NBA AM: Looking At The Draft Pick Debt For 2015

Who Owes What?:  With the salary cap system in the NBA getting harder and harder, the value placed on draft picks has increased exponentially. Over the years, teams amass a tremendous amount of “pick debt” – picks owed for long dead transactions. The 2015 NBA draft represents just one of the more complex years in terms of debt and how that debt is to be paid and structured.

Here is the current snap shot of what’s owed and how it’s to be paid.

For complete listing of what’s owed check out the Basketball Insiders Draft Pick Debt section. If you are curious how it all happened, here is where you can find a detailed history of NBA Trades.

What To Make Of Noah Vonleh?:  The Charlotte Hornets have assigned rookie Noah Vonleh to the D-League, announcing that the team felt he could use more playing time.

During the draft process, there was a narrative that suggested Vonleh could have been a top-four pick, that his stock was extremely high and teams were clamoring for him. On draft night, Vonleh took a mighty tumble all the way to Charlotte at number nine. The belief at the time was they got a steal.

Vonleh struggled during summer league play, shooting just 28.4 percent from the field and an even worse 12.5 percent from the three-point line.

That’s where the concerns really started. Vonleh wasn’t the knock down shooter he was marketed to be and he was really struggling to process the speed and pace of even summer league play.

The Hornets said all the right things, hoping that the time between summer league and training camp would help Vonleh adjust and then he suffered an injury. In early September, Vonleh was diagnosed with a sports hernia that required surgery, costing him all of September and all of training camp.

To say Vonleh feels behind is something of an understatement. He made his Hornets debut on November 15, logging just six minutes. He recorded seven minutes in the next game and did not play in next six.

Conditioning and timing were problems. Combine that with the Hornets being in free fall in the win/loss column and the coaching staff simply moved on, shifting their focus on trying to right the ship, leaving little to no time for Vonleh.

The ninth overall pick has logged time in just four games this season.

Hornets head coach Steve Clifford tried to rationalize the situation to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer.

”It’s the speed of the game: To play consistent, regular minutes you have to have a comfort level with how the NBA game is played,” Clifford said. “Unfortunately once the season starts you only have certain stretches of the year where you can practice a lot.

“He’s a 19-year-old who missed all of September, when the foundation was put in, and all of October and is now playing catch-up.

“The thing that gives him a chance is he’s very gifted and a great worker. But it would be tough for anybody to catch up quickly after missing his rookie preseason.”

Vonleh is trapped in a numbers game with sophomore big man Cody Zeller and veterans Marvin Williams and Jason Maxiell seeing the bulk of the minutes at his spot.

The Hornets have not given up on Vonleh, but it’s clear that after missing so much of the early part of the season that he is unlikely to play a big role for the Hornets this season.

Vonleh made his D-League debut last night, logging 16 minutes for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and kicking in 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting. Vonleh played rather well in limited minutes, challenging at the rim and scoring his first points in the fourth quarter on a dunk.

Vonleh’s long-term future is still very cloudy; however, the Hornets’ stance is simply that Vonleh fell too far behind to be a meaningful contributor at this point. The hope is some extended time in the D-League will help move things along.

Time will tell if Vonleh can be that guy he was touted to be coming into the draft process. For now, he’s simply a rookie trying to get minutes.

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