3 Disastrous mistakes the Charlotte Hornets must avoid this summer
By Adam Taylor
Entering the 2023 offseason, the Charlotte Hornets find themselves at a crossroads. On one hand, they have the second overall pick in the upcoming draft, a budding superstar point guard, and multiple young talents that project as legitimate role players in the NBA. Yet, on the other hand, the Charlotte Hornets also have a handful of veteran players that no longer fit the team’s timeline.
As such, Mitch Kupchack can go one of two ways, either he leans into the young core that is showing all the right signs, or he can look to build around veterans such as Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward, using the younger talents as trade chips in the search for immediate success.
While no one is expecting the Hornets to become an overnight sensation, there is a widely spread hope that the front office shuns the pull of looking for a quick fix in order to position the roster for long-term success down the line. With that in mind, here are three disastrous mistakes the Charlotte Hornets need to avoid this summer.
#3 Trading away the 2nd overall pick
Whenever a team boasts a top-3 pick in the draft, the option to explore the trade market is always a strong one. Multiple teams from around the league will likely be gauging Kupchak’s interest in a potential trade as they look to secure one of the best prospects coming into the NBA.
For the Charlotte Hornets, avoiding the temptation to flip the pick into ‘ready-made’ talent will be imperative. As currently constructed, the Hornets’ roster is quite some distance away from being a genuine contender, and short of a superstar return, anything they get for the second-round pick would be counterintuitive toward the franchise’s long-term goal.
As such, the Hornets should retain their upcoming draft pick, and look to acquire a genuine star-level talent, be that Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller, or whoever the scouting staff pinpoints as the best fit at that point in the draft. Fortunately, the Hornets do boast multiple other selections in the 2023 NBA draft, so if Kupchak does want to make a trade, he could look at packaging some of the team’s second-round selections or even their 27th overall pick.