Is there a Charlotte Hornets trade option to squeeze value from Nic Batum’s contract?
The highest-paid player in Charlotte NBA history clearly hasn’t worked out as a Hornets investment.
Could Nic Batum provide some trade value in the final season of his five-year, $120 million contract? Expiring deals have had value in the NBA in the past. While Batum was out of the rotation entirely the final six weeks of last season, he still has a broad skill set that could be useful to a contender.
Searching out trade value for Batum leads your questions in this week’s Hornets mailbag:
Can the Hornets package Batum’s expiring contract in a trade for anything decent?
The most likely — and probably best — resolution to Batum’s contract is him finishing out in Charlotte.
Yes, there was a time when NBA teams frequently used expiring contracts to facilitate trades. But that’s happened less lately, and the plummet in league-wide revenues due to the pandemic will make it that much harder next season for teams to exchange large salary obligations.
Think of it this way: The Hornets couldn’t find a beneficial trade for the last season on Marvin Williams’ contract, which involved a $14 million salary. Batum makes $27 million next season.
That’s a lot of salary the Hornets would have to take back to balance a trade, since so many teams will start the new fiscal year over whatever salary cap the league and players union agree on in a declining-revenue predicament.
The contracts the Hornets would have to take back might not be worth whatever draft pick another team would put in a package for Batum’s expiring.
The Hornets have had a miserable cap situation the past two seasons. That improves this offseason and improves lots more in the summer of 2021 when Batum’s and Cody Zeller’s contracts expire.
By the way, Zeller ($15.4 million salary) would be the best trade chip among Hornets veterans. He’s effective as a starter or a reserve and isn’t expensive by the description of a rotation center.
You seem to be on the Deni Avdija bandwagon. Can you elaborate?
I definitely think Israeli pro Avdija should be among the candidates for the Hornets’ No. 3 overall draft pick. But I’m not yet all-in on Avdija.
Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak says he’ll choose the best player regardless of position with the third pick. I have no reason to think he’d do otherwise, considering how hurting this team is for a star. However, that’s not the same as saying the Hornets don’t need help more at some positions than others.
A rim-protecting big man like James Wiseman or a versatile wing player like Avdija would address deficiencies I saw last season. So if it works out that Wiseman and Avdija are both available when the Hornets pick, that would be quite fortunate.
As far as Avdija, I doubt starting both Miles Bridges and Terry Rozier at the wings is likely long-term. A player like Avdija — long at 6-foot-9 but also skilled offensively — would add an element this team needs.
Do you think there will be pressure to make the playoffs next season, or do you think (owner) Michael Jordan will be OK with another down year? I worry that another down season might allow for a culture of losing.
I think fans should be wary of the opposite: That any urgency to break a four-season streak of missing the playoffs would induce shortcuts.
This team’s recent history (most of it pre-dates Kupchak’s arrival in the spring of 2018) was to overpay for players who didn’t make much difference. Kupchak has finally dug out of the salary-cap mess. Be careful not to do something that helps a little now in free-agency, but proves to be an overspend later.
Kupchak frequently calls “sustainability” the goal of this rebuild. It was the right direction to devote half of last season’s minutes to six young guys. Trade for or sign a complementary veteran? Sure. But don’t sell out the future for marginal short-term improvement.
Thoughts on a trade back in the draft? To me, an ideal situation would be trade back a few spots for a big (man) and another asset.
With a draft class like this one, where there is no clear pecking order, Kupchak should explore all possibilities. But...
The Hornets are as starless as any team in the NBA. So the idea of trading out of a top-3 pick to acquire quantity isn’t particularly appealing.
How big a role should the Martin twins have?
I’m so impressed by the intangibles of Cody and Caleb Martin. They’re both smart, competitive and driven to succeed. But either one is probably the seventh- to 12th-best player on an NBA roster good enough to advance in the playoffs.
I think both will have sustained careers. However, I wouldn’t assume either is an NBA starter.
