- The Hornets’ season is over and that means three of their players are now free agents, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer notes. Centers Bismack Biyombo and Willy Hernangomez and guard Dwayne Bacon will be on the market in October when free agency begins. Guard Malik Monk remains suspended indefinitely for violation of the NBA anti-drug policy, Bonnell adds. Monk was suspended in late February.
The NBA is expected to finalize a proposal on Thursday that will send 22 teams to Orlando in order to finish out the season. It will be a unique experience for a number of reasons — one interesting wrinkle will be how the league determines the lottery odds for 2020 without all of the clubs playing the same number of games.
The Warriors, Cavaliers, Timberwolves, Hawks, Pistons, Knicks, Bulls, and Hornets will likely be locked into the top eight lottery slots, a source tells Hoops Rumors. The order within the top eight has yet to be determined, but the structure means the Wizards couldn’t go 0-8 this summer when the season resumes and land a better position in the lottery than those teams that won’t be playing.
It’s “part of the tradeoff” for the franchises that won’t be given a chance to resume their campaigns, per the source. Another scenario discussed was freezing the lottery as it stands, allowing no movement up or down by any team, even those in the 9-14 positions. Either way, the top eight are expected to be assured of their standing.
Both the lottery and the combine had been postponed indefinitely, though they are now expected to take place in August. Nothing is finalized as of this writing, including the proposal to return.
Here’s a look at the odds of each lottery position as well as the order of teams, should the league go with the current standings:
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GSW | 14 | 13.4 | 12.7 | 12 | 47.9 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| CLE | 14 | 13.4 | 12.7 | 12 | 27.8 | 20 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| MIN | 14 | 13.4 | 12.7 | 12 | 14.8 | 26 | 7.1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| ATL | 12.5 | 12.2 | 11.9 | 11.5 | 7.2 | 25.7 | 16.8 | 2.2 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| DET | 10.5 | 10.5 | 10.6 | 10.5 | 2.2 | 19.6 | 26.7 | 8.8 | 0.6 | – | – | – | – | – |
| NYK | 9 | 9.2 | 9.4 | 9.6 | – | 8.6 | 29.6 | 20.6 | 3.8 | 0.2 | – | – | – | – |
| CHI | 7.5 | 7.8 | 8.1 | 8.5 | – | – | 19.7 | 34.1 | 12.9 | 1.3 | >0 | – | – | – |
| CHA | 6 | 6.3 | 6.7 | 7.2 | – | – | – | 34.5 | 32.1 | 6.7 | 0.4 | >0 | – | – |
| WSH* | 4.5 | 4.8 | 5.2 | 5.7 | – | – | – | – | 50.7 | 25.9 | 3 | 0.1 | >0 | – |
| PHX* | 3 | 3.3 | 3.6 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | 65.9 | 18.9 | 1.2 | >0 | >0 |
| SAS* | 2 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 2.8 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 77.6 | 12.6 | 0.4 | >0 |
| SAC** | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.8 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 86.1 | 7.6 | 0.1 |
| NO** | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 1.7 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 92.0 | 2.3 |
| POR* | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.7 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 97.6 |
*Will play eight more regular season games
** The Kings and Pelicans have matching 28-36 records and would be subject to a random tiebreaker to determine which team gets the No. 12 slot and which gets No. 13. Their spots in this list (and their odds) could be flipped if the NBA ends up freezing the standings to determine the lottery’s order.
Lithuanian forward Arnoldas Kulboka is remaining with Spanish club Bilbao Basket for next season after receiving interest from Zalgiris Kaunas in his home country, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. The 22-year-old was selected by the Hornets with the No. 55 overall pick in the 2018 draft, but has yet to sign an NBA contract.
According to Donatas Urbonas (Twitter link), Kulboka’s agent Tadas Bulotas said that if not for the coronavirus pandemic, his client was planning to join the Hornets this year. As leagues take different approaches to COVID-19, the NBA offseason will no longer necessarily line up with the offseason for European leagues, complicating decisions for players looking to make the jump one way or the other.
Kulboka could potentially revisit the possibility of joining the Hornets in 2021.
The NBA is moving closer to having all its teams reopen its practice facilities for voluntary individual workouts, with the Hornets issuing a press release indicating they’ll make the Novant Health Training Center inside Spectrum Center available starting Tuesday.
According to Charlotte’s announcement, the club’s practice court is the only area that will be available to players and coaches, with the locker rooms, weigh rooms, and medical/training areas remaining off limits. The team also wants players only doing on-court activities (ie. shooting) that can’t be done at home.
The Hornets will also adhere to the rest of the NBA’s league-wide regulations on workouts, including allowing no more than four players in the facility at a time and conducting symptom and temperature checks on anyone entering the building.
With the Nets also announcing plans to reopen their practice facility on Tuesday, more than two-thirds of the NBA’s clubs will have done so as of tomorrow. We’re still waiting on the Bulls, Celtics, Knicks, Mavericks, Pistons, Sixers, Spurs, Warriors, and Wizards.
After the final two episodes of The Last Dance aired on Sunday, Scott Fowler of The Charlotte Observer writes that the second act of Michael Jordan‘s life in basketball has been “the polar opposite” of the first. While ESPN’s 10-part documentary series accurately portrayed Jordan as a wildly successful player on the court, he has been largely unsuccessful as a team owner since gaining control of the Hornets.
As Fowler acknowledges, a team owner doesn’t have nearly the same impact on night-to-night results as a star player would, but Jordan has been heavily involved in the Hornets’ personnel decisions. Since Jordan took over as the organization’s majority owner, Charlotte has just three winning seasons and hasn’t advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs.
Fowler wonders if Jordan has any more appreciation for former Bulls GM Jerry Krause than he did during his playing days, since the current Hornets owner could have used his own version of Krause since arriving in Charlotte.
A pair of early entrants out of Duke have signed with agents who aren’t NCAA-certified, officially signaling that they’ll go pro and remain in the 2020 NBA draft. Tre Jones has signed with BDA Sports, according to the agency’s Instagram account, while Cassius Stanley has joined ISE Basketball (Twitter link).
Both Blue Devils prospects had been expected to keep their names in the draft, so their moves to secure representation don’t come as a surprise. Both players are ranked in the top 50 on ESPN’s big board for 2020, with Jones coming in at No. 33 and Stanley at No. 50.
Here’s more on the 2020 draft:
- A couple more players on this year’s early entrants list have signed with agents and will remain in the draft. Minnesota big man Daniel Oturu has joined BDA Sports, per the agency (Instagram link). Meanwhile, DePaul’s Paul Reed has opted for Ron Shade of Octagon, tweets Evan Daniels of 247Sports.com. Oturu and Reed place 36th and 51st respectively on ESPN’s list of 2020’s top prospects.
- Arizona forward Zeke Nnaji has had virtual meetings with the Pelicans, Wizards, and Hornets so far, and has one lined up with the Jazz later this week, says Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link). A possible first-round pick, Nnaji is ranked 34th overall on ESPN’s big board.
- The NBA has sent teams ballots to vote on prospects they’d like to see participate in the 2020 draft combine, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The combine, originally scheduled to take place next week, has been postponed indefinitely, but the league still hopes to hold it in some revamped form, either in-person or virtually.
The Pistons will hold Christian Wood‘s Early Bird rights this offseason and will have the opportunity to dip into cap room if those Early Bird rights (which would allow the team to offer about $10MM per year) aren’t enough to re-sign him. That should put Detroit in the driver’s seat to bring back the promising young big man, who enjoyed a breakout season in 2019/20.
However, as James L. Edwards III of The Athletic details, the Pistons figure to face some competition for Wood’s services on the open market.
Edwards points to New York and Boston as two teams that could pursue the free-agent-to-be. A March report identified the Knicks as a potential Wood suitor — they could have plenty of cap room and a positional need if they decide not to bring back Bobby Portis and Taj Gibson. As for the Celtics, they’ll only have the mid-level exception available, but expressed interest in Wood at the trade deadline.
Edwards goes on to speculate that the Hornets and Pelicans may also be among the teams that keep an eye on Wood in free agency. Charlotte, in particular, will have a good chunk of cap room available and will likely be in the market for a big man with Bismack Biyombo and Willy Hernangomez set to reach the open market.
Here’s more on the Pistons:
- Given the volatile nature of both the draft lottery and the draft itself, launching a full-fledged rebuild doesn’t come with any guarantees, and the Pistons’ decision to do so wasn’t as obvious as some believed, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. However, shifting into rebuilding mode was still the right call for the franchise, Langlois contends.
- The Pistons likely won’t be reopening their practice facility until at least May 28, since Michigan’s stay-at-home order runs through that date, as Rod Beard of The Detroit News details. “We’re adhering to that,” head of basketball operations Ed Stefanski told Beard. “When the governor of Michigan will let us open the facility and the league is going to allow the players to come back if they want to, to get workouts. We have plenty of protocols to set in place already, and we’ll be ready when they’re allowed.”
- In case you missed it on Monday, Blake Griffin shared a positive update on his recovery from knee surgery, suggesting he has “basically been cleared for a while now.”
6:35pm: Group workouts and organized team activities will still be prohibited, Wojnarowski adds in a full story. In areas where longer stay-at-home orders are in place, the league will try to help teams find other arrangements so their players can train.
5:17pm: The NBA will let some teams reopen their practice facilities to players beginning Friday, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The permission will only apply in cities and states where governments have relaxed their stay-at-home orders, Woj adds.
The league ordered all 30 teams to shut down their facilities effective March 20 in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Several teams had announced voluntary closures before that mandate was issued.
Georgia was one of the first states to begin relaxing restrictions, with some businesses reopening yesterday. Several players were asking their teams if they should find a way to get to the state to work out, according to Wojnarowski, but teams want to make sure their athletes are in safe, clean and controlled environments (Twitter link).
Wojnarowski cautions that the NBA’s decision doesn’t mean plans are in place to restart the season, but the league wants players to be able to safely return to their team’s gyms (Twitter link). A source tells ESPN that commissioner Adam Silver and the owners believe they need more time to determine whether the season can be salvaged.
A few writers examine how the decision will affect the teams they cover:
- The Hawks haven’t heard anything official from the league, according to Chris Kirschner of The Athletic (Twitter link), and there’s no plan in place to begin using the team facility again.
- May 8 is the earliest date the Hornets could reopen, tweets Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer (Twitter link). North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has issued a stay-at-home order for the state through then, with plans to begin phasing it out.
- Michigan is under a stay-at-home order until at least May 15, so the Pistons have nearly three weeks before they can reopen, adds Rod Beard of The Detroit News (Twitter link).
The Hornets have outperformed preseason expectations in 2019/20 and played some good basketball in February and March, winning seven of their last 13 games entering the NBA’s hiatus. However, the club still posted an uninspiring 23-42 overall record, ranking 28th in offensive rating and 25th in defensive rating. As such, head coach James Borrego knows that upgrades are necessary heading into next season.
Appearing today on a conference call with multiple reporters, including Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer, Borrego named a few specific areas that the Hornets will look to address in the offseason, including improving their performance on the boards.
“We need defensive rebounding,” Borrego said. “Even in that (effective late-season) stretch, where we were 10th defensively in the league, we were still very low in our defensive-rebounding percentage. That has to get better. That’s an area we will address.”
Borrego noted that the Hornets will need more rim protection, particularly if big men Bismack Biyombo and Willy Hernangomez head elsewhere in free agency. The second-year head coach also wouldn’t mind adding another play-maker to complement guards Devonte’ Graham and Terry Rozier.
“I think Devonte’ made a major step in (creating) for others and create his own shot,” Borrego said, per Bonnell. “We’re looking for that at the wing: A playmaker with size that can see over the defense, that can finish at the rim.”
Finally, while the Hornets placed in the middle of the pack this season in three-point shooting, that’s an area that Borrego essentially views as an evergreen need.
“In my system, we can never have enough shooting,” he said. “That’s something we will continue to address because that makes the game easier for everybody.”
Charlotte will enter the offseason armed with a lottery pick and will also be one of a small handful of teams that actually has cap room, increasing the team’s flexibility in free agency. While he didn’t identify any specific targets, Borrego said today that he’s looking forward to discussing the draft and free agency with president of basketball operations Mitch Kupchak and exploring how certain players will fit into the Hornets’ system, as Bonnell writes.
- Roderick Boone and John Hollinger of The Athletic take an in-depth look at the Hornets‘ future, with Hollinger suggesting that the team missed a chance to kickstart its rebuild by not trading Kemba Walker before he reached free agency. While there are fewer impediments on their cap than there were a year ago, Hollinger thinks the Hornets may still be a lottery team for a few more seasons.