Charlotte Hornets: Four Key Decisions that Changed the Course of the Franchise

Drafting Cody Zeller

The 2013 NBA Draft may go down as one of the oddest in history. Looking back at the mock drafts from that year, there was a clear lack of clarity on where any player would be selected.

The rules of this draft stated that even the weirdest of picks would’ve been defensible. A big question that then arises from this is; why would the Hornets pick a player with the least amount of upside?

The first round of this draft featured a slew of valuable players at random points. Stars such as CJ McCollum and reigning MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo were taken after the Hornets pick. The first round even featured several starters; Dennis Schroder, Steven Adams, and Rudy Gobert.

In other drafts, it would be ridiculous to consider players that went 6th, 11th, 13th, 8th and 24th, picks after a certain slot to be in that range. Yet, the mantra in 2013 was ‘anything goes.’ Taking an 18-year-old from Greece who played church league basketball in the first round was not frowned upon.

Perhaps looking at one of these ‘diamond in the rough’ prospects would’ve netted an all-star as opposed to the limited skill set that an established college player such as Zeller brings.

On a larger scale, this mishap speaks to a larger issue that Michael Jordan and company have faced in his tenure as owner. This issue is a lack of in-depth scouting. Since become majority owner in 2010, all 10 of the team’s first-round picks have been players from power conference schools.

While it’s unreasonable to assume the Hornets haven’t done any international or mid-major scouting, it is an interesting trend to note that only players with the highest visibility are actually being picked.

Using the 2013 NBA Draft as a case study, it would be welcomed to see Charlotte take a chance on an extremely high ceiling prospect in the future.