It is a truth universally acknowledged that this year’s draft sucks and the Hornets will not pick up anyone helpful with the 21st pick. Or at least, so everyone says.
In the interest of curiosity, and good ol’ draft week fun, I put the 2008-09 Hornets roster into draft order. Snarky commentary will be provided below.
- Tyson Chandler……… 2
- Chris Paul…………….. 4
- Antonio Daniels……… 4
- Melvin Ely……………. 12
- Hilton Armstrong….. 12
- Julian Wright………… 13
- Peja Stojakovic……. 14
- David West…………. 18
- James Posey………… 18
- Morris Peterson……. 21
- Sean Marks…………. 44
- Rasual Butler……….. 52
- Ryan Bowen………….55
- Devin Brown……….. N/A
Some thoughts that leap immediately to mind based on the above list:
Both the Hornets point guards were #4 picks. Tyson Chandler should be the best guy on the team based on the draft, but his PER makes him roughly the third best guy on the team, so that’s not that big a difference. If he was healthy. All the people who are like, “Let’s draft a big! On potential!” should learn from the placement of Hilton Armstrong and Melvin Ely, who were both picked at #12 and yet managed to suck way more than the next eight guys below them. I dunno, maybe #12 is the pick of death or something. Sorry, Charlotte. Peja being drafted at 14 seems like kind of a steal, but that was a really deep draft, and you can’t really blame the teams who passed over him for the likes of AI, Ray Allen, and Kobe Bryant (random fact: Peja was drafted exactly one spot after Kobe). D West and Posey both were drafted at the same position (#18) after playing the same number of college seasons (4) at the same school (Xavier). How under-the-radar of them. Rasual Butler is the only second round pick to start for the Hornets this year. Devin Brown was the only Hornet not drafted. Imagine my surprise.
But wait! I’m not done! Let’s check out how the world champion Los Angeles Lakers stack up, in…. “If draft order was real life”!
- Adam Morrison…………..3
- Pau Gasol…………………..3
- Lamar Odom………………4
- Andrew Bynum………….10
- Kobe Bryant………………13
- Derek Fisher………………24
- Shannon Brown………….25
- Jordan Farmar…………..26
- Sasha Vujacic…………… 27
- Luke Walton………………32
- Sun Yue…………………….40
- Trevor Ariza………………43
- DJ Mbenga………………N/A
- Josh Powell……………..N/A
Utter hilarity. Just because I’m laughing at Adam Morrison, really. But actually the Lakers draft order is fairly reflective of reality. There are only three guys who are super out of place– Trevor Ariza is too low, Kobe should be up at #1, and Adam Morrison………… BWAHAHA! Yeah.
So basically, if you are saying anything after the 15th pick is gonna be garbage, then you are saying the (world champion) Lakers didn’t need those five productive bench players and one starter who were drafted lower than #24. You are saying the Hornets don’t have a chance to pick up a D West, Posey, Mo Pete (well, he didn’t play and we sucked this year– so maybe we did need him! so there), or Sual the Phoenix.
The draft is a huge crapshoot. But I think we’ll be good… as long as we don’t look at a big and go, “Oh, he’s over 6-10, it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t have any skills now. Even if he just stands there, it’s better than–”
No. It is not.
P.S. This post originally included like six Devin Brown jokes. I have removed them. But you can imagine them.
Kickin it in flip flops
“Devin Brown was the only Hornet not drafted. Imagine my surprise.”
I Lol’ed. Definitely would not have minded 5 more Devin Brown jokes. And great post… puts everything in perspective for sure.
yeah I hope we get a better assitant coach someone to help develop our sqaud….. What really surprises me is Ginoseablili was a 2nd round draft pick… Like 60th over all??!..
In addition.. if you average both teams drafted players It comes out to about the same.. I dunno if avereging draft picks really equates to anything, but we do have higher drafted players than the Lakers..
That’s why I included the Lakers. It’s easy to say, “Well, we sucked this year so…” But they won, and their players were drafted pretty low. You need the right system and situation.
I hope we hire TWO assistants. I don’t know if you remember, but one left last summer and was never replaced all year. So really they ought to be hiring two.