Charlotte Hornets lose at trade deadline, does not make a trade again

After a lot of trade speculation, the Charlotte Hornets fail to come up with a trade at the deadline for the second straight year.

On the day of the trade deadline, Charlotte Hornets fans had a lot of expectations following a series of trade rumors. For the second straight season, the Hornets did not make a trade at the deadline.

In the past week, fans were tortured with all of the trade speculation surrounding the Hornets. In the end, the front office was not able to come up with a deal before the deadline.

Rod Boone of The Athletic suggested that the Hornets didn’t want to “jeopardize the nearly $50 million in cap space alone they will get when the contracts of Bismack Biyombo, Marvin Williams and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist come off the books in June.”

The Hornets have not had a good season so far; however, they have exceeded many fans’ expectations. Not a lot of fans expected the team to win over 15 games.

As of now, the last time that the Hornets made a trade at the deadline was in 2018 when the team acquired Willy Hernangomez from the New York Knicks. Since then, the Hornets’ front office has not made many moves.

While the Hornets had Rich Cho as their General Manager when the team made this trade, Charlotte has been quiet when it comes to trades. So far, the current GM Mitch Kupchak is 0-2 at the deadline.

Kupchak has made a variety of moves at the deadline in the past with the Los Angeles Lakers, but he’s not done much with the Hornets. So far, the only major moves that Kupchak has made, have been in the draft.

The most significant move that fans will remember forever is when Kupchak could not come up with a deal to re-sign star point guard Kemba Walker. This move did not sit well for many fans.

Kupchak still has a lot to prove to Hornets fans after not making a trade again. Without making a trade this year, fans can only expect that Kupchak is saving everything for the offseason.