![]() ![]() ![]() Eventually, they tore it all down to start over, suggesting they're still a few years away from making substantial noise.įor the Hornets, it's a bit different, although the Magic example does remain relevant. ![]() The Orlando Magic spent six seasons pairing up Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier, and have just two first-round exits to show for it. If players are given a significant chunk of years together, that isn’t fielding results on the court, trading for fit becomes even more vital, even at the expense of talent. Putting together a winning team is one of the most difficult things to do in the NBA, and once again we're looking at a balancing act. Those are situations the Hornets need to identify, just as they have to identify the opposite of a wunderkind, and know when to scale back. The expectation level of Dosunmu before the start of the season was he probably wouldn't play more than 10 minutes per game, but he proved he was able to handle more through solid production. They have started rookie Ayo Dosunmu for 30 games this season, initially out of necessity, but he turned out to excel in that role. These are questions team ask themselves all the time, and it isn’t always easy to know. Should a team be ready to lean into an inexperienced second-year player who has a good 10-game stretch, knowing that such production might be a fluke? Are their young players actually best suited for bench roles for an additional season before it's wise to bump them up as starters? Or, alternatively, are they not playing a young guy enough minutes who clearly deserves them? Buddy Hield spent about three years too long with the Kings, which is an obvious example of a situation that should have been resolved a lot earlier.Īdditionally, finding the right timing to make trades can be complicated. To fans, that may sound like the ultimate "duh" point, but for small market teams, there is often a tendency to hang onto rotation players for too long, either due to declining trade value or due to a lack of alternatives. The Hawks blended youth and veteran leadership, signing both Bogdan Bogdanovic to pair with Trae Young, while already having players on the roster who could fill those minutes in John Collins, De’Andre Hunter, and Cam Reddish, the latter of which is now with the Knicks as a direct result of wanting a chance to play.Ĭharlotte has to tip-toe that line better than the Hawks did, by identifying the players they believe will be long-term options for them early, and be willing to pull the trigger on moving players around the periphery of the core. That leads us to another point of emphasis. ![]()
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