Charlotte Hornets: Time To Pull The Plug?
By Jon Shames
The Charlotte Hornets have had a terrible season thus far…is it time to call it quits and blow it all up?
The playoffs are far from guaranteed in the NBA…that is, assuming one isn’t playing in the Eastern Conference.
Obviously, that’s an exaggeration, as only the top eight clubs in the East make the cut for the postseason (seven have their seasons ended in April), but it’s now a widely known and long-established fact that the Western Conference is head and shoulders above its Eastern counterpart.
But is the East bad enough for the 6-19 Charlotte Hornets to make a charge at a low playoff seed?
Fans are (understandably) getting impatient, and with each close loss, it becomes harder and harder to watch this club.
It’s certainly been a tough start to the season, with injuries and a rigorous schedule undoubtedly taking a toll on the Hornets’ win-loss percentage, but is that enough of an excuse to let the team keep playing, or do changes have to be made?
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Well, Michael Jordan and Rich Cho haven’t given a real clear indication of what their beliefs on the matter are. There have been no talks of Steve Clifford potentially losing his job, yet Cho has been fielding offers for Lance Stephenson (although reportedly, not aggressively shopping him). The Hornets’ management doesn’t know who to blame at this point, and because of that, cannot do anything that would be a surefire fix to the ailing Charlotte franchise.
So maybe, instead of trading for someone like Joe Johnson, the best course of action would be to blow the whole operation up, and start yet another rebuild.
The first to go would most likely be Al Jefferson, the high-paid center who can opt out of his contract this summer and test free agency. Jefferson, who is now 29 years old (and will be 30 by the time the season is over), understands that his time in this league isn’t infinite by any means, and will likely want to spend his remaining years playing for a team with a real shot at contending. Unfortunately, Charlotte, who signed Jefferson in the summer of 2013, is far from a title.
There would likely be a high return for Jefferson; the 6’10” big man has established himself as the best low-post scorer in basketball and one of the league’s premier centers, despite his deficiencies on the defensive end of the floor. He is on the second year of a three-year, $41 million deal, and while he will have trouble finding that kind of cash elsewhere (should he opt out), he is certainly someone who would garner a good deal of attention and, consequently, cash, on the free agency market.
The Hornets would be giving up a huge part of their offense by trading Jefferson, who has been an integral part of all of Charlotte’s success over the past two seasons, but knowing that he could likely bring back young talent and/or a first round draft pick, it might be worth it to send him out at the deadline.
Charlotte already has a good deal of talented youngsters, with the likes of Kemba Walker, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Noah Vonleh, P.J. Hairston, Cody Zeller, and even Lance Stephenson. In that group, positions 1-4 are all covered. The missing piece is a skilled center — a rare commodity in the NBA.
Luckily, the upcoming draft features a pretty deep talent pool of big men, among them Jahlil Okafor and Karl-Anthony Towns. Both are projected as top-five picks, so Charlotte would have to tank the rest of the season away to land either one of them. Still, having either one of them (Okafor is projected to be more of an impact player right away) on the roster would certainly help heal the void that’s sure to be left by Al Jefferson.
The other big question facing Charlotte is whether or not to keep Stephenson around. As it stands, the Hornets still appear to be in win-now mode, which is why the team has decided to put Stephenson — a 23-year-old with loads of untapped potential — on the trade block.
But dumping Big Al and starting over would almost certainly change Lance’s future. I’m one of the few believers that a Stephenson/Walker backcourt could still work down the road, and putting win-totals aside would all but remove the Hornets’ incentive to sit Stephenson in late-game situations, getting the pairing of him and Walker more playing time — more time to mesh.
Stephenson ended up taking a very team-friendly three-year deal worth $27 million, but don’t let the contract fool you; he was one of the league’s best wings last year. He certainly was a popular name in free agency, but he was targeted pretty early by Indiana, and then Charlotte, and his label as a hothead also steered some clubs away from offering him a deal.
Lance has been playing a bit better as of late after an awful start to the 2014-15 campaign, but has still been unexpectedly underwhelming. Still, the swingman has shown the ability to play at a high level, and he offers multi-faceted value that is only rivaled by few. Considering that he is on that team-friendly deal, and knowing that he still has potential to improve even further, there is no reason to trade him away for scraps now, while his value is at an all-time low.
The last thing Charlotte Hornets fans want is another rebuild, but at this point, it may be the best course of action. Shoveling money into aging players that provide neither the talent nor the timeframe to make the Charlotte Hornets legitimate contenders is not the way to go.
While a rebuild would be tough, it’s downright cruel to give the fans a false sense of hope.
Build something real. Build something for the future.
Your move, Rich Cho.