Charlotte Hornets: A trade to make during the offseason

Since the Charlotte Hornets passed on making a trade at the Trade Deadline this year, that doesn’t mean that they can’t go all out with an offseason trade.

As of late, the Charlotte Hornets have had a history of not making huge trades that can help the franchise. Since the Hornets decided not to make a midseason trade this year, it does not stop the fact that they can make one in the offseason.

After the NBA season, the Hornets will be able to make a trade for another player. If the Hornets are to improve this offseason and resign Kemba Walker, they must make a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves’ for Andrew Wiggins.

Wiggins has been a player who has been at the center of a lot of trade speculation throughout this season. The Timberwolves were interested in trading him midseason, but Minnesota decided to keep him.

This trade would work for both teams because each team would be getting the same amount of value back. Nicolas Batum and Malik Monk are an affordable loss for the Hornets and can be traded with little consequence. Charlotte would receive a productive forward, while the Timberwolves would receive a shooting guard with potential, a veteran starting forward in Nicolas Batum, and a 2021 First Round Pick.

Wiggins can be a player who can be extremely productive with the Hornets. On his career, he is averaging 19.4 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. A change of scenery could be good for his production, and help him to improve his game.

In his fifth NBA season, Wiggins is currently averaging 17.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for the Timberwolves. His scoring average has been lower than previous years this season, but he is averaging a career high in rebounds per game this season.

Wiggins is currently on a 5 year $147,710,050 contract. While this contract may be scary, the Hornets would find a way to dump Batum’s contract in exchange for Wiggins’ contract.

If the Hornets can make this trade, I suspect they will be able to trade other players like Bismack Biyombo or Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who are on costly contracts. A Wiggins trade bolds a lot of possibilities for the Charlotte Hornets’ offseason.

Another reason the Wiggins trade would be good, is because the trade may be attractive to Kemba Walker when it comes time to resigning him. Walker needs help in the future; seeing Charlotte go out and get a good player like Wiggins may encourage him to continue staying in Charlotte.

I personally feel that Wiggins can play nice complimentary basketball with Walker and that he would benefit playing for a small market team like the Hornets. Wiggins can be an instant starter, and he has started in every NBA game that he has played in.

Charlotte has the opportunity to make this happen in the offseason and make some beneficial moves to improve the roster before next season. It’s time for Charlotte to be more aggressive in the offseason, and make a move to help Walker.