Well, well, well. The New Orleans Hornets went into the draft for the first time with a lottery pick in 3 years and came out with ... absolutely nothing! Nothing may be a little too harsh. The Hornets did receive two warm bodies to man the bench and should be able to fill out the salary cap nicely. For real, I don't like the picks, but I will still give the facts for the public.
Craig Brackins, PF, Iowa State
First off, Brackins is listed by NBADraft.net as 6-10. That's a lot taller than I initially expected. Considering the lack of height the Hornets have, Emeka is as tall as Brackins and he is our center, it's nice to see Bower go after a big. Brackins stats all decreased from his sophomore to junior year except for his assists which he increased greatly. I think this bodes well for him in the NBA. His assist to turnover ratio was at just a shade over one. Having a big man that doesn't turn the ball over is not the Hornets strong suit. Hilton, Emeka, and West all give it up like regular street hookers. Brackins was not very efficient in college and has not shown that he can be an elite rebounder. Many say that being the only option for Iowa State led to increased double and triple teams, lowering his stats across the board. I don't know if this is true but I just hope that he can turn his athleticism into a new Crescent City Connection, maybe we can call it the Causeway or Huey P. Long this time.
Quincy Pondexter, SF, Washington
I much prefer Pondexter to Brackins for the New Orleans Hornets. SF is a position of need, with Treyja Stoi-arc-a-swich, probably leaving in a trade at some point this year. I love the fact that he is a senior and will come in to contribute right now. He is long athletic and can straight up fly down the court which is perfect for Paul. Solid rebounder and gets a lot of steal because of his length. Scouts are saying that he may not be comforable taking his man off the dribble and that he doesn't have good lateral movement. Hopefully this man can develop into a defensive stalwart who will finish breaks better than Posey and any other member of the Hornets can. Seriously, did last year have any alley oops? THAT'S PAUL'S SPECIALTY! Good to see an athletic wing that we can develop and isn't named Julian "Figured out which players are teammates is difficult for me" Wright.
Overall, the two players are okay. I just get some 2006 vibes from this draft though. For those who don't remember, we had two picks very close together with one in the lottery. That year we chose, drumroll please: Hilton Armstrong and Cedric Simmons. That draft is remains hilarious to me because I thought they would actually be good. I really want to be wrong about these two players but I don't think I am.
Side note: Eff the Jazz. Why do they always have to steal things that New Orleans wants and needs? First, the name the Jazz. Then they took the "Best Point Guard in the League" title and gave it to Deron Williams when Chris Paul was injured. And last night, they took my beloved Gordon Hayward, two picks before the Hornets. They should just change their name to the Utah Blizzard: fits with the atmosphere, tame for the Mormons, and they have so many white guys already. I hate the Jazz.
Here's some highlight reels.
Craig Brackins just dominating Rider, Colgate, and othe POWERhouses.
Quincy Pondexter dunking over people.
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To take the side favoring the Hornets' decision making, I loved the draft. Shaved $6.6 mil off the payroll by trading Mo Pete to get under the luxury tax and got two serviceable offensive players in need positions (Brackins a 6'10" PF, Poindexter a 6'7" SF). Both should be able to step in and help in limited playing time immediately, and furthermore, the kind of players we drafted (in my opinion) show CP3 that he's getting his wish and we're going to try and play a more up-tempo style next season. If we can package Peja and JuJu in any potential Collison trade, we'd even have room for a max contract... or, like I've wanted for the past couple months, we can just go get local product Danny Granger from Indy, who needs a PG. Overall, very well done by the Hornets' front office. Our draft day transactions "please Mason", and if we keep making moves to improve our team in the next month or two, it becomes even better.
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