In the NO Podcast Episode 54: Don’t watch the Draft Lottery

Cavs guy was really negative about Gordon. Gordon led the Clippers in scoring in 30 of the 56 games he played in last year; numbers-wise, that would indicate that he is a #1 option. Also, you can't say what a promising player will never be able to do after only a couple of seasons. LeBron couldn't hit jumpers consistently after 2 yrs in the league but he now does that; Wade was a great player after year 2, but no one would have thought of him as a perennial MVP candidate at that point. Really good players refine ther game over time.

The Cavs guy said basically don't expect to get much for Kaman, like maybe not even a 1st Rounder. Plus he talked about all the things Gordon can't do and called him a 2nd at best, but really a 3rd option, scorer in the NBA. Be interesting to see if he is right or not. The Cavs guy also loved Ayon and basically said Aminu is an athlete who probably isn't an NBA player and will never be an NBA starter. I think we can all agree on that. I wouldn't trade the 4th or 11th pick for any veteran you mentioned. We already have enough starting veterans (Okafor, Ariza, and (assumably) Gordon), near starting veterans (Smith and Ayon), and bench veterans (Henry, Vasquez, and possibly Belinelli). We need better young players, especially at PG. The trade I would make is Jack and Kaman/Landry plus a bench veteran above for a PG like Lowry, Knight, Augustin, or Stuckey. Hope we get one of them. You're crazy to suggest trading Gordon and the 3rd pick (if we get it) for the 1st pick in this draft, especially when your plan is to get the 1st pick in 2013 when at most we will have a 25% chance to get the 1st pick in 2013!! How about instead of getting more veterans or trying to get worse to get better (which only works in a league like the NFL where draft pick spots are purely based on record) we draft in our spots and keep our core players and try to grow this team and avoid injuries?

Vasquez and Ayon are my favorite Hornets , throwing everything else out if we had to keep two players from this team I'd want them to be Vasquez in Ayon their in a way reason enough to watch this year ( Trevor's fun when he's locked in , and in all honesty did anyone think their was an Ariza even remotely this efficient ). Ayon is the heart , the corazon if you will of the hornets Vasquez should be the voice , he's great you hear him with Bob before this thunder game " Ayon is my brother " he's a sweetheart.

The John Krolik was bad: hard to understand with lots of drop-outs.

I also agree that the best approach with Ayon is to look to draft a starting PF and keep Ayon as our 1st big off the bench. You guys brought up packages to trade Vasquez but I prefer we keep him around. He's grown alot this season and I think theres still more room to get better. Would have to see us get rid off him despite all the time and development we have invested in Vasquez. I don't think hes starter material long term, but he can be a solid backup PG and even handle starting a few games at a time if our #1 PG went down with an injury.

Good podcast guys. The idea of sending Gordon to NJN is intriguing, especially if we landed #1 this year and got Davis (plus 2 more top 14 picks), then sucked next season and got lucky again and landed Shabazz who would make everyone forget about Gordon. I just don't see the fans here buying in to another ugly season like this one.

I've this story that they're 2 people in the running to buy the Hornets and some jibber jabber about Cuban would support a team in Seattle http://ken-berger.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/11838893/34906050