Stock Up, Stock Down: Five Hornets Draft Prospects

With the NBA Draft now just a week away, it feels like the perfect time to take stock of five prospects who appear to be in play for the Hornets with their two top-20 selections. Based on both my intuition and the types of players President of Basketball Operations Jeff Peterson and his brain trust seem interested in adding, these are the prospects whose stock I am buying or selling as Charlotte looks to snap the NBA’s longest active playoff drought.

Stock Up: Morez Johnson Jr. - F/C - Michigan

I’m nearing the point of being legitimately surprised if Morez Johnson Jr. is on the board at pick No. 14 and Charlotte passes on him. While he is currently shooting up draft boards and mock drafts nationally, I think it is as simple as this: if Johnson is there, the Hornets will most likely make him their first selection. 

The more I have dug into Johnson’s game, the more I believe he is best deployed as a center at the NBA level, even if he is a bit undersized for the position. He would give Charlotte so much of what it was missing from its bigs at times this past season. 

Johnson is a physical force on both ends of the floor and a really impressive mover for someone his size. He can switch onto smaller players, tag rollers in the paint, provide weak-side rim protection, and bring the type of defensive versatility, physicality, and, frankly, mass that Charlotte lacks at the moment. He is just a spectacular defensive prospect. 

Offensively, he keeps things simple. Johnson took just 49 shots outside the paint during his sophomore season at Michigan and converted at a really high clip around the rim while also being a vacuum on the offensive glass. I am also a believer in his three-point shot long-term if he continues working on it and speeds up his windup a tad.

Johnson would be a home-run selection for Charlotte. A center rotation featuring Moussa Diabaté, Johnson, and Ryan Kalkbrenner would be a really strong starting point to kick off Charlotte’s offseason.

Stock Up: Hannes Steinbach - C - Washington

With Charlotte’s rumored interest in Sacramento Kings center Domantas Sabonis heating up this past week, it is pretty clear the Hornets value that sort of skill set and player archetype, which gives me a strong indication they would be fans of Hannes Steinbach’s game as a prospect.

Steinbach does a lot of the same things that make Sabonis so effective offensively, just obviously not at the level of a two-time All-NBA player. The 20-year-old has a very bankable NBA offensive bag built around processing the game quickly, operating in short-roll situations, and making smart decisions with the ball in his hands. He is also an elite rebounding prospect, an efficient scorer around the rim, and someone who can occasionally grab a rebound and push the ball in transition himself.

What really stands out, though, is his connective passing. Steinbach consistently makes quick, decisive reads and keeps the offense moving without needing a high volume of touches.

Sabonis is clearly the better player and more proven commodity, but the similarities in their skill sets are easy to see. That is why it would not surprise me if Charlotte values Steinbach’s offensive profile and is willing to look past some of his defensive limitations, much like teams have with Sabonis throughout his career.

Stock Down: Jayden Quaintance - C - Kentucky

Certainly an intriguing player for Charlotte to consider, probably more so at pick No. 18 than with its first selection. But with the Hornets' first pick likely being used on a center or forward, selecting Quaintance immediately after that just does not seem particularly likely to me.

There is also no real indication he is going to be an outside-shooting big at the NBA level, or even much of a mid-range threat. Quaintance shot under 50% from the free-throw line during his two college seasons, so the idea of pairing him with Diabaté, giving Charlotte two undersized non-shooting centers, does not completely track either.

Beyond that, Quaintance is still fairly raw offensively as a scorer and screener. As I have written about before, Charlotte seems to value prospects with proven, discrete NBA skill sets that it feels confident will translate cleanly to its roster. Quaintance is still a major question mark in terms of where his development currently stands after playing just four games at Kentucky this past season, and of course, there are the long-term concerns surrounding his right knee as well.

I just do not see Charlotte going in this direction at No. 14, and taking two bigs by selecting him at No. 18 feels unlikely to me too. Because of that, I am selling my stock on the idea of Charlotte selecting Quaintance in this draft cycle.

Stock Up: Yaxel Lendeborg - F - Michigan

If I had to put a percentage on it, I would say there is about a 85% chance Charlotte’s first selection will be one of Johnson, Steinbach, or Yaxel Lendeborg.

It may have seemed unlikely a month ago, or even a few weeks ago, that Lendeborg would still be available when Charlotte picks, but I could definitely see it happening a week from now, especially if Johnson continues climbing draft boards and ultimately goes ahead of his former Michigan teammate.

I am just really high on Lendeborg as a prospect, and I have no doubt Charlotte will be as well. As we just saw with the New York Knicks winning the championship, having an excess of players who can dribble, pass, and shoot with great positional size is incredibly valuable, and Lendeborg does all of those things while also being an excellent switch defender and playmaker on that end. 

He posted impressive steal and block rates at Michigan last season while once again bringing the type of connective passing Charlotte Head Coach Charles Lee covets in his scheme.

It is hard not to like a polished, highly skilled forward who would probably be as plug-and-play into Charlotte’s rotation as any player in the Hornets’ range.

Stock Down: Karim López - F - New Zealand

The 19-year-old forward has been linked to Charlotte for a few months now at either one of its selections, but this is more of a roster-construction read for me than anything else.

Drafting someone like López would be making another long-term developmental bet on a forward, and it would almost feel like giving up on Tidjane Salaün figuring things out. López would essentially be stepping into the same developmental lane as Salaün, a role that likely is not going to receive many minutes with Charlotte if the roster is fully healthy.

That would be a fairly strong indictment of where Salaün stands, and I do not think this front office is there yet. Beyond that, López still has many unbaked parts to his two-way game. His defensive attentiveness, jump shot, handle, and overall shot creation all need further development. 

There is definitely talent there, and the frame is certainly intriguing, but he projects much more as a long-term project than someone who is going to help Charlotte win basketball games in the near future.