Aminu is just mediocre

I've been a fan of his since they got him. Watched him with his team in the Olympics and pulled for him to do well. Seemed like he put in the time this off season too. Was happy to see that. The problem is, it is not translating at all to me anymore. He has OK moments, but the bad clearly out weigh the rest. And obviously he is a young player, and is going to make mistakes. I can take that. What I cannot stand is the listless, no energy, out of synch, clueless, and really not dialed into the game aspects that I continually see from him now. Just too many poor facets of his game now to warrant that much playing time! Just looks like a guy who is still playing cautious and not winning on any area right now. Lance Thomas may not be as athletic as Aminu but at least he brings some intensity when he is in there. I think if Aminu brought Thomas's intensity, his game would improve a ton. Just won't apply himself beyond mediocre to poor. His chance to do damage in the league is right now and he is basically letting it slide, he won't get another chance like this from any other team.

The worst recently was him standing out of bounds before the ball was passed to him. He actually placed himself there!! So that when the ball was passed to him, the ref just looked and called him out!

There's a reason his option was not picked up. He's not really developing at a satisfactory rate.

As others have noted, I have noticed his frustration during the games too. Now it looks like he is starting to loaf more on defense too! He is a young guy and should be playing with a ton of energy at least! He walks the court like he is about 36 years old or something. Time to sit and watch for a while. If the Spurs can assign Nando De Colo to the NBDL only a few days after almost beating the Heat, then Aminu can take a seat until he plugs himself back in!

He's just athletic. He just can jump and everything he does comes from that. Hopefully we can get a lock down defender like Safolosha to replace him, anyone has a list of good defending free-agents next year?

I understood the whole time why he didnt have his option picked up...this kid looks lost at all times its just ridiculous...c ya chief after this season

Great athlete. But doesn't have the requisite know how.

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Originally Posted by Trell

He's just athletic. He just can jump and everything he does comes from that. Hopefully we can get a lock down defender like Safolosha to replace him, anyone has a list of good defending free-agents next year?

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Tony Allen.

No need to single out Aminu. The majority of the roster is mediocre. Rivers, Roberts, Mason, Henry, Miller, Smith are all mediocre. Some are just overachieving. There are no above average players on this team right now. Gordon needs to get back and Davis needs to get back to even out the talent.

mediocre is defined as ordinary; neither good or bad. Based on that, I have to disagree with the title of the thread. When compared to the other starting SF's in the league, Aminu is worse than mediocre. He is a poor player in that context. Aminu ranks 32nd amongst SF's in PER and has the highest turnover % amongst all small forwards who average 10+ minutes per game

I know he is our guy and we want him to do well. But he is still a bad starter and he has not really shown anything to make me believe he will ever get to mediocre. I would take mediocre

I don't think he meant mediocre based on starting threes. I think he means the whole league as a nba player.

This is why I wanna trade Vasques and our 2014 pick for a good center and draft Otto porter for our future SF

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Originally Posted by HornetGuru

This is why I wanna trade Vasques and our 2014 pick for a good center and draft Otto porter for our future SF

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i am all for drafting otto porter...trading gv and our 14 1st rdr for a good center?? not sure what center we could get for that..i really believe lopez is ok as our starting center if ad could stay healthy ..not really too many good big men centers now a days imo..and the ones that are really good wont be coming our way for gv and our 14' pick

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Originally Posted by HornetGuru

This is why I wanna trade Vasques and our 2014 pick for a good center and draft Otto porter for our future SF

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I'm not so sure Otto Porter would be an upgrade. He's very raw, and needs to work on his shot and handle. Good athelte with good size. Good rebounder and defender. Seems like he could be Aminu part two.

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One staple of the first two weeks of the regular season was Al-Farouq Aminu racing ahead of everyone on a fast break, then collecting a Greivis Vasquez alley oop for a dunk or easy layup. Those kinds of Aminu plays have dried up during this recent stretch, something Hornets head coach Monty Williams attributes to his team’s drop-off in defensive performance. “A lot of what was happening with Chief was off of (defensive) stops,” said Williams, calling Aminu by his nickname. “When you don’t get stops, you can’t get out in transition, run and attack the rim. We’ve given up so many three-point baskets, that it’s hard to get out in transition. I think he does a decent job of trying (to attack the rim) in our halfcourt sets, but teams are playing him for that. So he’s got to look to find holes in the defense and just play.”

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http://www.nba.com/hornets/blog/shoo...vs-bucks-12312

Put Aminu on the Spurs or Thunder and he will look like a much better player. Put him on lottery team and he will be frustrating.

I would hold on to Aminu if he comes cheap...which he should. As a backup SF he will do great once our team is competitive again.

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Originally Posted by HunnyB

http://www.nba.com/hornets/blog/shoo...vs-bucks-12312

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Exactly. Monty basically says that this is the only way Aminu can score. The playoffs is about half court basketball. If that is the long term goal, then you either have to believe that Aminu is going to magically improve in this area or that he is a backup on a good team. I can agree with the latter and would give him a similar deal to what Smith got (3 years/7.5) but would never expect him to be anything more than an 8th or 9th man. I see no way that he can evolve into a solid starting small forward on a contending team.

There is no shame in being a backup. As long as we are paying him like a backup, I would welcome him back

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Originally Posted by hornetsjuice

I've been a fan of his since they got him.

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This reminds me of Hugh Weber's favorite story to tell. When the Hornets played a preseason game in Europe some girl came up to them and was crying. "Oh my goodness, I am such huge fan of Julian Wright! So excite to meet him!"

Hugh Weber almost fell down. "Somebody in (wherever the hell they were) is crying over meeting Julian Wright?!! He doesn't even have a single fan in New Orleans!"

Just like EVERY player has a college or NBA mix online, I guess there's a fan out there for everybody.

The fact is that we have three (possibly four) above average NBA talents on our roster. Anthony Davis, Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson and MAYBE Austin Rivers (when he develops more).

The rest are either average (Vasquez, Lopez, Smiht) or below average (everybody else).

If we could add a top-3 lottery talent in this year's draft, one nice mid-price free agent or trade, and get Davis and Gordon at 100% we'd suddenly have above average NBA talent. If Austin develops into a legit 6th man that's gravy. We could be a top 4 seed in the West within 2 years if everything pans out. If Gordon never gets right, if Austin busts our, or if this year's lottery pick doesn't hit we're in for a very long and very frustrating rebuild - even with AD23.

Ive said it before and ill say it again

/Vasquez
Gordon/Rivers
/Aminu/Miller
Davis/Anderson
/Smith

Plus a lottery pick this year, plus a ton of cap space. That is an incredible start for a team. If we can plug in those 3 starters (harder said than done but we have the resources to do it) we will have an elite bench behind them!

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Originally Posted by Eman5805

Just like EVERY player has a college or NBA mix online, I guess there's a fan out there for everybody.

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I agree, and I think this is sometimes where we become biased as fans as opposed to being objective. Personally, this is what I do when considering whether I want the Hornets to bring someone back. I imagine that they are performing exactly the same way on another team and consider whether or not I would want to pursue them if they became available. I remove the idea of the player being "our guy" and stop thinking about "losing him for nothing".

If Aminu had nothing to do with this team and was the same player he is now, would he be on my free agent radar. I don't think he would be. This is the same logic that lead me to the conclusion that we shouldn't sign Gordon this summer. If he was on another team and had the same career, was coming off a 9 game season, would he have topped my free agent list? Would I have thought him max worthy? Of course not. But we get into this mentality that we don't want to lose people, that all things are somehow not equal.

I think if you can remove the fact that he is our guy from the equation and take a step back, it is pretty clear that there are far better options available than sticking with Aminu. Just the way I see it

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Originally Posted by MichaelMcNamara

I agree, and I think this is sometimes where we become biased as fans as opposed to being objective. Personally, this is what I do when considering whether I want the Hornets to bring someone back. I imagine that they are performing exactly the same way on another team and consider whether or not I would want to pursue them if they became available. I remove the idea of the player being "our guy" and stop thinking about "losing him for nothing".

If Aminu had nothing to do with this team and was the same player he is now, would he be on my free agent radar. I don't think he would be. This is the same logic that lead me to the conclusion that we shouldn't sign Gordon this summer. If he was on another team and had the same career, was coming off a 9 game season, would he have topped my free agent list? Would I have thought him max worthy? Of course not. But we get into this mentality that we don't want to lose people, that all things are somehow not equal.

I think if you can remove the fact that he is our guy from the equation and take a step back, it is pretty clear that there are far better options available than sticking with Aminu. Just the way I see it

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This is a good way to look at things. But I'll say that it should be used on all the players. It's easy to put Aminu or Gordon in that equation because they aren't well liked. I would use this same rationale on some of our other players. There is an overvaluing of some of our players because they are fan favorites. If we realistically took this approach on our entire team, we'd get rid of the majority of them.

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Originally Posted by WisconsinHornet

The fact is that we have three (possibly four) above average NBA talents on our roster. Anthony Davis, Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson and MAYBE Austin Rivers (when he develops more).

The rest are either average (Vasquez, Lopez, Smiht) or below average (everybody else).

If we could add a top-3 lottery talent in this year's draft, one nice mid-price free agent or trade, and get Davis and Gordon at 100% we'd suddenly have above average NBA talent. If Austin develops into a legit 6th man that's gravy. We could be a top 4 seed in the West within 2 years if everything pans out. If Gordon never gets right, if Austin busts our, or if this year's lottery pick doesn't hit we're in for a very long and very frustrating rebuild - even with AD23.

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The thing is we could add more than a mid-price free agent with the cap space we will have also. THe future is very bright

I think regardless, Aminu is on this team, and there is no one on the FA market better than him. It makes little sense to start making trades when you have not even seen your full team on the court yet, and our franchise players is on the shelf. Aminu need to be coming off the bench right now, Miller should be starting and getting his experience.

Speaking of Aminu, I was playing with the trade machine earlier and thought this looked alright.

Atlanta sends: Devin Harris, 2nd rounder
Atlanta recieves: Al Farouq Aminu
Gives them a SF that can actually defend small forwards. Kyle Korver can move to the 2.

Cleveland sends: Omri Casspi, 2nd rounder
Cleveland recieves: Devin Harris
Gets a PG to start until Irving gets healthy, and good bench production when he gets back. Also, Harris is expiring so he don't hurt cap room.

NOLA sends: Al Farouq Aminu, 2nd rounder
NOLA recieves: Omri Casspi, Rodrigue Beaubois
We get a nice combo guard that can score and backup the one and two, and a sweet shooting SF. Both of which have fallen out of the rotation on their teams.

Dallas sends: Rodrigue Beaubois
Dallas recieves: 3 second rounders
Dallas gets cap room for the trade deadline which and a few trade bait picks for a guy that has fallen out of favor for Collison and Fisher.