Charlotte Hornets: Grading The Offseason

The Charlotte Hornets didn’t land a superstar during free agency this summer, but they’ve been one of the busiest teams in the NBA this offseason. Though the Hornets will still be dependent upon the health/performance of guys like Al Jefferson, Kemba Walker and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in 2015-16, the front office has done a respectable job of rounding out the roster.

Charlotte definitely won’t be competing for a championship next year, but the Hornets will be looking to bring the buzz back after a disappointing season of regression that resulted in a 33-49 record and a trip to the lottery — just one season after making the playoffs at 43-39.

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Bearing that in mind, Charlotte could be in the running for one of the final four playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. But how have they positioned themselves for 2015-16 after such a busy offseason?

In the interest of putting it all in perspective, here are offseason grades for every single move the Charlotte Hornets have made so far this summer.

Next: Bye Bye Born Ready

Trading Lance Stephenson for Matt Barnes and Spencer Hawes

Boy, how quickly that fell apart. One year ago, stealing Lance Stephenson from Larry Bird and the Indiana Pacers felt like a victory. With a backcourt of Kemba Walker and Born Ready, the Hornets theoretically had playmaking, defense, rebounding and modest shooting between its two guards.

But then Stephenson failed to fit in, ruined the team’s chemistry, and completely laid an egg on the 2014-15 season, averaging 8.2 points per game on 37.6 percent shooting from the field and an atrocious 17.1 percent shooting from downtown. Getting rid of Stephenson, even at age 24, represented Charlotte’s best shot at improving in an addition-by-subtraction kind of move.

Unfortunately, the return wasn’t particularly bountiful. Matt Barnes was easily the best acquisition for Charlotte, but he didn’t stick around for long. What the Hornets are left with is Spencer Hawes, someone who had a similarly terrible season in his stint with the Los Angeles Clippers, averaging 5.8 points per game while shooting 39.3 percent from the field (31.1 percent from deep).

Hawes failed to earn Doc Rivers‘ trust and crack the rotation, averaging a meager 17.5 minutes per game, but the Hornets are desperate for three-point shooting. There’s a bit of a logjam in the frontcourt, but even if Hawes is unable to spread the floor in a bounce-back season (he did shoot 41.6 percent from deep in 2013-14), this might be a good move simply for the sake of removing Born Ready from the equation.

Grade: B

Next: Trading For Batum

Trading Gerald Henderson and Noah Vonleh for Nicolas Batum

This move is a tricky one to grade. On the one hand, the Hornets easily got the best player in the deal, which is always a good thing. Nicolas Batum is a solid defender, a useful three-point shooter and a smart two-way player who will make Charlotte a better team next season.

For those worried about how Batum and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist will mesh since they both play the small forward position, take a look at the small-ball Golden State Warriors and how they won a championship despite positional overlap due to the versatility of those players. With long wingspans and elite defense, moving Batum to the 2 or MKG to the 4 could make for some intriguing lineups.

Swarm and Sting

Gerald Henderson only had one year and $6 million left on his contract, so even though he was a useful and often underrated wing in Charlotte, the Hornets will now avoid overpaying a role player next summer.

However, that’s about where the good news stops with this deal. Batum, 26, is coming off a major slump season in which he averaged only 9.4 points per game on 40 percent shooting (32.4 percent from three-point range) — the worst numbers since his rookie season. He also chipped in 5.9 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game, but even before Wesley Matthews‘ Achilles injury, Batum as a major reason nobody saw the Portland Trail Blazers as legitimate contenders in the West.

He could just need a change of scenery, but even if Batum bounces back in 2015-16, he’s only on contract for one year. Next summer he’ll be an unrestricted free agent and if he plays as well as the Hornets are hoping, Charlotte won’t be the only team vying for his services.

Finally, we can’t ignore how the Hornets gave up a lottery pick in Noah Vonleh after only one season. Vonleh hardly cracked the rotation in his first NBA season, averaging 3.3 points and 3.4 rebounds in 10.4 minutes per game. But his potential as a stretch-4 was tantalizing, especially since he had three more years on his rookie-scale deal. I’m not sure one guaranteed year of Batum was enough to justify this trade.

Grade: C

Next: Trading For Jeremy Lamb

Trading Matt Barnes and a 2016 Second-Rounder in a Three-Team Trade for Jeremy Lamb

Matt Barnes was not a necessary addition to the roster, especially once the team traded for Nicolas Batum. Between Batum, Kidd-Gilchrist and Barnes, there wouldn’t have been enough minutes to go around at the 3-spot. The Hornets need shooting from that spot, so even though Barnes made 36.2 percent of his threes last season, he’s not typically viewed as a knockdown shooter.

In other words, if Batum is able to bounce back with this change of scenery, choosing him over Barnes makes sense before you consider all the other areas of the game where Batum is superior.

That being said, the theme of the Batum trade, intentional or not, was sacrificing the long-term future to improve the team right now. Why trade Barnes for an unproven youngster like Jeremy Lamb, then?

To be clear, I like the acquisition of Lamb, and if the Hornets were never intent on keeping Barnes (as was reported from the beginning), then dealing him and a second round pick to bring in a 23-year-old who could develop his game in the right situation was a good move. It just seems a little contradictory after sending Vonleh away, who I believe has more potential than Lamb at this point.

There will be pros and cons to Lamb playing with this particular roster. Unlike the loaded Oklahoma City Thunder, Lamb will have a better chance at cracking the rotation. Unfortunately, he’ll still be playing behind Batum and MKG, with P.J. Hairston also fighting for minutes on the wing. It’s not a bad move by any means, but it remains to be seen how much upside there really is here.

Grade: B-

Next: FRANK THE TANK

Drafting Frank Kaminsky

Some teams were extremely high on Frank Kaminsky heading into the 2015 NBA Draft; some were not. On the one hand, the Hornets replaced their raw stretch-4 in Vonleh with a more NBA-ready stretch-4 prospect. Again, Charlotte’s frontcourt is a bit cluttered, but Frank the Tank has a high basketball IQ and his shooting ability is exactly what the Hornets are looking for at that position.

However, there are some definite question marks surrounding this pick. For starters, Duke small forward Justise Winslow was still somehow on the board at No. 9 when the Hornets were on the clock. Winslow’s skills might have overlapped with what Michael Kidd-Gilchrist brings to the table, but that early into the draft you draft by best available, not by need.

Instead, Charlotte stuck with the plan to take Kaminsky and try and bolster their perimeter attack, even though the Boston Celtics reportedly offered six(!!!) draft picks for that No. 9 pick. His lack of athleticism, speed and question marks about his ability to defend at the next level permeate through his potential and make him a possible draft bust candidate.

By the way, remember when Cody Zeller was drafted in 2013 as someone who brought a somewhat similar skill set to the table? I think Kaminsky will actually be a serviceable stretch-big if he can hold his own in the paint and on the boards, and at the very least he should provide perimeter shooting. But here’s hoping Winslow doesn’t come back to haunt the Hornets in the future.

Grade: C

Next: Bye-ombo

Letting Bismack Biyombo Go

When unrestricted free agents leave their respective teams for greener pastures, it’s hard to classify it as “letting them go.” But since the Hornets chose not to tender restricted free agent Bismack Biyombo a qualifying offer, thereby making him an unrestricted free agent, they effectively decided to let their backup center go.

In his fourth season in Charlotte, Biyombo averaged 4.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 19.4 minutes per game. Despite being undersized at 6’9″, Biyombo’s extremely long arms and anticipation made him a great shot blocker off the bench, especially since he’s only 22 years old.

Biyombo agreed to a two-year, $6 million deal with the Toronto Raptors. The Hornets definitely could have afforded that amount for such a young prospect who still has upside even after getting his minutes dialed back in his latest season.

Grade: D+

Next: Linsanity

Signing Jeremy Lin

Even if you’re not sold on Jeremy Lin’s usefulness in the NBA, snagging him on a two-year, $4.3 million deal (fitting him in with Charlotte’s bi-annual exception) is a terrific value move to bolster the team’s depth in the backcourt. With Mo Williams heading back to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Lin — especially at that price — is a tremendous replacement at the backup point guard position.

Last season with the Los Angeles Lakers, Lin failed to live up to the hype under the bright lights of Hollywood. But he still averaged a respectable 11.2 points and 4.6 assists in 25.8 minutes per game while shooting just under 37 percent from three-point range.

Those numbers say nothing about his miserable defense, nor do they speak to the fact that he’s best suited coming off the bench. But as the leading point guard of the bench unit, he could do some damage with the ball in his hands, working pick-and-pop sets with Frank Kaminsky and/or Spencer Hawes.

The days of Linsanity are long gone, but scoring a respectable backup point guard who can score — something Charlotte desperately needed more of last season as the NBA’s 28th ranked offense — at that price for two years is a very nice acquisition.

Grade: A-

Next: The Other Harrison

Signing Aaron Harrison

There’s no guarantee Aaron Harrison will be on the official roster for the Charlotte Hornets once the season starts, but at the very least, he’s earned an invite to training camp.

The lesser of the Harrison twins from Kentucky (at least in terms of NBA potential), Aaron Harrison went undrafted in the 2015 NBA Draft. But in five Summer League games for the Hornets, he impressed playing alongside Kaminsky, averaging 13.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.

He only made five of his 16 three-point attempts in Summer League play, but Harrison displayed a real knack for getting to (and finishing at) the rim, and he skillfully worked off the pick-and-roll too.

There’s literally no downside to bringing Harrison to training camp, but Hornets fans should probably temper their expectations. At the very least, Charlotte won’t have to worry about any awkward tension between Harrison and Kaminsky, since it was the other Harrison twin who said some not-so-nice things about Frank the Tank.

Grade: B+

Next: Re-Signing MKG

Re-Signing MKG

Like the recently announced Jonas Valanciunas deal, signing a one-sided player like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to a sizable extension seems like a mistake with the framework of the old NBA salary cap in mind. But with the salary cap skyrocketing, signing MKG to a four-year, $52 million extension (which kicks in for the 2016-17 season) is actually a pretty significant bargain considering his youth, defensive prowess and room for growth.

As of right now, Kidd-Gilchrist is a limited offensive player. More specifically, even with the “new and improved” release on his jump shot last year, the guy still can’t spread the floor. Per NBA.com, he made just 53 of his 143 midrange attempts (37.1 percent) and nearly two-thirds of his shot attempts came from inside the paint. In fact, he didn’t even attempt a three-pointer last season.

Last year, MKG averaged 10.9 points and 7.6 rebounds per game while shooting a respectable 46.5 percent from the floor. But he took a very limited number of shots on a nightly basis. For all his intelligence, incessant cutting and unstoppable motor, there’s only so much he can do on offense without a serviceable jump shot, especially as the league heads further into this small-ball era that relies so heavily on three-point shooting.

That being said, Kidd-Gilchrist is only 21 years old and he’s already an elite wing defender. Per Sports Illustrated’s Ben Golliver, the Hornets posted an impressive 96.3 defensive rating with MKG on the court, but that number swelled to 104.1 with him on the bench. That’s a MASSIVE difference of 7.8 points per 100 possessions.

Kidd-Gilchrist has two things he needs to accomplish to make this extension a steal: improve his jump shot to round out his game, and stay healthy. His balls-to-the-wall approach is what you like to see in an elite defender, but it’s also cost him 27 games in 2014-15 and 20 games the season before. In any case, kudos to the Hornets for locking him now and avoiding an inevitable max extension next summer.

Grade: A-

Next: Overall

Overall

This offseason was full of ups and downs for the Charlotte Hornets. For the 2015-16 season, they should be an improved team with Batum entering the fold. They nabbed Jeremy Lin on a bargain contract, locked MKG in for the foreseeable future and with a healthy Kemba Walker and Al Jefferson, this team has its sights set on the playoffs.

But there were clear blunders along the way. Giving up on Noah Vonleh after only one season seems a bit premature, especially when Batum only has one year left on his contract. Will he really want to stay in Charlotte as a free agent next summer? It’s far too early to tell, but turning down a package of multiple picks to draft Frank Kaminsky could easily prove to be a mistake as well.

Though the Hornets are set to be an improved team on paper, even the Lance Stephenson addition-by-subtraction move doesn’t guarantee Charlotte a spot in the postseason. Mo Williams and Gerald Henderson are gone and Spencer Hawes and Jeremy Lamb don’t move the needle much for me. One more season of mediocrity and the Hornets could be heading for some difficult decisions.

Grade: C

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