The day that many NBA fans of all teams have been waiting for is finally here, the day of the NBA’s trade deadline, which occurs today, Thursday at 3 PM EST. We saw a few smaller deals go down on Wednesday, but nothing involving Charlotte.
The rumor mill has pretty much reached a boiling point. By now it’s known that Gordon Hayward and Kyle Lowry are available for pennies, Miles Bridges, P.J. Washington, and Nick Richards are available for the right price, and everyone not named LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and Mark Williams can probably be had if a team wants to pay.
For that matter, it feels like we even have a good idea of which teams the Hornets are talking to at this point, and roughly what the asking price would be. Now it’s just a matter of which team will blink first.
But deadlines spur action and as the hours tick away more teams will be calling, people will get serious, and decisions will be made. There is definitely going to be a lot of action, and there’s a good chance that at least some of that action will involve the Hornets.
This is a huge day for the franchise, and whatever moves - or non-moves - are made, they will undoubtedly impact the organization for years to come. At the moment, Mitch Kupchak and the entire front office have a future outlook that is murky at best under new ownership.
They simply cannot afford to blow this; whoever is calling the shots better have a plan, and this entire group needs to be on the same page. So far the Terry Rozier trade was a promising start, and I like what rumors I’ve heard, but there’s every reason to be a skeptic until proven otherwise.
There are a lot of micro and macro details, and those margins could make all the difference in deals, but overall there are major ideals and values the brain trust must possess, and those will shape everything the team does. This is my wish list for the Hornets at the deadline.