Charlotte Hornets: Five Potential Second Round Selections

The second round the of the 2015 NBA draft might not filled with the same intrigue as the first round, but it is still a place for the Charlotte Hornets to find some solid contributors.

The NBA draft is always an exciting time for teams around the league. It features the opportunity for a team to get better and for fans to get excited about an organization’s future. While most of the speculation and excitement surrounds the first round and especially the lottery picks, the latter round of draft can produce solid players and occasionally even a franchise changer.

Gilbert Arenas and Manu Ginobili a couple of examples of All-Star players taken in the second round. While the chance of finding such a guy is slim, smart teams can still find good players capable of playing quality minutes during times of tight schedules and possible injuries.

If your starter goes down, your back-up has to step up. Even more, now a guy who was just watching most nights has to play 10-15 minutes of NBA game time without much notice. Many of those guys are either longtime NBA veterans just collecting a paycheck(think Jason Maxiell) or late draft picks looking for a chance to finally get in the game.

The Charlotte Hornets this year had to turn to former second round pick Jeff Taylor toward the end of the season with starter Michael Kidd-Gilchrist injured and Lance Stephenson ineffective and eventually injured as well. Taylor played OK, but it was clear he was not ready for this kind of opportunity. Most late draft selections are not ready, but that scenario shows why pouring over mounds of data and hours of video on these guys is important, even if you hope they never reach the court.

With that in mind, here are five candidates the Charlotte Hornets should look at in the 2015 NBA Draft’s second round.

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