don't think it make much sense to target a big in the draft. We really need some legit scorers in the backcourt bad and guys that can stay healthy. Gordon's one of the best scorers in the league when healthy, but I'd hate to see the Hornets re-sign him long term just for him to get hurt again a few games into next season and the team would be right back in the situation they're in right now.

We're pretty much stuck with Okafor the next few seasons since it's impossible to trade him because of the ****ty contract he has. Okafor wouldn't be much of a problem offensively if we had some guys like Barnes and Lamb that can carry the load. The sky's the limit for those two. It's probably too early to compare Lamb to Kobe, Reggie Miller or Dwyane Wade, but right now I see him as someone that could be one of the next great SG's in the league. He has great size, unlike Gordon, but still need to add a bit more weight.

[projeck33]

We need a pointguard so Scott Machado makes since and I don't see another guy in college dat fit with what we do like Anthony Davis his defense and wingspan at the 4 position with Kaman at the 5 would give us great size and if Gordon was to return to the team healthy it could be a nice team!!!
pg.Scott Machado
sg.Eric Gordon
sf.Trevor Ariza
pf.Anthony Davis
C.Chis Kaman

[SonOfNOLA]

Originally Posted by projeck33

We need a pointguard so Scott Machado makes since and I don't see another guy in college dat fit with what we do like Anthony Davis his defense and wingspan at the 4 position with Kaman at the 5 would give us great size and if Gordon was to return to the team healthy it could be a nice team!!!
pg.Scott Machado
sg.Eric Gordon
sf.Trevor Ariza
pf.Anthony Davis
C.Chis Kaman

We already have both Jack and Vasquez at PG under contract for the next 2 or 3 seasons. I know they aren't CP or Rose as far as dominating on a consistent basis, but I'm sure there's 20 other teams that would like to have a dominating PG as well. Jack and GV are the last guys that would be a problem right now. There isn't any PG in this draft class that's worth taking in the lottery, especially someone from a small school like Iona. Maybe I'm wrong about him, but unless he's the second coming of Steve Nash and 5x better in terms of getting guys open, then it wouldn't make sense. What do you do with Jack and Vasquez if you get Machado? You'd have an overloaded spot and wasting a valuable lottery pick on a player we didn't need.

I'm not sold on Gordon being someone we can build around at this point. He has yet to play a full season. Everytime it looks like he's about to take the league by storm he gets hurt every year. Getting the type of scoring and durability from Harrison Barnes and Lamb is exactly what we're missing right now and would make the rest of our guys look a lot better than they are IMO. Getting Barnes and Anthony Davis is the only way I think it's a good idea with keeping Gordon so we wouldn't have to rely on him in case he gets hurt again, but you'd have to trade up either way to do so because they're both projected to be top 5 picks. Minnesota will likely finish with at least a .500 record so that would put their pick around #15. I'm not sure what else we can use though besides Gordon to get us a 2nd top 5 pick. Maybe Jarrett Jack along with future picks down the road to be included with the Minny pick and then sign a FA PG like Nash to be a stop-gap for a few seasons.

[nolafan33]

Originally Posted by projeck33

y, i think Granger for Gordon makes alot of sense...Gordon don't want be here!!!

What sense does it make? Granger is nearly 29 years old, has seen his ppg and fg% decrease every year since 08-09 (to the point of shooting only 38% this year), and he's on a huge contract. He'll by making over 14M by the time he's 30. Trading for Granger makes NO sense, even if Gordon wasn't involved.

On top of that, you have absolute no evidence to back up your claim that Gordon doesn't want to be here. The ONLY piece of concrete evidence anyone has on Gordon is that he negotiated a long term extension with the team to STAY HERE, but his people and the Hornets were about 6M off.

[SonOfNOLA]

Just some scenarios/suggestions I'll throw out there that we could do with the 2 picks based on where they'll likely be slotted (our pick in the top 3 and the Minny pick would likely be around #13-15:

1st pick: C/PF - Andre Drummond & 2nd pick: PF/SF - Perry Jones III, SG/PG - Austin Rivers, PF - Jared Sullinger, SF - Moe Harkless, or Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (I kind of hate the idea of us taking a Center that early because we would be passing on a high-end scorer like Barnes and we already have Okafor, who's great on D but very inconsistent on the other end. But I see so many mocks have us taking him in the top 3 and see him being compared to Amar'e Stoudemire and Dwight Howard on nbadraft.net, which is absurd. He has the size and a terrible FT shooter like Howard and had the hype when he was younger in high school, but he doesn't have that killer instinct like Howard to take over games or willing to get better as a player in general, which is evident in his averages so far at UConn (10.2 ppg, 7.7 rpg, & 2.7 bpg). Numbers like that aren't Howard-esque, let alone worthy of being selected in the top 5. Taking him would be soley based on what he can possibly become, which is risky because a guy like him will be either a hit or a huge miss. There's another prospect at Center from the big ten, Meyers Leonard, that's been putting up better numbers than Drummond (13.5 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 1.9 bpg, 1.3 apg) and has great size (7'1, 245 lbs..probably would need to bulk up a bit), but yet he's projected to go at the bottom of the lottery. That would be a steal to get him in the middle of the first if we decided to go after Center in the draft this year.)


SF - Harrison Barnes & PF/SF - Perry Jones III

PF - Anthony Davis (if we get the no. 1 pick) & SF - Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, SF - Moe Harkless, PF/SF - Perry Jones III, or C - Meyers Leonard

SF - Harrison Barnes & PG - Kendall Marshall (Tarheel teammates...Marshall has really been impressive lately to where he's convinced me taking a PG wouldn't be a bad option selected with the Minny pick as long as we get a decent scorer with our original pick in the top 3. The way he sets up guys is outstanding and while he can still get better scoring on a consistent basis, he has a decent jumper. He's very similar to Mark Jackson, a floor general that could have a 15 year career type of guy. Jack would have to be traded if we get him and can probably net us a solid PF in return. I saw some clips on Scott Machado and he's in the same mode as Marshall, but I'm not sure how well he'd do against better competition than he had playing against while at Iona.)

SF - Harrison Barnes & PF - Jared Sullinger (if he can somehow fall that low)

SG/SF - Jeremy Lamb & SG/PG - Austin Rivers (This is probably the most wishful thinking of them all. We could take Lamb and Rivers and have them playing at the 3 and 2. Either Rivers or Gordon would have to learn how to be a full-time PG with Jack being the odd man out and traded. A lineup consisting of Lamb, Rivers, and Gordon has a perennial championship-contending future written all over it because of the lights out scoring you're getting from all 3, along with all of them being solid defenders, but making one of them be a full time PG and how well the chemistry between the 3 would be revolving around that is what makes it wishful thinking. Austin Rivers falling to the middle of the first round if he enters the draft this year is probably being hopeful, too, but anything is possible.)

SF - Harrison Barnes & PF/C - Tyler Zeller

SF - Harrison Barnes & SG/PG - Austin Rivers (Same situation like above, but the only slight difference would be Barnes is a natural 3 while Lamb can play SF but classified as a SG for the most part. It can either be the smartest draft decision in NBA history getting Barnes and Rivers and actually having Rivers or Gordon pan out as a PG, or be a complete disaster if making one of them an NBA PG equates to plenty of L's.)


We come away with a very bright future in store with any of those scenarios. You can't go wrong with any of these potential starting lineups:

Okafor, Perry Jones, Barnes, Gordon, Jack
Okafor, Davis, Perry Jones or Harkless, Gordon, Jack
Leonard, Davis, Ariza, Gordon, Jack
Okafor, Sullinger, Barnes, Gordon, Jack
Okafor, '12 FA signing at PF (Garnett, Humphries, or Jamison), Lamb (or Barnes), Rivers (or Gordon), Gordon (or Marshall)
Drummond, Perry Jones (or Sullinger), Ariza, Gordon, Jack
Okafor, Zeller, Barnes, Gordon, Jack (or Marshall if we can trade Jack and maybe Ariza or Aminu to get back into the mid first round to grab KM. We can then have the Tarheel triplets to go with Gordon! You can apply this scenario with any of the other lineups above as well.)

[weightlifter316]

Now that the college basketball season is almost finished here are my top 20 players for the 2012 NBA Draft

1. Anthony Davis
2. Thomas Robinson
3. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
4. Jeremy Lamb
5. Harrison Barnes
6. Jared Sullinger
7. Andre Drummond
8. Cody Zeller
9. Bradley Beal
10. Arnett Moultrie
11. Austin Rivers
12. Meyers Leonard
13. Perry Jones
14. Kendall Marshall
15. Terrence Jones
16. Tyler Zeller
17. Damian Lillard
18. Doron Lamb
19. Moe Harkless
20. John Henson


This is a pretty deep draft. We should get an elite prospect with our 1st pick and a good value pick with whatever pick we get from Minny. The players who I'd most like to see on the Hornets are Davis, Robinson, J. Lamb, Barnes, and Beal.