Draft position

Even weak drafts have good guys go late. The 2006 draft was pretty terrible. The Hornets had 2 lotto picks and only got Hilton Armstrong and Cedric Simmons out of it. The good picks were

2 LaMarcus Aldridge
6 Brandon Roy
8 Rudy Gay
11 JJ Reddick
21 Rajon Rondo
24 Kyle Lowry

Demps' supposed strength is putting in the extra analysis to get the guys others miss, so I think this is a pretty big test for Demps. If the team misses the better prospects he needs to either pick Reddick early or trade back and pick Rondo/Lowry.

Yeah, again the 2006 draft had a 6/30 chance of getting a guy that's better than end of rotation or out of the league. The one thing going in the Hornets favor is that this current coaching staff is really good at player development even if they drive certain fans crazy with game management Vasquez is a bit biased but in an interview about a week ago he said the Hornets had the best PD in the league, and the new training facility that will be ready in July can only help them get better at it.

Drafting high does not correlate to winning titles later. Over-rated.

If you want wins, just get them now.

Are you people serious? Multiple players like Jason Smith and Carl Landry have credited the coaching staff with why they returned.

Even if we agree that Vasquez, Lopez, Miller and Davis' improvements are tied more to minutes than coaching, which I think is partly true but a bit too dismissive to the coaches, there are plenty of examples of player improvement.

Year 1 with Ariza vs. year 2 with Ariza were night and day for the cringe factor. Yes he still was a flawed player but under Monty he learned to minimize attempts of things he's bad at and maximize attempts of things he's good at. Aminu has been the same story, no he didn't become a star player, but he went from "is he Juju 2.0?" to "Did Demps make a mistake not picking up his option?"

Jason Smith and Marco Belinelli both went from a career path heading out of the league to quality bench players/pinch starters.

Lance Thomas and Brian Roberts both went from Dleaguer to legit end of rotation player.

The improvement in Austin Rivers this season was very noticeable.

Seriously, what is wrong with some of you? Monty had one primary skill on his resume when he was hired, brutally honest player developer, and that's been the one consistent skill he's shown since he's been here.

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Demps' supposed strength is putting in the extra analysis to get the guys others miss

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No offense, but that sounds like something you just made up

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Are you people serious? Multiple players like Jason Smith and Carl Landry have credited the coaching staff with why they returned.

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I'm not dogging out the coaching staff, but I think this is a very optomistic view. Landry was a great player before he was traded to the Kings and he was never as good once he got here. Same with Ariza. He was a solid player with the Lakers and wasn't horrible with Houston. Monty had Ariza the whole time he was here. Him getting better, from being below average his 1st year isn't a badge of success in my book. Just making a transition. Belli was semi-solid with the Warriors and Raptors as well (was a star in Europe). He was picked up in a hurry by the Bulls this summer. Not sure what any of these players show that proves the staff is above average at developing players (that it would be an orginizational strength).

We can debate over players like Thomas, Roberts, Smith and Rivers. But I can throw back players like Henry, Dyson, Summers, Ewing Jr, Sloan, Watkins, Poindexter, Bayless (!), Anderson even Collison and Thornton as far as young players that either didn't work out or were shipped out for other pieces. My point being, when you got a young, cheap core and you are playing tons of young, experienced players all the time some are going to work out eventually.

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Seriously, what is wrong with some of you? Monty had one primary skill on his resume when he was hired, brutally honest player developer, and that's been the one consistent skill he's shown since he's been here

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I haven't seen it yet. The team's primary player's (Gordon, Anderson and Davis)
reputation were built elsewhere. Vasquez is a nice find, but I'm not sure about being a long time solution and it's not enough to gush over.

Monty's image was crafted in Portland as a player mentor and his big credits were shaping Outlaw, Webster and Batum into the players they are today. He was a good assistant, but everybody knew it was a gamble of a hire. He was young and unproven as a game manager. I think he will/could get better. But I don't think he has had that much sucess here..

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brmark70816

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+1

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You make sure he gets the full blame for not leading Al-Farouq Aminu, Lance Thomas, and Austin Rivers to the playoffs, though.

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Well not full blame

But I mean, he is the head coach

I'd hate to have to judge him based on the roster he has as of late. I'd wait until the roster is more established to see how he handles a more stable team that can execute the way he intends them to.

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Demps' supposed strength is putting in the extra analysis to get the guys others miss

No offense, but that sounds like something you just made up

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He was brought in to implement the San Antonio model, one of his first acts was putting a real scouting department in place, he's regularly personally on scouting trips, what would you say his strength is supposed to be?