Charlotte Hornets: 4 former players that would have helped this team
By Luke Duffy
4. Stephen Jackson
Vlad Divac could have possibly gotten the nod here (the rotation at the forward positions for the Charlotte Hornets right now is bad), but Stephen Jackson just beats him to the spot. He’s here for a couple of reasons, with the first one being the most selfish. The league was just a better place when he was in it, because he was a fun and sometimes unpredictable player to watch.
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That’s not reason enough to have him here of course, and during his two seasons with the then Bobcats, Jackson was about as good as he ever was while in the NBA. He averaged 19.8 points per contest in 139 games (which he started every one of) and did so with having basically no help as well.
The best player he played with during that stretch? Probably Gerald Henderson. Shaun Livingston was there that second season too, but he was nowhere close to the guy he would later become with the Brooklyn Nets and Golden State Warriors after suffering one of the worst injuries of all time.
Yet they were the seventh seed in 2009-10, before dropping out of the playoff scene in Jackson’s second and final season there. If he was with the current roster however, he would bring with him a veteran’s leadership and a will to win that is lacking with the guys currently in place. Jackson won a championship with the San Antonio Spurs, and he would ensure the young players stayed in line.
He would bring steady scoring to a roster that badly needs it right now, and which ranked second last (106.3) this season. Jackson played everywhere from the two-guard right up to an earlier version of a stretch four capable of knocking down a 3-pointer, and that kind of versatility would go a long way to plugging the holes that the Hornets currently have.