Were the Charlotte Hornets on the lowest budget in the league??

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Grainger. For the ones who get it done. We've talked a lot of Super Bowl, a little bit of ACC Hoops. We're going to get into that as well here in a second. But we haven't mentioned, I think, some fairly big decision-making news coming out of Charlotte as the Hornets organization has decided to transition, if you will, Mitch Kupchak, from general manager into an advisory role. And the Hornets, I think, have had, I mean, I don't know how to say was it good. We don't know because the two biggest pieces they got don't show up until the 2027 draft, but they are assets and they got first round picks in a couple of deals. We're going to get into that in just a moment. Kanata Edwards, my friend, none of the Scribe on Twitter, CBS Sports, joining us on the Adam Gold show.

All right, sir. You are dialed into what the Hornets do. Talk to me about the Mitch Kupchak era and Mitch was great with the Lakers back in the day when they won championships. How good was he for Charlotte?

He was on a curve. And like, we got to remember that with the Jordan era, Michael Jordan was like, made a billion dollars. But when you start thinking about what that means in terms of NBA ownership, he was probably had the Hornets on probably one of the lowest, if not the lowest operational budget, possibly in the league. I would put why I say that and why I say the grade Mitch on a curve is because there was very little scouting staff.

There was very little medical staff. All this stuff is now starting to come out now that everybody's leaving the big thing. So for all that, for all that being said, I would give him a solid B. The only thing that stops this from quite honestly being in a is the 2021 draft where he went quite literally all for three.

And the best asset that he got in that trade in 2021 for was Mase. I'm sorry, Mason Plumlee. That was it. Unfortunately, with all of that, it's time. This was always the plan. There was no Mitch saving his job. He was always going to be the consultant. He's always going to be called right around draft time, do certain things. And for the most part, he did a fairly good job and prevented a lot of ownerships.

The worst indulgences will use. He prevented a lot of those, which is something that Rich Cho couldn't say he would have done than Vincent didn't do. So for that, he was Jordan's most successful front office executive, even though that is the lowest bar imaginable. And two things. One, we are describing, obviously, Michael Jordan as a really bad owner of an NBA franchise, which we already kind of knew anyway.

But this does drive it home. That other stuff, the the medical staff and the scouting staff cutting corners there makes zero sense to me. But because you can you can cut corners and not get free agents and they only attracted one major free agent.

And we'll get to that in a second. During the Jordan era, if you if you're not going to attract free agents, then you have to do the other stuff well, because the only way you're going to build your team successfully really is through the draft. And they drafted not great. Yes, it did. Did it get better under Mitch Kupchak?

Yeah, I guess it did. They made their mistakes, but they drafted very poorly at the beginning. Let me just ask you, could you mention 21? But I want to go back to the first draft, which I guess is 20.

Oh, we're going we're going to that one. I'm just curious. I'm just curious because Shane Yoges Alexander right now is one of the best players in the entire league. And that was the Hornets. I'm not saying they made the pick and then traded him because that's generally not the way it works. Those trades are made ahead of time and you make the pick for the team, for the other team. Just like the Hornets didn't draft Kobe Bryant, the Lakers drafted Kobe Bryant using the Hornets pick. I am not incorrect there, correct? You are not incorrect. There is a little we will get I know where you're going to go with this.

Keep going and because I have an explanation on this. So what did they get in exchange for the draft pick which got Oklahoma City? Shay Gilgas Alexander. So what ended up happening was it ended up being a trade for Devante Graham, Miles Bridges, and then two additional second round picks, one of which I believe turned into Nick Richards, who is their starting center right now. And I think the other one turned, I cannot remember the guy's name, but it ended up being there.

The thing that you got to remember is there's a ladder to this. That Devante Graham pick eventually turned into a first rounder, which ended up being the selection that is Mark Williams. And then on top of that ended up being Nick Smith Jr. It's one of the few things that I would say Mitch nailed, except for the fact that it's Shay Gilgas Alexander who also kind of only wanted to work out for the Clippers, which no one ever really likes to talk about.

That's fine. There's more leverage in kind of asserted in the NBA draft than there is in the NFL draft. I think we need to understand unless your last name is Manning, in which case leverage is asserted. Kanata Edwards, at Not of the Scribe on Twitter joining us. The only black mark, I know you had this on Twitter, was the 21 draft. James Booknight has not worked out.

Neither Kai Jones, neither has JT Thor. For the ones who work hard to ensure their crew can always go the extra mile, and the ones who get in early, so everyone can go home on time. There's Granger offering professional grade supplies backed by product experts, so you can quickly and easily find what you need. Plus, you can count on access to a committed team ready to go the extra mile for you.

Call click Granger calm or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. Those two guys, those three guys are the black mark. Those are the ones that when we start talking about just entire just where you cannot afford to miss. And that's where they missed is that 21 draft. And it's one of those like you kind of understand it because when you look at the middle of that draft, it's all Prince and Goon, Trey Murphy, and very little else going from I want to say pick 10 to pick 24.

Like there's very little value in that draft and it may end up being one of the worst drafts of this decade. It would be the worst if not for this upcoming one. So it's a tough one where he missed. He went over three, which again, you cannot go. And that's where you see the lack of depth. And that's where you see when teams go on 11, 12, 13 game. And you don't have a single contributor from a draft where you drafted three guys, and then you end up playing a G league ignite, not necessarily, but a got a center from your G league 20, 30, 40 games. And you have guys that should be in Greensboro that are back in Greensboro, like Nick Smith Jr. Leaky black. That's what happens.

And that's how you get these long losing streaks. And that's why ultimately, I completely understand why it was time to go cannot Edwards at not to describe on Twitter. Yeah.

Look, you know, if he's a consultant, maybe you can talk them out of a mistake. Who's the Gordon Hayward free agent signing? Was that on Mitch Cub checks watch? And if so, why couldn't he talk Jordan out of it? Michael Jordan has forever had an obsession with Gordon Hayward.

And the one thing about Mitch, and this is the thing that I think goes unrecognized a lot, is that with Mitch, he allotted enough space to where Jordan was going to get his Jordan was going to get his guy no matter what. And that was made very, very obvious and very, very clear in the initial press conference with Gordon Hayward when he first signed. And as someone that was there, it was very obvious. Mitch made it obvious. This was really Michael's guy.

Gordon made it very obvious. Michael Jordan was the one that really drove the bus on this. And in in the signing, and it's part of the some of the reasons why there's going to be so much change over the little bit. Gordon Hayward over the life signed a contract for almost 30 million more for than the highest suitor, which was Indiana at the time.

I believe it was a 1 30 deal again for for 1 30 here, whereas. Indiana offered four for like 1 0 5, which should tell you it took 25 million over the life of a deal to sign with the Charlotte Hornets. If that's if you are going to build a sustainable franchise, you cannot pay 25 million over the life of a deal to actually build the team around you.

It's just fiscally not possible, especially with the first and second apron in the luxury tax. And that's where new ownership is, unfortunately, fortunately, but unfortunately going to take over and upgrade the reputation of this of this franchise because it is in the toilet right now. Somebody signing somebody to a big money free agent contract with injury history like that was a losing proposition to begin with, but that's another matter altogether and he obviously was unavailable for the majority of his time in Charlotte.

Final thing for you cannot Edwards at not to describe. What is the ACC looking at when we sit here a month from now? And well, we're almost a month from selection Sunday.

I believe this Sunday is 4 weeks from selection Sunday. What are we looking at with the Atlantic Coast Conference? I think we're looking at what we've always been looking at, which is four to five teams in the tournament. So not not a two or three bid league like we were threatened with by by silly people. Again, some of those silly people I work with, so I can't necessarily throw them under the bus. But I would say this. It was always it was always farcical that the ACC was only going to get two to three teams right now. There are some there are some folks that complain about metrics that didn't beat anybody of note and still need some work to do. Hello, Steve Forbes and Wake Forest.

Yes. Tonight is your time to actually get a win of note. You don't have one really right now. Maybe Florida. Like, I understand that the reputation took a hit, but at the same point, like there's some folks that are skating by on reputation. Hello, Duke, who again, mutual friend of ours, Connor O'Neill points out, yo, their second best win non-conference might be the university again might be Charlotte. It really might be Michigan State's not very good. That's their only other win like that. And Baylor, the only two wins of note in the non-con right?

Like, unfortunately, with this with this league, it comes down to beat somebody and enough haven't beat anybody. And at this point, we know it's North Carolina at the top there being a nice little comfortable gap. Then we have the conversation of Duke, Virginia, who's suddenly roared back Clemson. And then maybe there's wake and the state had actually won that game on Saturday. We'd be probably be talking about them and them needing one or two wins, but the league was always going to get four.

It was just a matter of how they were going to get there. Maybe there's five because maybe Miami wakes up in the tournament and decides, hey, we're healthy. We're just going to make a run. But for right now, like quite honestly, we're at where we're supposed to be at, which is four or five teams because the league, while it's not as bad as some say it is, it's not that great either. Yeah, it's it's better than Mountain West. I'll I will actually physically fight people who try to pretend that the Mountain West better, bigger, a better basketball league. But the what the ACC should have done was schedule worse out of conference, not better, because one look at the Big 12's schedule will tell you that it that they're right. Their schedules are largely garbage, but because they won all of those games and by sizable margins, they become Quad 1 opportunities almost no matter where those games are being played. And that's where the ACC loses. There are if you're on your home floor, there are very few. There's only two really Quad 1 opportunities.

That's Duke of North Carolina. If you're if you're playing at home, everything else is at best a Quad 2 and some are even worse than that. But that's well, that's my that's my larger point. To be fair, if you're going to schedule a week, you can't lose the Lipscomb.

Oh, no, I'm with you. You can't lose bad. You can't lose the bad teams, but lose. Yeah, and that's and that's where like Florida State, for example, we have that conflict. Florida State State didn't really schedule all that difficult and they lost the Lipscomb at home. Right.

Can't do that. Like that's the that's the portion of this that I think does the ACC have a bad reputation? Yes. Have they done anything to help their reputation? Absolutely not.

Canada Edwards, my friend, not to describe on Twitter. I appreciate your time, my man. I'll talk to you very soon. Absolutely.

Talk to you soon, mate. For the ones who work hard to ensure their crew can always go the extra mile and the ones who get in early so everyone can go home on time. There's Grainger offering professional grade supplies backed by product experts so you can quickly and easily find what you need.

Plus, you can count on access to a committed team ready to go the extra mile for you. Call click Grainger dot com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.