Officially Waived: The Kai Jones Thread

[HornetJail]

Cut Caleb Martin
S&T'ed Devonte' Graham in a deal that had like an 80% chance of only returning 2nds (though it did return a mid 1st that was used on Mark, so it's good to be lucky occasionally)

Feels like using 20/20 hindsight to criticize negative developments, then dismissing as lucky positive developments

not every move was bad in the moment. cutting Martin was absolutely the right call for instance. but they all turned out negative except the Devonte' one... which you have to admit, it was insanely fortunate that a 36-46 10-seed battled through both play-in games without Zion Williamson, otherwise we would've traded Devonte' Graham for like the 41st pick that year.. that was the overwhelmingly likely scenario.

[luciano-davidwesley]

how did we get here? what was the catalyst?
- was Kai annoyed we drafted Nnaji?
- did his agent tell him the Hornets were most likely declining his 4th yr option?
- was he told he will most likely be with the swarm all season?

I think it's pretty obvious at this stage there are some major mental health issues at play.

[luciano-davidwesley]

Read on Twitter

LMAO

[luciano-davidwesley]

This situation is just super untenable now. No team will even want this guy off waivers let alone trade for him lol. We need to just waive him immediately.

Honourable mention to Kupcake for exercising the third year options of both Bouknight and Kai last year when it was super, super obvious then that neither of them were ever going to be close to NBA rotation players.

[GoBobs]

how did we get here? what was the catalyst?
- was Kai annoyed we drafted Nnaji?
- did his agent tell him the Hornets were most likely declining his 4th yr option?
- was he told he will most likely be with the swarm all season?

I think it's pretty obvious at this stage there are some major mental health issues at play.

Probably we told him his option wasn't going to be picked up. At that point it is probably better to be a free agent and go to a team where minutes are more likely.

Some of this is on him, but the organization seriously messed up also. We drafted a guy that we knew was multiple years away, and after one year brought in a coach that was never going to play him.

Clifford said the other day that he plays the young guys that can play. The developing teams in the league like Magic, Rockets, Pistons are full of young talent Clifford wouldn't want to work with. If you want to build a team through the draft, the coach needs to be somebody who can develop players.

[Liver_Pooty]

I don't mind the Rozier extension. We traded Graham for essentially Mark Williams who I think will make at least one all star game. The Bouk, Kai draft in retrospect is incredibly awful, and we let caleb martin go but at the time literally everyone on the board thought he was dog water. Mitch hasn't done the best of jobs but I don't think he's been terrible either.

[Liver_Pooty]

I was and am still ok with letting Monk walk. I am undoubtedly ok with signing Ish as a backup. I was and am still ok with Oubre as a 6th man. Just not ok with him starting. Just nit picking at this point.

[JDR720]

At this point all I want is a period of time that we don't have any controversies, drama, legal issues, piles of injuries or any other craziness going on.

It's been non-stop since Atkinson left us hanging.

Hopefully Miller plays well, because if Scoot averages dumb stats while Cliff has Miller in the G-league it's just going to get worse.

[fatlever]

You forgot the part where we also signed Borrego to a three-year contract extension

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[Roll Tide 09]

Borrego would have been incredible for this team.

Ball
Miller
Bridges
Washington
Williams

That’s all you need along with a coach who will give time to the younger players in order to win a playoff series. The team is there, the staff might be lacking.


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[SWedd523]

Kai Jones is a less-there Tyrus Thomas.

I'd rather have Pillow Brezec than Kai.

Is Kai the worst (relative to draft position) pick of the modern Bobnets?

[yosemiteben]

Is Kai the worst (relative to draft position) pick of the modern Bobnets?

Vonleh was a higher pick

[GoBobs]

Kai Jones is a less-there Tyrus Thomas.

I'd rather have Pillow Brezec than Kai.

Is Kai the worst (relative to draft position) pick of the modern Bobnets?

He isn't even the worst pick of his draft, lol.

[SWedd523]

Is Kai the worst (relative to draft position) pick of the modern Bobnets?

Vonleh was a higher pick

Vonleh played 8 years and got up to an 8/8/1 line at his best.

Kai's entire career might be a total of 600min

[SWedd523]

Kai Jones is a less-there Tyrus Thomas.

I'd rather have Pillow Brezec than Kai.

Is Kai the worst (relative to draft position) pick of the modern Bobnets?

He isn't even the worst pick of his draft, lol.

James is his main competition IMO

[LofJ]

Tell your kids you saw him play in his prime:

Read on Twitter

[yosemiteben]

Is Kai the worst (relative to draft position) pick of the modern Bobnets?

Vonleh was a higher pick

Vonleh played 8 years and got up to an 8/8/1 line at his best.

Kai's entire career might be a total of 600min

I mean he's only 22, I'm not assuming his career is 100% done. Maybe it is, but he's got a lot of time to figure his **** out.

[SWedd523]

I'd take the under on him playing another 50 NBA games the rest of his career

[fatlever]

Dude needs to go to Europe for a few years, learn some actual fundamentals and get physical. Maybe come back when he's 25. Far from done, I think. He'll get at least 2 more real chances to stick.

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[yosemiteben]

I think it all depends on his ability to get his head right. I originally thought he was trolling/ just a kinda odd dude, but the comments on his teammates + demanding the trade + the odd social media stuff does have me convinced that he's not in a good place and I do think he has to get his mental stuff under control. If he can do that, I do think he'll develop into a rotation worthy player.