Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 2, 1993 TAG: 9307020053
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ED HARDIN LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
If the past is any indication, Indiana's Greg Graham and Connecticut's Scott Burrell are in for a cold initiation. If the two NBA draft picks are to make the Hornets' roster, someone will have to go.
Mike Gminski, who has a $1.8 million contract, probably is a bit edgy today. His name came up Wednesday night when team president Spencer Stolpen went over the Hornets' options. Stolpen was thinking in those terms even before the draft.
"Our goal was to see who we will displace in order to place another player," Stolpen said. "We will not say or project any money offers yet, until we see what we have on our hands."
If Graham and Burrell are as strong as the Hornets hope, Stolpen has a real situation on his hands. If the two are indeed bit players whose only strengths are defense and hard work, don't count on either making the team.
Charlotte coach Allan Bristow was realistic.
"They will really push our players in practices," Bristow said. "We don't expect the players to have large impacts early on, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're both great players three or four years from now."
Stolpen said that he will not make it easy on the newcomers. Releasing Gminski, which would free $950,000 (half his salary) in salary-cap money, would not help all that much, but the Hornets also will look at forward David Wingate's situation.
"That is my No. 1 priority," Stolpen said. "I plan to try and sign David Wingate as soon as possible."
Wingate is the only player on the roster without a guaranteed contract for the 1993-94 season. If he signs, Charlotte will have to release Gminski to open one roster spot.
Dave Twardzik, the Hornets' player personnel director, said he plans no major moves to avoid juggling the roster.
"We're going to go out and sign both of these players [Graham and Burrell]," Twardzik said, only an hour after a proposed deal with Detroit fell through. "We have no intention of packaging them for a trade."
A trade was the intention Wednesday night, however. Charlotte thought it had a deal with the Pistons, who picked guards Lindsey Hunter and Allan Houston, respectively, with the 10th and 11th picks. The Hornets had offered both their picks - 17th and 20th - for either Hunter or Houston. But the Pistons backed out.
"We wanted Hunter, and if it was Houston we still would have thought about it," Twardzik told reporters. "But the other side called it off."
Graham seemed unaffected by all the possibilities. He planned to be picked by Charlotte all along and considers his chances of making the team strong.
"I was very confident I would be picked by Charlotte after I interviewed there," the 6-foot-3 guard said. "But during the waiting process leading up to the draft I got a little nervous. With all the teams that I had been to see, Charlotte is the one team that really suited me."
In the moments leading to Charlotte's 17th pick, the Hornets thought they might not get a chance to go for Graham, who was high on their list all along. Just as Detroit was taking Houston with the 11th pick and turning down the Charlotte offer, the Los Angeles Lakers were getting ready to draft North Carolina's George Lynch, the biggest surprise of a routine draft.
Also, Arizona's Chris Mills and Acie Earl were being passed over by teams that had announced intentions of taking them early in the week. Charlotte actually considered both before taking Graham.
"The surprise for us in the draft was George Lynch going to LA," Stolpen said of the Roanoke native. "Then we had to deal with the question about Chris Mills and whether or not to pick him if he was left at [No.] 17.
"We were working for Hunter, but he was taken early in the draft. We would have traded up if we could have gotten him."
As it turned out, Mills fell to 22nd, making him the second-biggest bust in the draft. He had been projected to go as high as eighth before the pre-draft workouts.
The biggest bust was Nick Van Exel, another high projection whose stock fell during the workouts. He went to the Lakers in the second round, 37th overall.
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