The Hornets were able to catch the falling Noah Vonleh at #9 and got paid by the Heat to take PJ Hairston at #26. Adding Vonleh to that front line is a nice bonus (courtesy of the Detroit Pistons), I like his size and his baseline scoring should offset Big Al Jefferson nicely. PJ Hairston, on the other hand, is already in legal trouble and was a sketchy human being prior to the draft. Well, the Hornets were realistically just taking a flyer on him, maybe this is the incident that helps a young man get his act together and prosper within his opportunities; he's clearly got NBA skills, bringing him off the bench behind Kemba Walker looks like it could work.
The Hornets just added Lance Stephenson to that lineup and while they lost the under appreciated Josh McRoberts (along with the over appreciated Luke Ridnour and the looks-good-in-red Anthony Tolliver), they added two quality players (and one interesting question mark) to a growing team that made the playoffs last year (and got rolled in Lebron's farewell tour with the Heat). I think GM Michael Jordan's plan is to advance by getting better on the court as opposed to tanking for ping pong balls, and as far as that goes losing to the Heat was all part of the plan. But adding Stephenson and Vonleh really only slightly improves on the loss of McRoberts and only makes the Hornets marginally better.
Last year the Hornets were 7th in the East behind the Heat (not as good), Pacers (not as good), Bulls (better, and if healthier, much better), Raptors (pretty much the same squad), Nets (hmmm, not as good but not as bad...?), Wizards (better). The Hawks (8th) still have moves to make and a healthier Hawks are probably already better than the Hornets. So can the Hornets make the playoffs next year? Getting leapfrogged by the Cavs puts the squeeze on them and the Knicks could be better too. The idea was (I think) the Hornets would finish 5th or 6th this year, get blown out again in the playoffs, re-tool and come back hungry in 2015 with their eye on building toward a home court advantage in the playoffs. Now they need to keep their eyes on the Knicks and Nets and keep pace with those teams.
Does missing the playoffs really matter? If they were adding top lottery picks that'd be a reasonable trade-off but short of that, Jordan's slow and steady improvement doesn't look like its gonna work to me. This year will be about figuring out what they've got with Kemba Walker, adding a so-so lottery pick and being active in next year's free agent market (after shedding Bismack Biyombo and Gary Neal). I dunno. I don't think that will turn the head of Marc Gasol or any of the other big time guys that will be out there next year. Stephenson and Vonleh give them depth for the next coupla years but without that one big free agent signing (Carlos Boozer ain't it, folks) or a home run lottery pick, neither of which looks imminent, the Hornets will probably be treading water around the 8th spot for a couple more years.
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