As you can see there would be some tough decisions. If I were the Hornets, the list would be:
1 – LaMelo Ball
2 – PJ Washington
3 – Miles Bridges
4 – Gordon Hayward
5 – Devonte’ Graham
6 – Terry Rozier
7 – Jalen McDaniels
8 – Malik Monk
Obviously, I love the first six, but I really buy in McDaniels’ potential to be a good role player and think that Monk still has some tremendous upside as a scorer as well.
I believe the Hornets would ultimately make the decision to protect the following players:
1 – LaMelo Ball
2 – PJ Washington
3 – Gordon Hayward
4 – Miles Bridges
5 – Terry Rozier
6 – Devonte’ Graham
7 – Caleb Martin
8 – Cody Martin
Judging by current rotations, the Hornets may let Monk walk in free agency instead of matching contracts, and they seem to have immense trust in the Martin twins. There will be some tough decisions, but no players that the Hornets decision-makers think are future core players are really at risk of being unprotected, and that is a very great thing.