The Charlotte Hornets’ GM History since 2004
By Brent Best
Rich Cho may not sit well with Charlotte Hornets fans, even to this day, but some of his decisions weren’t terrible. In fact, one was maybe the greatest the franchise has ever known.
Rich Cho – 2011 – 2018
Rich Cho’s tenure as general manager overseeing the transition of the franchise from Bobcats to Hornets. The franchise enjoyed 2 playoff appearances in his 7 seasons as general manager amassing a record of 234-334 (41.2%) including (by win percentage) the worst season in NBA history in 2011-12.
The Good – Drafting Kemba Walker 9th overall in the 2011 NBA draft. Kemba became the Charlotte Hornet’s all-time leading scorer over his 8 seasons in Charlotte and blossomed into an All NBA player and 4-time All-Star.
He’s arguably the best player in Charlotte basketball history and is in a battle with Dell Curry as the most beloved Hornet player ever (We should all love them both equally!)
Cho also made a great move landing Al Jefferson in free agency to a large but relatively short contract in 2013. “Big Al” averaged 22 PPG and 11 RPG his 1st season in Charlotte narrowly missing the All-Star team.
Cho traded Gerald Henderson and Noah Vonleh for Nic Batum in June of 2015. Batum gets a lot of flak for the bloated contract he received the following season but he paid immediate dividends upon arrival in Charlotte.
His versatility was a key reason the Hornets won 48 games in the 2015-16 season as he put up 15 ppg with 6 RPG and 6 APG. His versatile defense and ability to be an offensive initiator also took the pressure off of Kemba Walker allowing him to attack more.
Cho also traded the contract of Luke Ridnour and a 2nd round pick for Jeremy Lamb. Lamb had underachieved up to the point before he was traded and ended up being a great buy-low target as he became an effective scorer off the bench and eventual back-court mate with Kemba Walker peaking as a 15 ppg scorer his final season in Charlotte.
The Bad – Selecting Michael Kidd-Gilchrist number two overall in the 2012 NBA draft did not pay off for the Hornets. Charlotte passed on both Bradley Beal (picked 3rd) and Damian Lillard (picked 6th).
While Lillard may not have made much sense having drafted Kemba Walker the season before, Bradley Beal was a serious consideration at the time. MKG plays extremely hard and has been a wonderful teammate, but he, unfortunately, has not lived up to the expectations of being the number 2 pick in the draft.
Cody Zeller has been a decent starting center for the Hornets but he was selected over other big men in that draft including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rudy Gobert, and Steven Adams.
Signing Nic Batum to a 5 year, $120 million dollar contract might be considered “ugly” by most fans. And when looking at the deal on its own it definitely falls under “ugly”, but the Hornets were also unlucky that the NBA salary cap spiked tremendously in the off-season of 2016.
Rich Cho made re-signing Batum his “top priority” and knowing that almost every team in the league was flush with cap space they had no choice but to offer a massive deal to keep him from leaving for nothing.
Signing Lance Stephenson as a free agent was more of a panic move after Utah matched the Hornets’ offer sheet to Gordon Hayward. Stephenson never fit with what the Hornets tried to do and there was talk about the Hornets wanting to part ways with him mere months after their 1st season with him started.
The Charlotte Hornets selecting Malik Monk over Donovan Mitchell hasn’t aged well thus far. Monk has had many ups and downs showing inconsistency while Donovan Mitchell has blossomed into the face of a franchise over in Utah.
The Ugly – Acquiring Bismack Biyombo with the 7th overall pick in 2011 over the likes of Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, and Jimmy Butler is a tough pill to swallow. Biyombo, like Kidd-Gilchrist and Zeller, is a beloved teammate and extremely hard worker, but the center was selected ahead of arguably the best 2-way player in today’s league and 2 All-NBA caliber wings.
Not trading the 9th overall pick in 2015 to the Boston Celtics for 4 1st rounders isn’t as bad as passing on Kawhi Leonard but it’s pretty ugly. According to ESPN’s Zach Lowe, Boston offered the 15th and 16th picks in 2015, an unprotected future selection from the Brooklyn Nets (Which ended up being the 3rd pick in 2016 from which Boston selected Jaylen Brown) and their choice of a future first-rounder from either the Memphis Grizzlies or Minnesota Timberwolves. Charlotte’s reasoning?
"You have two minutes to decide: ‘Do I want to do this trade?'” says Polk, one of five men atop Charlotte’s decision tree. “You don’t have a day. You don’t have hours. After all the intelligence we’d done, we were comfortable with Frank. But now you have two minutes to decide if you make this trade, who you’re gonna take at No. 16, or maybe No. 20, and we haven’t been focusing on that range. In fantasy basketball, it sounds great: ‘Oh my God, they could have gotten all those picks.’ But in the real world, I’m not sure it makes us better."
Let’s ignore the fact that there was a good chance Frank Kaminsky would have still been available at 15. The real concern is the fact that Charlotte wasn’t prepared to consider other players. Did it not do its due diligence?
Needless to say, Rich Cho’s tenure as the Charlotte Hornets’ GM had numerous savvy trades and signings but were hampered by mediocre draft decisions finding situational role players in the draft and passing on some of the best players in the league.
Finally, let’s take a look at what should hopefully be the Charlotte Hornets’ GM for the foreseeable future.