Hornets could use Myles Turner or Sabonis. But at what price? And is it worth it?
The correlation was inevitable.
Once word trickled out via a report that two particular players were potentially available, both being guys the Charlotte Hornets could certainly use, some of the old chatter got revived. Just do a quick Google search and enter Myles Turner in the engine and that’s all you need to know.
“Hornets” pops up squarely next to Turner’s name, mostly because the Indiana Pacers big man has been tied to Charlotte for months.
Let’s get this out of the way first: the Hornets should absolutely be interested in the services of the 25-year-old center. Turner and a teammate of his who also terrorized the Hornets on more than one occasion — Domantas Sabonis — are among the players reportedly on the trade block in Indiana with the team apparently headed toward a rebuild.
Upgrade in the middle
Both would be vast upgrades over what the Hornets possess at center currently, a position they’ve sought to upgrade for years now and could finally do so this past offseason when the contracts of Cody Zeller and Bismack Biyombo melted off their books. Mason Plumlee isn’t viewed as the long-term solution. Instead, he’s more of a stopgap, which was the thinking when the Hornets acquired him from Detroit via a draft night trade.
Enhancing the position is inescapable for the Hornets.
Does it make sense to see if they have what it takes to pry a piece from the Pacers? Absolutely. Pairing Sabonis or Turner with a young core boasting LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges would be downright scary.
Should they go for the gusto? Not if it’s going to deviate them too much from their steadied path, which is finally steering in the right direction after years of salary cap h-e double hockey sticks. It will cost a lot to get either. Indiana isn’t about to shortchange itself on a return for Sabonis or Turner.
Are the Hornets willing to give up some promising young talent, saying goodbye to probably at least two of them on top of a first-round draft pick? Like something in the neighborhood of a PJ Washington, a young player like James Bouknight or Kai Jones plus a future first-round draft pick?
Tough decisions for Kupchak
That could be something general manager Mitch Kupchak and the front office wrestles with, and the decision will not be an easy one. At the very least, you would think he would inquire and check if the Pacers’ price for either is feasible without disrupting their vision for the future.
Remember, Turner was on the market before and could have gotten snatched up previously for the right pieces. So Kupchak is fully aware of what it will take to land him if he so chooses to go that route.
In fact, following the see-saw nature of Turner’s tenure the last season-plus can be a little nauseating. Even this past week, just days after indicating he was ready for a new chapter because he believes he is nothing more than a role player in Indiana, Turner reversed course. Publicly, anyway.
“For me personally, I love it here,” Turner told reporters midweek. “I want to win here with this franchise, whatever that may be.”
Over these upcoming weeks leading up to the Feb. 10 trade deadline, the Hornets will have to determine if they are close enough to tangible postseason success to throw their fishing line into the pool and hook onto something.
Splitting their four games over this last week — and nearly winning all of them — despite the number of players they’ve had out is another indicator of the Hornets’ depth and interchangeability. It shows they are right there, very close to holding their own in the thickness of the jumbled up Eastern Conference standings. So making a move to shore up the position may be wise.
On the flip side, have you seen what the Hornets may have in three of the players they drafted in July? James Bouknight is coming off his career best scoring output, Kai Jones just logged the first meaningful minutes of his career and JT Thor’s inside-outside game is on full display lately. Sure, they are tradeable commodities, but they are also solid, cheap, building blocks who have their place when assembling a playoff-worthy roster.
Calculated risk
Parting with those pieces has to come in only the right, can’t-miss deal.
Flashback to October, the day of the season opener when Kupchak suggested he was going to resist pulling the trigger on something that didn’t have some sort of beneficial long-term element to it.
“In general, I think we have to be careful not to get ahead of ourselves,” Kupchak said, “and make a move that we’re not ready for. In other words, make a move that maybe gets you into the first round, but you’re going to lose. And then it hurts you next year.”
Kupchak is calculated. He hasn’t done anything overly dramatic or too far outside of the box. If anything, his methodical approach is a huge reason for the Hornets’ increased direction since his arrival in 2018. He’s far from a mad scientist in the lab, instead more like a seasoned professor who hardly deviates from the approach that’s got him this far.
Of course, the Hornets haven’t always been in position to be trade-deadline buyers throughout Kupchak’s tenure in Charlotte. They were in on Marc Gasol during Kemba Walker’s final season with the team in 2019, but didn’t pull the trigger in part because Gasol wouldn’t commit to exercising his 2019-20 player option and staying in Charlotte.
In all actuality, Kupchak’s best in-season roster acquisition with the Hornets definitely wasn’t a headliner and is more of the difficult trivia question-type. But it was an effective, under-the-radar move that turned out to be a huge insurance policy.
Sending a conditional 2025 second-round pick and a traded player exception to Golden State to get Brad Wanamaker, a 2022 second-round selection and cash looked brilliant when Wanamaker’s services were mandatory as an insurance policy behind LaMelo Ball when Ball got hurt in March.
That’s the gist of it, though. Kupchak isn’t really into splashy, headline-grabbing moves with the Hornets. And it’s why a bold deal feels unlikely unless they don’t mind parting with too many of their coveted assets and exciting young talent that could have them set up for years to come.
This story was originally published December 12, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
