Draft Busts Are Reason Why Hornets Are At a Crossroad

Draft day is where championships are won and lost.

This is evident in any of the major sports when looking at the roster of championship teams, especially in the NBA.

While it may be true that star players are acquired a considerable amount of times through trade or free agency, key role players and bench-depth are built through the draft.

Just look at the last year's NBA champion, the Boston Celtics.

While Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and James Posey were brought in from other teams to push the Celtics over the top, the Celtics used their drafts to build a base with players like Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, and Paul Pierce.

Signing free agents and trading for players to make up for failures in the draft is a recipe for disaster, and that's the situation the Hornets have to deal with now.

Chris Paul and David West are the only starters who were drafted by the Hornets and the only draftees on the Hornets roster who average double figures in scoring.

In the past five drafts--excluding Paul--the Hornets have drafted nine players and two of them are still on the current roster.

Those two are Julian Wright and Hilton Armstrong--drafted in 2005 and 2006, respectively--and they combined to average 9.2 points and 5.6 rebounds this season, which has resulted in coach Byron Scott to express his disgust with their performances several times this season.

That's not a winning formula.

Drafting players not only builds up a base on a team to build around, but if kept together, those players can grow together and learn to work together and use their talents to compliment each other.

But the Hornets have not done that so now they are facing the downfalls that come with that failure.

Their starting lineup is made up of two players drafted by the team--Paul and David West--and three other players who have been brought in to replace others who either left or didn't work out.

So, if the team is constantly working to replace players, they can never begin to build the team's depth. This has resulted in the Hornets finishing last in the NBA in bench production this season and constant headaches that Scott has to deal with when he has to take Paul and/or West out of games to rest.

So, in order to avoid those headaches, Scott has had to extend Paul and West's minutes so the team's efficiency won't have too much of a drastic fall during stretches of games. Paul and West each finished in the top-10 in the NBA in minutes per game during the regular season--the only teammates to do so other than the Washington Wizards' Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler who finished with a 19-63 record this season.

The teams with the three best records this past season--Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Los Angeles Lakers--have a combined 22 players on their respective rosters that were drafted by their organization and have played their entire careers there.

The Hornets currently have four, and depending on the futures of Wright and Armstrong, may have less than that after this season.

Championships are won on draft day, that's something the Hornets need to figure out.