Charlotte Hornets: What the Deadline Should Have Been
The Charlotte Hornets will be on the sideline as Andrew Bogut negotiates his next team.
The Charlotte Hornets did nothing at the trade deadline. Nothing. The question to ask was what were they supposed to do? After the Miles Plumlee trade, the Hornets had no tradeable assets other than some bench players. They clearly were not ready to jettison big parts of the nucleus for a team that made the playoffs last year and looks completely different when Cody Zeller is on the court.
This was a bad month for the Hornets front office. Zeller’s injury made them move in the wrong direction to try to alleviate the situation. They brought in Bucks backup Plumlee, who was sitting on a fat new contract and not seeing playing time. As a result Plumlee came in out of shape. What happens when you play out of shape players? They get hurt.
The front office handled a similar situation with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist last year. He got hurt soon after his return and the team got Courtney Lee to replace him. Lee was a stroke of brilliance, a known quantity on a limited contract. If he turned out bad, then the damage was restricted to the remainder of the season.
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The Hornets ignored these principles in trying to replace Zeller in the short-term. They brought in Plumlee, an unknown quantity with only a good contract year, and a player who is eating $12 million in cap room for the next couple of years. In the process they dumped two centers, Roy Hibbert and Spencer Hawes. When Plumlee got hurt, there was no backup plan behind Frank Kaminsky (sorry Mike Tobey).
Hawes and Hibbert also represented the tradeable assets the team had for the future. Ramon Sessions’ injury also limited some of their flexibility as well. The Plumlee trade became the deadline deal. The Hornets are gasping for a chance to get back in the playoff chase with limited horses to do it.
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What should have happened? The Hornets probably should have worked their options better. The guy to go get would have been Andrew Bogut in Dallas. He is a known quantity. Bogut has only this year left on his deal. Now Bogut is just waiting for the 76ers to buy him out so that he can jump to a contender on the cheap.
If the Hornets could call his agent I would, but Bogut wants to be relevant. He will sacrifice playing time for a ring, and he already will have his buyout money. No, the Hornets should have made a move to grab him before this (this is of course assuming that Dallas would have made a deal).
Next: Trade Deadline Challenges
Now the Hornets are locked in a bad place. They will get a lift when and if Zeller returns, but they have to make up ground in the meantime. Tomorrow against Sacramento would be a good place to start.