Should the Charlotte Hornets raid a Knicks Meltdown?
The Charlotte Hornets are not particularly well positioned to make a bunch of moves here at the trading deadline. Any deal would almost have to include Lance Stephenson’s contract and some combination of other deals. Marvin Williams might be on the table with Gary Neal also a possibility, but only if the Hornets are looking for throw in deals. Bismack Biyombo would be another possibility to make salaries match.
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However there is one team that could make a number of moves at the deadline that the Hornets could try to take advantage of. Phil Jackson has said that there will be like ‘five or six’ current Knicks on next year’s Knicks roster. That means the Knicks will be trying to trade people, but they also might go ahead and simply buy some of the people out.
The obvious buy-out candidates are the ghost of Andrea Bargnani and the corpse of Amare Stoudemare. Neither has any particularly good trade value and both are making large and absurd amounts of money respectively. Stoudemire can’t be in the long term plans of the Knicks based on age and his uninsurable knees.
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So the Knicks might buy out these two to just get them off the books for the future. Stoudemire holds no interest for the Hornets, because he occupies the same place on the court as Al Jefferson. He also has shown limited interest in defense over the course of his career.
Bargnani offers a better fit, but his production has been terrible. If he was capable of his career averages, he would be intriguing as a guy who could share the court with Al and offer some size on defense even if he would have to trained in that. However it is unlikely that he could do that, but he’s a better fit than Amare.
The Knicks are also shopping their point guards Pablo Prigioni and Jose Calderon. The Hornets probably have little interest in Calderon, due to contract and lack of defense. Prigioni could be had much more cheaply, and could be a target if Kemba Walker is out for an extended period or the team is unhappy with new acquisition Eliot Williams.
The Knicks will provide some action near the deadline, the only question is whether the Hornets want to/can take advantage of it.