ESPN’s, Zach Lowe, recently released an article entitled “Good Charlotte? The Hornets and the Sliding Scale of NBA Mediocrity.” He made points about how the Hornets are basically stuck in their position of contending for a low seed in the playoffs and continually getting the draft picks in the middle of the first round. The team can not attract major free agents and are left to target “B-level” free agents to sign with their team.
It is a tough position to be stuck in and many teams in the NBA have the same problem as the Charlotte Hornets. It is not just the Hornets that are stuck in this spot.
With the release of Lowe’s article, many Charlotte Hornets website’s and fans had their opinions on the matter. Some took shots at Lowe for how he singled out and “attacked” Charlotte. But many agreed with the ESPN writer. Many became more enraged with the Hornets organization and blew off their built up steam on owner, Michael Jordan, and GM, Rich Cho. After many difficult seasons in Charlotte and the team not showing much improvement or having young star players to build on. Fans have become tired of the Charlotte Hornets constant mediocrity.
Now do fans have every right to be upset at Michael Jordan, Rich Cho, and the Charlotte organization?
Of course they do. Fans are allowed to feel whatever way they want to about any team that they want.
Zach Lowe’s piece garnered a good amount of attention from basketball fans alike and a lot of people had their opinions. And since I am in a position where I can give my opinion, I feel inclined to do so.

First off, let’s start with what teams can actually compete for a championship in the NBA. In my opinion, only teams with at least one superstar can win a championship. So if you do not have a LeBron, Durant, CP3, Harden, Curry, or even an older superstar in Duncan, you are not going to be able to successfully compete for a title. So that means that more than half of the NBA will probably not win a championship in any given season.
If this is so, then why don’t all teams just tank, become very noncompetitive, sign a bunch of D-League players until they get a star player through the draft as the Philadelphia 76ers have done?
The NBA could have 15 teams that are tanking at the same time. Not that this route always works. It has for the Oklahoma City Thunder but it could fail, maybe as it has, or could, in Charlotte.
But not every team without a superstar or two could tank. Teams must remain competitive in the NBA. And if your team is not completive each season then your ticket sales will probably dip and you may lose fans. The 76ers ticket sales have gone down. Lakers ticket sales have gone down with Kobe Bryant going down with injury.
So what is a small market team like Charlotte to do?
It is easy to say that tanking is the way to go but would fans really be happy with that?

Everyone wants their team to at least be remotely competitive. And that is what the Hornets are trying to do. They sign, trade, or draft the best players that will help them to at least remain relevant and competitive in the NBA. Now will they or any team ever win a championship by doing this? Probably not. But If you’re not in the top 5-7 teams in the NBA then you aren’t very likely to win.
Now the Hornets have tried to build through the draft and put together a contender. But with failed top picks like Michael Kidd-Gilchrest, Cody Zeller, and Noah Vonleh. Vonleh was a fail because he was traded. Zeller doesn’t look to be a star in the making and the team seems to think so too because they felt the need to take big men in the past two drafts.
I don’t want to rule out Frank Kaminsky yet because he has yet to play a game in the NBA but in my opinion he will not be a superstar in this league. He could be a quality player in this league for many years but I just do not se him as a superstar. And by missing on many of these recent top draft picks, the Hornets could be set back years in their plan to compete for a title.
So what should a team that is in Charlotte’s position do? Do they continue to remain competitive enough to make the playoffs but not compete for a title? Do they tank in the hopes of getting a top 5 pick and drafting a future star?

It is hard to say what teams should do that are stuck in the position of being a middle of the pack team with continued mediocrity for years.
The best move for a small market team is to probably tank and see if you can hit on a top draft pick. But you can’t have half of the NBA trying to do that. Michael Jordan and the Charlotte organization have chosen their path. Now they are stuck. It may take years for them to get out of where they are and once again try to rebuild.
In my opinion Charlotte is merely doing what any team should do that is in their position. Try their best to remain competitive. Compete for a playoff spot and try to build off of the team that you have through mid round draft picks and B-level free agents.

翻译如下：
最近ESPN的Zach Lowe写了一篇文章，标题叫做“夏洛特不错？黄蜂和NBA平庸的标尺”。他指出，黄蜂基本上被困在获取季后赛后几名的入场卷的位置上，并且手中选秀权也只是在首轮中段。球队无法吸引重量级自由球员，只能去签一些第二级的自由球员。
陷入这个位置是一个很困难的处境，NBA中很多球队和夏洛特黄蜂有着同样的问题。Lowe的文章发表之后，很多夏洛特黄蜂的网站和粉丝对这件事提出了自己的看法。一些对Lowe开炮，认为他在刻意地攻击黄蜂。不过很多认同这位ESPN写手。
很多对黄蜂管理层非常的愤怒，攻击球队老板－乔丹，总经理Rich Cho的建队方式。在经过几个困难的赛季之后，球队并没有显示出进步，或者是拥有可以用来建队的年轻球员。球迷对于夏洛特黄蜂一直这样保持平庸感到厌倦。
那么，球迷到底有没有权力对乔丹，Rich Cho和夏洛特整个团队不满呢？他们当然有这个权力。球迷可以按照他自己的意愿对任何球队有任何的看法（这句话说的就是，你尽管不满，那是你的事情）
Zach Lowe的这篇文章得到了很多篮球迷的关注，而且很多人有他们自己的看法。现在我到了可以提出我自己观点的位置，我觉得我应该（给出我的意见）

首先，我们先看看NBA中哪些球队能够竞争总冠军。我认为，只有那种拥有至少一名巨星的球队才能赢的总冠军。所以如果你没有勒布朗，杜兰特，保罗，哈登，库里，或者老一点儿的巨星邓肯，那么你根本不可能竞争总冠军。这就意味着一半以上的NBA球队没有可能得到总冠军。
如果这样的话，为啥其他球队不去摆烂，让自己更没有竞争力，签一些发展联盟球员，知道他们能够通过选秀得到一名巨星，就像76人那样呢？
NBA可能有15只球队同时在摆烂。当然这一招并不是总是有效，雷霆有过，可能已经失败，也许夏洛特也是一样。
不过不是所有没有一两名巨星的球队可以摆烂。球队必须保持在NBA中的竞争力。如果无法保证竞争力的话，那么你的球票销售就会下降，球迷也会离开。76人的球票销售就在下降。湖人在科比受伤之后球票销售也在下降。
所以对于像夏洛特这样的小市场球队该如何做呢？摆烂说起来容易不过球迷真的希望摆烂吗？

很多人都希望他们的球队至少有一点儿竞争力。这也正是黄蜂努力做的。他们签来、交易来、或者选来最能帮助球队，或者至少能够保持球队在NBA中的竞争力的最好球员。现在他们或者任何球队曾经依靠这样操作赢得总冠军？基本上不能。如果你不是在NBA5～7名之前的球队，你几乎不可能赢。
现在黄蜂已经尝试通过选秀和引入一些竞争者来重建。不过他们首轮选择很失败，选了迈克基德吉尔克里斯特，克迪泽勒，和诺阿冯莱。选择冯莱完全是错误，因为是交易来的。泽勒完全没有明星像，球队看起来也这么认为的，因为球队感觉上两次选秀签应该选择大个子球员。
我不想现在把弗兰克卡明斯基排除（在未来明星之外），因为他还没打过一场NBA比赛呢，不过我的观点是，他不可能在这个联盟成为巨星。他可能几年后成为一名合格球员，但是我就是看不出他会是一名巨星。而且最近几次失去了高顺位首轮签之后，黄蜂又回到了几年前的夺冠计划中了。
那么在夏洛特这样位置的球队应该如何做呢？他们是继续保持竞争力参加季后赛但无法取得总冠军？他们是否需要为了前五顺位摆烂然后选一个未来的明星？

对于一个在联盟中间位置，将在未来几年内继续保持平庸的球队来说，这是一个很难回答的问题。
对于小市场球队来说，最好的办法就是摆烂，尝试拿一个前五顺位。不过不可能一半的NBA球队都这样做。迈克尔乔丹和夏洛特团队选择他们自己的道路，现在可能在中间卡住不上不下。也许需要几年的时间他们才能离开这个位置，并且在一次重建。
我的看法是，夏洛特不过是做了在他这个位置上应该做的事情，通过中间的选秀权，签一些第二级别的自由球员来保证球队进季后赛的竞争力，建立球队。

暖

感谢翻译！

顶吧！没办法，只有顶、顶、顶