As fans await the offseason, NBA 2K20 can be used as a means to simulate what the Charlotte Hornets will do this year.
Just like other teams, the Charlotte Hornets will not be finishing their regular season in Orlando, Flordia. However, the team will have quite a few things to look forward to heading into this year’s offseason.
For now, the offseason will likely not start for another four months. Until then, fans will be able to watch teams battle for the championship. The Hornets are one of eight teams that did not get invited to finish their regular season.
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Even with the season being over for the Hornets, fans can still look for ways to be optimistic about the offseason. In this article, we will be using NBA 2K20 to simulate the Hornets’ offseason.
For this simulation, NBA 2K20’s “Start Now” program of MyLeague was used. I simulated to the end of the season, and let the CPU handle the Hornets’ offseason. Since the CPU handled everything, the Hornets closed the offseason by making some interesting moves.
NBA Draft
In this simulation, the Hornets ended up picking in the lottery with the 9th pick in the draft. With their draft pick, the team went on to pick James Wiseman. It was shocking to see Wiseman fall this far in the draft. In just three games at Memphis, Wiseman averaged 19.7 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks per game this season.
Heading into the second round, the Hornets held two picks. With their two picks, the team selected Charles Bassey, a power forward from Western Kentucky, and Markus Howard, a point guard from Marquette.
Bassey finished this season by averaging 15.3 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game. I was surprised to see the Hornets snag him at the start of the second round. Howard was also a great late draft pick up, as he averaged 27.8 points and 3.3 assists per game. Howard led college basketball in points per game.
Free Agency
Heading into free agency, the Hornets would end up re-signing Devonte’ Graham and Caleb Martin. Nicolas Batum would also accept his $25 million dollar player-option, which is not a surprise.
After accepting the appropriate team-options, the Hornets would then extend a qualifying offer to Dwayne Bacon, Jalen McDaniels, and Ray Spalding. Every offer to each player was for $2 million or less.
At the end of the free agency period, the team ended up only retaining Jalen McDaniels. Willy Hernangomez and Bismack Biyombo, who are both free agents this offseason, were not re-signed. Furthermore, the team managed to sign Tyreke Evans, Julian Washburn, and Danilo Gallinari.
It was interesting to see the Hornets sign the veteran shooting guard Evans. In 2018, the Hornets actually met with Evans during free agency. However, the biggest signing was clearly Gallinari. The Hornets would get a beast with Gallinari, who’s had the best seasons of his career over the past two years.
Gallinari spent the 2019-20 season with the Oklahoma City Thunder, after having a career year the season before with the Los Angeles Clippers. In just 55 games this season, he averaged 19.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
Following this simulation, it’s no secret that the Charlotte Hornets added some new firepower. Do you like what the Hornets did in the simulation? Tune in soon to see the results of the 2020-21 season with this roster.