The Charlotte Hornets have to move forward without looking back

The Charlotte Hornets find themselves in a familiar place, no man’s land. Life after Kemba Walker is going to be a tough one, but it’s one worth living.

As if Charlotte Hornets fans weren’t upset enough with the owner, Michael Jordan, for the lack of support for Kemba Walker, they are outraged of the handling of the All Star’s contract and departure.

It is essential for Jordan to regain the fans trust by managing a competitive roster to keep fans interested. The Hornets should avoid tanking as that has been proven to not always work out for the best. (The Pelicans won the lottery for Pete’s sake.)

So what does Charlotte do now? While there are no clear answers, here is what they should do.

Gotta’ work with what you got:

The Hornets are analyzing their young players after their trip in Los Vegas’s Summer League Tournament. A player under the radar that caught everyone’s attention is Kennedy Meeks. The big man provided 18 points and 10 rebounds in Charlotte’s win against Utah on Saturday.

Miles Bridges might have made the dunk of the Summer League with a euro step windmill that was all over SportsCenter in this same game. Dwayne Bacon scored 11 in that game. Other over-performing players of the summer include second-round picks, Cody Martin and Jalen McDaniels. Charlotte has to see these players for who they are- the future of the franchise.

Sign another Free Agent!:

After the signing of Terry Rozier, the Hornets have been silent in adding anybody else to the roster. The Hornets front office should consider signing just one more guy to fill out the roster, entertain fans, and be a role model to the young core that is the Charlotte Hornets. Jeremy Lin is still available and could get a lot of minutes with Charlotte as he did with the team in the 2016 playoff season.

The NBA Champion has a lot of valuable information to pass on to the Hornets young backcourt. A three-point specialist wouldn’t be a bad idea either for quick offense like a Kyle Korver or JR Smith. If the Hornets want to keep Spectrum Center alive and well they should get somebody the fans would love to pay money to see. Veteran offensive stars that are still available include Carmelo Anthony and Jamal Crawford.

While those guys are older and out of their prime, they will be the talk of the town and still have the potential to explode on any given night.

Pass the torch to Miles Bridges:

Bridges possesses an amazing ability to dunk the ball and has shown he can shoot too. This year, his playing time should be doubled. Bridges averaged 13.5 points a game in this year’s Summer League right behind Dwayne Bacon’s 15 a game.

Expect Bacon’s playing time to be doubled too, but the energy level starts with Bridges. In transition, Bridges is a defender’s worst nightmare because of his high flying dunking ability. All it takes is one dunk early in the game to set the mood for the Hornets.

Don’t tank! Appreciate:

The Hornets don’t have to outright tank to have a bad record. They will lose plenty of games with Kemba Walker no longer here to drop 40 points and bail the team out on a nightly basis.

The overall mission for this upcoming season is to get the young core as much playing time and exposure as possible (this includes first-round pick, PJ Washington as well).

The goal should be to create chemistry among the first and second-year players so that in a few years the Hornets will be a force to be reckoned with in the East. Terry Rozier is given a huge opportunity to be the face of this team, and it will be interesting to see how he shines.

Predicting each Hornets' players NBA 2K20 rating. dark. Next

You can catch the Hornets again in a preseason match up with the Philidelphia 76’ers October 11, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. in Winston-Salem, NC.