Charlotte Hornets: Should They Trade Lance Stephenson?
Let’s be honest, the Charlotte Hornets have been disappointing to this point of the season. In fact, they may be the most disappointing team in the NBA. A surprising 43 win season leading to a rare playoff appearance, coupled with the big signing of Lance Stephenson had expectations running high in the Queen City.
Unfortunately for fans of the teal and purple, those expectations have led to nothing but frustration.
The Hornets ended the first full month of the season with a nine-game losing streak. As of right now, Charlotte is arguably the worst NBA team not named the 76ers (and I’m not entirely convinced the Hornets would win that matchup).
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Luckily for the Hornets, they’re in the weak Eastern Conference, so a playoff push is certainly still possible. That being said, a change needs to happen before it becomes too late.
Are we overreacting? Maybe, but it wouldn’t be fun if we didn’t.
Outside of free agency, the quickest way to improve your roster is via a trade. Charlotte has young guys with potential, but not much in the way of trade chips – with the exception of Lance Stephenson.
It might be too early to pull the plug on the Stephenson experience, but he would certainly attract a considerable amount of interest despite a slow start to the season, albeit probably not for enough to make the Hornets pull the trigger. More on that in a minute.
Is a trade so early in the year inconceivable? Not according to Grantland’s Zach Lowe, who says the Hornets are “aggressively making trade calls.” To be fair, he doesn’t specifically name Stephenson as being shopped, but according to Lowe, everyone not named Al Jefferson or Kemba Walker is in play.
The young, developing guys like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Cody Zeller, and Noah Vonleh probably aren’t going anywhere. That doesn’t leave many other assets, which only further points to Lance Stephenson.
Do I think he’s going anywhere? No. Most mid-season trade talk is just noise, especially this early into the year. Even still, the Hornets probably wouldn’t get their money’s worth. Charlotte’s struggles have been well documented and Lance’s name is at the forefront.
He already has a poor locker room reputation and has gotten off to a very, very slow start to the year. While he’s shown flashes of brilliance, there have been too many instances of falling asleep on defense and interrupting the flow on offense. Despite a team-friendly contract, I’m not sure many teams would be willing to give up much.
Do I want him to go anywhere? No. Folks, we’re only a month into the season, there is still A LOT of basketball to be played. Although Lance has garnered the most attention (which is to be expected when dealing with a borderline star), he is most certainly not the only problem. Not by a long shot.
Give this team some time to get to know each other and it will be a much different story. After a brutal schedule to start the year, there are finally some off-days on the horizon. Expect Clifford to get back to the basics at practice and watch this team take off.