Think Hornets should tank for Victor Wembanyama? You haven’t been paying attention
It’s inevitable, really, and will only grow to a louder crescendo with each twisted ankle, bruised quad and maddening defeat over the coming days, months and weeks.
The chatter actually began almost immediately on the heels of an offseason featuring essentially no player movement within the franchise, a head-scratching strategy given that the organization believed it was ready for the next step. But these Charlotte Hornets as currently constructed don’t appear any closer to punching a postseason ticket now than they were during their last visit to Atlanta in April, the very place at which the third game of the 2022-23 season comes Sunday.
A dubious 29-point defeat to the Hawks in the play-in tournament set off a chain reaction of events from which the Hornets are still trying to recover, and the glaring question marks surrounding Charlotte’s interior defense and overall talent base weren’t immediately addressed. Factor in LaMelo Ball spraining his left ankle in the penultimate game of the preseason, and it triggers the silly cry among a contingent of Hornets fans imploring to take a page out of former Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie’s book.
In other words, they want the Hornets to tank for Victor Wembanyama. Badly.
Wembanyama is the surefire No. 1 pick in next June’s NBA draft. An 18-year-old phenom from France, Wembanyama is wowing many around the league — from NBA executives to star players like LeBron James — and drawing raves about his unique skill set. The 7-foot-3 player is athletically gifted, and fellow countryman Rudy Gobert, who’s now in Minnesota, told reporters the other day that Wembanyama is “something the world has never seen.”
That’s why pictures of a military combat vehicle are being served up as a reply to just about any social media post about the Hornets that’s not bursting with anything outright exciting. Mention “so-and-so is injured,” out comes a cut up of a tank motoring around aimlessly.
Explain early on in the preseason how impressed the head coach was about the growth of Nick Richards and the third-year big man emerging as the early candidate for backup center. Scroll far enough and there’s a strong likelihood the image of a tank will pop up somewhere.
It’s already nauseating, and the season isn’t even a week old. Just wait until the Hornets really hit a rough patch and the losses pile up at a pace that provokes those five little words: “The Hornets need to tank.”
A dreamy scenario of Ball teaming up with Wembanyama starts dancing in fans’ heads. They think that’s the only right thing to do: Take a painful step backward so the Hornets can make a huge leap forward with a generational talent.
That makes zero sense. For several reasons.
Let’s be honest here for a second. Do you really and truly believe the Hornets have that kind of luck? Anyone who’s followed their draft history knows about their lottery woes. Whether that’s the ping-pong balls failing to line up in their favor despite having the league’s worst record — hello, landing the No. 2 pick in 2012 instead of the top selection — and missing out on an opportunity to add the likes of an Anthony Davis and drafting Michael Kidd-Gilchrist instead. Or grabbing the wrong player altogether — does the name Adam Morrison ring a bell? The Hornets and lottery success just don’t get along.
About the only thing that’s gone right for them in lottery purgatory over the past decade is having Ball fall into their lap in 2020 behind Anthony Edwards and James Wiseman, a byproduct of the Hornets defying the odds once and moving up from their original projected position.
Beyond the team’s less-than-kind draft history, though, purposefully losing could have serious adverse effects on two other areas that are critical for the Hornets to enjoy sustained success.
The first hovers around their All-Star point guard. If the Hornets don’t get into the actual eight-team playoff field this season, that will mean Ball would begin his career without making it to the postseason for three straight years. That’s not ideal for any team’s franchise player.
He won’t know what it’s like to value those moments and perform well in them since the stakes are so much greater in those games. Nothing beats actual postseason experience, and each year that goes by without the Hornets sniffing them is hazardous to the long-term prognosis of Ball and the team.
On top of that, sustained losing could easily negatively affect the fan interest the Hornets have generated over the past two seasons. They sold out of season-ticket memberships in Spectrum Center’s lower bowl, marking the first time that’s happened since the NBA returned to Charlotte in 2004.
In fact, just two teams had more new season-tickets sales than the Hornets this last offseason. Sending an inferior product out on the floor each night in sacrificial lamb-style isn’t the best way to keep that bottom line in relatively good business order.
The external chatter about the Hornets consciously taking a dive for the chance to have a few extra balls in the hopper come the NBA draft lottery in May is ludicrous. The Hornets can’t afford to put their faith in a dream.
Doing so instead could elicit a nightmare from which they’ll never awaken.
