Wow, I've never read such a load of lazy, uninformed nonsense in my life. Where is Evans bad attitude? Cousins is immature but immensely talented and a great kid, he works extremely hard, the only problem he has is keeping his emotions in check. But clearly it's easier for you to subscribe to the lazy, ill informed reports you've read. I'm not going to waste my time replying too much on this point, as time will tell whether the Kings improve. Just keep in mind that the Thunder, with Durant, were a worse team than the Kings a few years ago.
That's all well and fine, I guess I think you're taking a rather extreme view though. The approach you suggest is fine, and so is the one I suggest. Players change teams all the time, so you can't say "when is the last time a player hasn't signed on with the team that drafted them after their first contract is up? That just doesn't happen, and won't" because that's just wrong. Yes, you can sign a bigger contract with the team you're already on, but stars bolt all the time. James, Anthony, Stat, Bosh, Paul, they go down in the book as sign and trades or get traded in the last year of their contract, but that's just so that their teams can try to get something in return once the writing is on the wall.
No, you said that a good rookie would likely bolt from NO after their rookie contract is up. I can say that it won't happen, because it won't. When is the last time it's happened? You can include sign and trades in that. LeBron, Anthony, Stat, Bosh, Paul ALL re-signed with their respective teams after their rookie contract was up. How are you not getting this? If those teams had been more successful in putting better guys around them, chances are they would have resigned again. It was during their second contract that they decided to move on, NO will have plenty of time to make their team competitive if they're competent. They would NOT be competitive with Odom, Scola and Martin.
Yes, the Hornets would have a more expensive roster, but you have to pay to get top players. Gordon would have cost a ton of money to keep when his contract comes up again as well. If I was a Hornets fan, I would rather the team be good now, so that I can enjoy the team, and so that we can start to tempt other stars to want to come there. But then I rate Scola and Odom very highly, both are finesse players who will age well, and i don't much rate Gordon.
But they're not top players! They're good role players, none of them are close to being stars, and that team would not get past the first round of the POs. And there's no room for improvement because they'd have a mediocre draft pick and no cap space. This is basic stuff. Why don't you go onto a Hornets fan site and see how they feel about this? I guarantee that most are much happier with this as it puts them in a much better position to be far more successful in the future than they could have been with the other deal. Martin is as one dimensional as they come, is soft, and doesn't do what it takes to win. Gordon is primarily a scorer, but he'll be in his prime when their other kids are coming up, unlike Odom, Scola and Martin. That's why he's more valuable, as well as just being a better player.
If you look at what teams have won in the NBA over the years, they are veteran team. Jordan won most of his titles in his 30s and was a veteran team, the Lakers were packed with veterans in Fox, Horry, AC Green and Shaq was 29, 30 and 31 when they won their titles, ditto Dallas. Of course those teams had some young players too, in varying amount, but they usually start with the veterans and add in the young players on the periphery.
Yes, you do realise young players become veterans? The Bulls got success because they sucked. They landed Jordan in the draft and the rest is history. It wasn't because they traded for three role players and destroyed their cap situation. Ditto Lakers. They managed to land the best big man in the game (how is this comparable to what NO were getting?) and traded for a young prospect, who happened to turn out to be one of the GOAT. The veterans are easy to find, it's the stars that are difficult. Once you have them everything else falls into place because the vets want to win. Dallas again got their star as a young kid. Where's NO's equivalent? Your argument might hold some water if NO had a major star or two. They don't. It's pointless adding role players who prevent long term improvement just to get knocked out of the POs two or three years straight, before finally having to do what was inevitable in the first place! Not one of those teams you named had their vets before they had their stars.
If the Hornets want to play the long view that's fine, but other teams that are in the same position would have been very happy to get such quality
veterans to win now.
Have to disagree. Not one sane GM would have preferred the Lakers deal to the Clippers one.
Your whole last paragraph is just so over the top. The Kings are garbage even with all their draft picks, they can't play defense, they have bad attitudes, it's a complete failure. There are many ways to build a successful basketball teams besides going all young. That's not how most of the current best teams got where they are. Miami didn't go that way, neither did the Knicks, neither did Dallas, that's not what the Lakers did when they lost Shaq. The Spurs have done very well with their draft picks, too bad everyone isn't as smart as them, but that makes them the exception. The Pistons traded for Rasheed Wallace but they did well to build up young talent into a winning team. These are all good ways to do it, they have succeeded in winning championships, so I don't see how you can say anyone who wants to do something other than your suggested approach is dead wrong and doesn't understand the game.
It's not over the top at all. Maybe you support a team that hasn't had to rebuild yet, and thus don't know what it takes. How you can call the Kings a failure is astonishing, given that our two best players just had their sophomore and rookie campaigns (two very successful ones at that). The team is nowhere near perfect, but it's very talented and getting better. This year is big for them. I never said you have to be young to be successful, don't know where you got that. But you do have to aquire young talent, and either let it grow or trade it for established players who want out of their current teams. The latter only works if you're getting back a star (have a look at the Clippers, they sucked, got Blake and other young talent, and now have landed Paul. Another example is Celtics - gave up all young talent and picks to get Allen and KG. Look at Howard, he's likely going to go to the Nets for Lopez and picks. Funny that this pattern is developing

).
Your examples are all over the place. They don't have any relevance to the Hornets trade. Miami had Wade (through the draft) and huge cap space (you're advocating that NO lose both of these things by settling for Lakers deal. Cap space gone and their Wade/Young talented player also gone as they're not getting high draft pick). This enabled them to land LeBron and Bosh. You're actually proving my point. Knicks traded all their young assets and picks for Anthony - also had cap space. This really should be becoming clear to you now. Lakers already had Kobe (when he was a kid), it's easy to build around him. Also got Bynum in the draft, he could land them Howard. The Spurs are not the exception, they obviously draft fantastically well and kept their players, but other teams have done similar but traded them for established stars. Either way you absolutely MUST accumulate young talent if you're not already a contender. It's the only way to succeed - prolonging mediocrity with role players does not work and is never going to get a team deep into the POs.
I realise that's a long post but surely it has to be clear to you by now. I'm not trying to cause offense but you strike me as a somewhat casual fan, especially with your reference to the Kings (one of the more talented young teams in the NBA) as garbage. You'll be interested to know that the Thunder, with Durant, were an even worse team than the Kings. Funny how time seems to help the younger teams get better.