The NBA trade deadline is a glaring reminder that the Charlotte Hornets are being far too sentimental with not dealing its own players to make long term improvements for the franchise.
In the past few weeks, I have started to hear questions from Charlotte Hornets fans and bloggers alike that dealing some of the Hornets veterans or young, still unproven, players may not be a bad thing.
In fact, some of these same people have even mentioned bringing guys like Marvin Williams and Bismack Biyombo back next season. Am I missing something? Sure both Marvin and Biz bring veteran leadership and a positive locker room presence, but their on-court performance isn’t deserving of bringing them back.
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They don’t have a future with this team, but the fan base and talking heads are falling into the same old song, they’re being too sentimental for their own good.
I have no idea what the front office is thinking, but I would hope this isn’t the case. I would like to believe a deal simply wasn’t out there that would benefit the Hornets in the long term, but remembering the Kemba Walker situation makes me pause.
Flashback to the trade deadline of 2018 if you will, news leaked out just before the deadline that the Hornets would listen to offers for their all-star point guard. The fans freaked out that the #KeepKemba movement started.
Michael Jordan himself seemed to hear the outpouring and quickly shot down those rumors saying he wouldn’t trade Walker unless it was for another All-Star. The Hornets went on to win 36 games that year, and the #KeepKemba movement turned into another late lottery season.
That was the optimal time to trade Walker, I imagine the Hornets could have gotten some nice packages, but they chose not even to entertain offers because that would have meant a rebuild.
Since some fans and bloggers were going as far as to say, the city couldn’t withstand another rebuild, and the team would move to Seattle, but Jordan elected to stand pat only to lose Walker for Terry Rozier last summer.
The team and fans should look at the model created by the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that traded the faces of their franchise Mike Conley and Marc Gasol for what has turned out to be a staggering return.
Think about this they turned Conley into Brandon Clarke, DeAnthony Melton, Justice Winslow, Grayson Allen, Josh Jackson, two future first-round picks, and two future second-round picks. Those assets will set Memphis up until 2024.
The team has been bad the past two years, but this season they have turned it around and seemed poised to be in the upper echelon of the league for years to come. They didn’t get sentimental about trading their point guard, so why did we?
The simple fact is if you have a star player but no team around him, after a while you have to trade him, no other arguments can be made. The Charlotte Hornets went from a playoff team to 36, 36, and 39 win teams with their star.
Now the team is rebuilding and make no mistake this is a bad team, the easy early-season schedule masked some of that, but they are 9-33 against teams not named Chicago or Detroit.
Remember fans, the NBA is a business, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made on some of your favorite players, don’t let your sentiment cloud your judgment. For everyone saying that no move on Thursday was the right move, you’re dead wrong.