Swarm and Sting
Fansided

The Charlotte Hornets’ GM History since 2004

By Brent Best

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 20: PJ Washington reacts after being drafted with the 12th overall pick by the Charlotte Hornets during the 2019 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center on June 20, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 20: PJ Washington reacts after being drafted with the 12th overall pick by the Charlotte Hornets during the 2019 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center on June 20, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /
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Charlotte Hornets
MIAMI, FLORIDA – MARCH 11: Devonte’ Graham #4 of the Charlotte Hornets in action against the Miami Heat during the second half at American Airlines Arena on March 11, 2020 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /

The Charlotte Hornets appear to have made the right move by Mitch Kupchak.

Mitch Kupchak – 2018 – Current

Mitch Kupchak is the current general manager for the Hornets and comes from a long and successful stint with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Hornets are currently 62-85 (42.2%) under Kupchak. Let’s look at the brief profile of the incumbent.

The Good – The 2018 NBA draft was a hit for Kupchak. Acquiring Miles Bridges in the 1st round and Devonte Graham is the 2nd certainly looks like gold at the moment. Both players have become very productive starters with Graham in the running for the most improved player award at the time of this writing.

The 2019 draft is also paying off as PJ Washington emerged as a day 1 starter for the Hornets. He set an NBA record for most 3 pointers made in their NBA debut with 7 and head coach James Borrego recently stated that he believes P.J. should make 1st team All-Rookie. He will have tough competition for that award but he’s certainly in the running with the season he had.

Bringing in Terry Rozier at the amount of money they paid him looked like a questionable move last summer but Rozier played very well this past season proving a lot of doubters wrong. Kemba had already given word that he wasn’t coming back to Charlotte short of a supermax contract so with hindsight it looks like Kupchak made the best of a no-win situation.

The Bad – Trading the contract of Timofey Mozgov to reacquire Bismack Biyombo in 2018 may have prevented Charlotte from being able to afford Kemba Walker. Mozgov would have been off the books last summer, putting Charlotte an additional $17 million under the luxury tax threshold.

We will never know if Charlotte would have made the supermax offer even if they could have but what we do know is this deal took that option off the table without making Charlotte a luxury tax-paying team.

The Ugly – Up to this point, Kupchak hasn’t made any decisions that should be considered “ugly” and hopefully it stays that way. Charlotte Hornets fans should be encouraged with the positive momentum the team has made, however mild it might be that has been created in the draft the past 2 seasons.

Next. B/R proposes that the Charlotte Hornets should trade for Chris Paul. dark

A relatively young team like the Charlotte Hornets will go through a lot of General Managers, but perhaps they’ve found the right one for some time. Only time will tell, but here’s hoping that is the case.

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