I agree with most of your post. However, the trade with the Lakers wouldn't have been much better. You think Gordon wants to leave, look at what happened with Lamar Kardashian...Odom, oops. He straight up said he didn't want to come here, or leave the Lakers at all. He went to the freakin' world champs for pete sake and pouted so much and gave so little effort they released him. I wouldn't be shocked if he fades out of the league entirely if he can't get back to L.A. or some desperate team severly overpays him, which is not likely to happen. Also, Gordon is not an unrestricted free agent. The Hornets can match any offer and keep him.
I hear you. I thing Gordon still has to prove himself after three years in the leage...he only played about one and a half seasons in three years. I think he's an unknown commodity, not so much in his ability as in his durability. I look for him to stay, but I bet a team that really needs a shooting guard will make a big play for him. If that play is too big, I don't think we'll match. Then we'll have gotten Kaman for Paul with Aminu (a big project) as a sort of lagniappe. Stern stuck us with a bad deal and that fuels the conspiracy/sour grapes fires.
Paul was leaving us no matter what, a bad deal would have been for us to let him leave without us getting anything in return. instead, we got one of the best young SGs in the game, an All-Star center, the #10 overall pick in the upcoming Draft, and a young prospect. everybody on the general NBA forum and the 3 Hornet forums I follow thought that was a great deal for us. also, the NBA bought the Hornets to keep them in New Orleans, which was another great deal for us. as for the conspiracy theories, that happens ever year. it's a running joke in the only major league that uses a lottery to determine the #1 overall pick (in the last 20 years, only 3 teams with the worse record actually won the draft lottery). every year, the joke is that what really happens is the Commissioner goes into a little secure back room and writes down who gets what pick on a piece of paper. LeBron is from Ohio, let's give Cleveland the #1 pick, the Cavs lose LeBron, let's give them the #1 pick to make up for it, the Sonics are itching to leave Seattle, let's give them the second pick in the Durant/Oden lottery, the Wizards draw negative global attention with the gun incident, let's give them the #1 pick to help erase it from peoples minds, etc. every year, sportswriters and message board posters have fun trying to predict who Stern is going to give the top pick to. having Michael Jordan do well is good for the NBA, let's give it to him. the NBA ruined Houston's offseason plans by squashing the Pau Gasol trade, let's give them the #1 pick plus an All-Star game as a peace offering. Sacramento is trying to raise financing for a new arena, let's give it to them. Brooklyn is opening a fancy new arena in a major media market and their GM just screwed the team by making a dumb trade, let's give it to them, especially since they are owned by the Russian mafia and they will kill you if you don't. Stern told Benson: "buy the team, and you'll get Anthony Davis plus an All-Star game." etc etc as for anybody jealous of New Orleans' good fortune, screw 'em. it's not like New Orleans has more than it's fair share of good fortune in sports. in basketball, New Orleans lost one NBA team already, came perilously close to doing so again but for a league bailout, both times within a decade of setting up in NO. the city has never had a MLB team. its NFL team was a joke every year outside the Brees and Dome Patrol years, and just got hit with the most draconian sanctions in league history, etc but yeah, on the general NBA forum, I didn't see anybody upset that New Orleans got the #1 pick, just a bunch of posts on how the future is very bright in New Orleans, very good talent, coach, GM, etc as for the two articles people are talking about above, its funny how the two sportswriters had complete opposite takes on what went down among the representatives of the teams at the lottery, the yahoo guy took it like they were upset at New Orleans, while the CBS guy said everybody was happy for New Orleans, back-slapping, joking around, etc
Well, I'm glad we got the #1 pick. Are you saying that no one gets to see the actual number of ping pong balls actually put in or is that just the running joke? That'd be funny if the Louisiana lottery was more honest than the NBA lottery !! I never watched it play out.
in April, all 5 panelists said they would pick Anthony Davis over Blake Griffin coming out of college http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/5-on-5-120403/nba-draft-anthony-davis-better-blake-griffin one of the panelists, John Krolik (NBA columnist for NY Times, NBC ProBasketballTalk, Cavs: The Blog, etc) said "I think Davis is the best pure prospect we've seen since LeBron James" also, note that 2012 Anthony Davis was #1 in the NCAA with 3.52 dunks per 40 minutes (#2 was Andre Drummond with 3.21), while 2009 Blake Griffin was #1 in the NCAA with only 3.06 dunks per 40 minutes
The 10th pick whether it be Rivers or Lillard and if Demps can get McGee finally would take the team to another level because I don't see EG going no where
I think Gordan resigns too. I wonder what the Vegas odds are on the guy missing significant playing time this coming year.
CBS Sports gave "A" grades to 17 of the 60 picks (28%) in the Draft, including 2 of the Hornets picks: A+ for Davis at #1 ("It's a no-brainer pick, but that doesn't mean it's any less of a home run.") A- for Rivers at #10 ("Assuming the Hornets re-sign Eric Gordon, here's their core: Anthony Davis, Gordon and Rivers. That has kind of Thunder ring to it, doesn't it? Young, fast, long and exciting. The Hornets became a League Pass favorite with this draft") B+ for Darius Miller at #46 ("Not a bad value in the middle of the second round.")
