While the rest of the country is dealing with deflate-gate and Marshawn Lynch’s press conference, the Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets have been trying to strike up a deal. At first, I was repelled by the thought of Gary Neal going to the Miami Heat in exchange for Norris Cole. But the more I thought about it, the more intrigued I was about how this could possibly work out.
Yahoo Sources: Charlotte's pursuing trade avenues to replace Kemba Walker, with Sacramento's Ramon Sessions and Heat's Norris Cole on radar.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 26, 2015
Kemba Walker of the Charlotte Hornets will be out indefinitely due to a torn left meniscus. There is no telling how that will heal, so the Hornets have been proactive since it happened. Walker was sort of the centerpiece of an offense along with Al Jefferson. So that is hard to replace; indeed, it is probably impossible to replace for Charlotte.
But Norris Cole would be able to go over and run a bit freer than he is in Miami, and have a bit more freedom there. Kemba Walker has all the freedom in the world. I am not suggesting that Cole is as good as Walker, but he might be a softer substitute. While he hasn’t exactly played well this season, there are numerous reasons for that.
The first is that a lot of the starters on his team have been injured, including both of the hall of fame players. The second is that he has had to play outside primarily to open up room for Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to work. Now with Hassan Whiteside emerging, Cole becomes a bit less of a factor in the offense.
Neal to the Heat would be interesting, and can provide a lot of pluses for the Heat.
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