Charlotte Hornets Media Carnival
-- Step right up and feast your eyes on the buzz of the NBA, the Charlotte Hornets! We've got fun and games and even a dunk tank for those that date to try and dunk on Hugo the Hornet! We've also gathered the entire roster of the 1999-2000 Charlotte Hornets here for those that dare to be bold enough to ask the tough questions. General Manager, Nick Malone is also here to address what has gone done since we last spoke 1 year ago. Please take your complimentary grab bag after you've had your fill of all the festivities!
-- Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my! Let's hand off the master of today's ceremony and circus to the general manager of our fine organization, Nick Malone!
-- That's the wrong slide and the wrong guy, let's load a proper picture...
-- Ok, our projector must be broken or its a sign of the Y2J appocalyspe. Regardless, here's our general manager...
Malone: Thanks everyone for attending. We will have to have a talk with our tech department on the malfunctions. Our owner was nice enough despite our underwhelming record last season. We admit that our expectations starting out were a bit more than what we ended up achieving. We played hard the entire season and up until the final few months of the season, we still had a shot to make the postseason. Our 30-52 mark and with every projection landed us with the 7th pick in this past June and we ended up selection Ron Artest. Ron is a phenomenal talent that can play effective defense from multiple positions on the court and could very well be our best defender in crunch time. Also, when he came in for workouts, we were really impressed with his work ethic and his drive to improve. He's happy to have a new home here in Charlotte.
In the background, Hugo is passing around Hornet stickers and taking picture with fans outside of the conference room. Nick is observing some of the writers in the room taking down notes.
Malone: We also made a draft day deal with our friends in the Orlando Magic in dealing away Reggie Miller and Charlie Ward and what turned out to be Jeff Foster in exchange for a a small ball 4 and athletic wing player in Laphonso Ellis and with the 26th pick, we selected prospect, Kenny Thomas. We are going to allow Kenny the time to fully take in the NBA game from the bench and when the time calls for it, he could be thrown into the game but he'll be given the time to grow within our organization. We targeted Laphonso for a few seasons now going back to his days playing with the Detroit Pistons and we look at him as our anchor to score on the second unit. The next few moves were crucial to shaping our depth and building our club beyond what you see on the surface.
Nick looks at a determined Rasheed Wallace examining headband sizes while Allan Houston is practicing his shooting skill.
Malone: We have every intention on making the playoffs and giving the people of Charlotte and the Carolinas an improved basketball product they deserve. We looked at this Free Agency period as a critical time to address our needs. We were having about 10 million dollars come off the books, allowing us to spend and make the necessary moves to try and improve this club. We saw San Antonios limitations and the regression of their talented forward of Rasheed Wallace. They have their own issues to deal with and we structured a deal that wasn't so much of an overreach as much of a talented reward for the kind of talent Rasheed truly is and can be when given the opportunity to succeed. His minutes were getting crunched with the talent that was coming in and taking his minutes. He is an enigma of a talent that possess great skills around the basket. He will have to work hard to improve in these areas but paired with a proven defensive and rebounding veteran like Jayson Williams, he'll get the time to play solid basketball and be a leader on the court for us. But this is a process that takes time and we want him to truly make Charlote HIS home. We struck out on the first few rounds on some of the targets that were around and fell flat on a few offers where guys simply wanted more money but for guys like Greg Graham and Kenny Smith, this will be their time to play important minutes for us off the bench. Even last year, our jumbled cast was still a top 10 defensive club. With a full offseason with the club we have, we are hoping the talent will take the necessary steps to improve.
Fun. It's what the experience is supposed to be but there was a motive to win. Nobody likes a losing season but it takes time to grow and rebuild no matter how long it takes to improve.
Malone: We've noticed that much of our division has improved. We are cautiously optimistic that we can grow with our roster mix of savvy veterans and younger guys that can play a cohesive brand of basketball that will yield the best results. I'll make this promise that if we don't make the playoffs every writer that asks a question today will get a chance to dunk me in the dunk tank this time next year. Have fun and the floor is yours.
