The Charlotte Hornets don’t want to be in the dumpster of the Eastern Conference anymore, and everything they’ve done this summer has indicated their desire to push forward.
From signing Charles Lee to be their head coach to bringing Kemba Walker on board with the coaching staff to drafting Tidjane Salaun to trading for Josh Green, Charlotte has made a ton of great moves.
But perhaps the biggest move Charlotte made this summer was re-signing forward Miles Bridges to a new three-year contract, re-adding him to the core of LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller.
To make things perfectly clear, there is no world where Bridges should be allowed to play in the NBA. With all of his off-the-court issues, it’s entirely embarrassing that the league is allowing him to step foot on the court.
But since they are, he will be a part of almost every conversation involving the Hornets moving forward, as he’s one of their best players on the court.
Hornets predicted to trade Miles Bridges, but logic is unfortunately flawed
However, Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report doesn’t think that’s the case. He believes that the Hornets only re-signed Bridges to trade him down the line, noting that the value of the contract will depend on what they get back in return.
"The final judgment on Miles Bridges' three-year, $75 million contract will come after the Charlotte Hornets eventually trade him. Let's agree as a starting point that this has to be the idea here, right? Why else would a rebuilding team that refreshed everything over the last year—ownership, front office, head coach—want anything to do with a problematic holdover from the previous regime?"Grant Hughes
His argument is the same as the one made here—there is no reasonable excuse for the Hornets wanting to have a guy like Bridges on their team, especially with everything they’ve built this summer.
Lee has seemingly made it his mission to establish a positive, winning culture in Charlotte, and having a guy like Bridges be a part of that is wholeheartedly counterintuitive.
Unfortunately, everything that is coming out of Charlotte is pointing toward them keeping Bridges around. Miller recently spoke about how much the team likes him, and he was at Summer League with the rest of the squad, including Lee.
Hughes’ idea is an optimistic one for those who admonish what Bridges did off the court (which should be every human on the planet). But that just doesn’t seem to be the direction Charlotte wants to go in, which stinks.
It would be nice to see Charlotte trade Bridges, but it seems as though he’s going to be sticking around.