The day after the NBA Draft, this was the headline in the Charlotte Observer: “Hornets make trade, avoid risk, get ‘guy that was left’ in NBA draft’s first round” Another op-ed from the Observer lamented the fact that the Charlotte Hornets skipped over high-risk, high-reward Michael Porter Jr., the Mizzou swingman who ranked #1 in the nation coming out of high school.
A thousand tweets called Bridges anything from “average” to a “C-” to an “early bust candidate.”
Sure, there were plenty of Hornets fans retweeting his dunk highlights from Michigan State and salivating over the idea of finally having a player who can jump above the rim on the team, but the response to the selection hovered around lukewarm at best.