<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Hornets held their third private workout session Thursday morning at Transformation Fitness Center, drilling a four-man group mostly projected as second round to undrafted players. Marcus Vinicius of Brazil and Brandon Bowman of Georgetown, both small forwards, joined power forwards Terence Dials of Ohio State and Alex Loughton of Old Dominion. Vinicius is the only prospect of the four projected to be a first-round draft pick. He is expected to go late in the first round. In addition to the 12th and 15th overall picks in the first round, the Hornets have the 43rd overall pick in the second round. Thursday's group was the first batch of players the Hornets have brought in who were predominately second-round talent. Hornets coach Byron Scott seemed most impressed with the 6-9 Vinicius, a 22-year-old sharp shooter. </div> Source
I don't really understand why Vinicius is a good fit here. Yes, they need help on the wing, but they're more in need of a defensive-minded wing than an offensively versatile one like Vinicius. From everything I've heard of his game, he has tons of holes in his defense, and although I haven't seen much of him with my own two eyes because he played for a relatively obscure Brazilian team, these are pretty reliable sources that I'm hearing this from. The Hornets were right in the mix for the playoffs this year, and with Paul, they're not going to be too far away next year either, so it'd make sense for them to draft on immediate team needs and not necessarily invest in future prospects. With that said, a backup center for P.J. Brown is a huge need, and with potential NBA centers like Patrick O'Bryant, Cedric Simmons, Shelden Williams, and Oleksiy Pecherov projected to be drafted around their #12 pick, it'd make sense to nab one of them. Then with their next pick, they should address their need for perimeter defense through a player like Mardy Collins. Vincius doesn't really fit into the picture though.
