Early indications say the Hornets may sit out this NBA trade deadline
It was already painfully obvious, long before the Charlotte Hornets’ daily injury report began to mirror a grocery list that’s forced them to dig deep into the roster over the past few games.
Just in case doubt remained, their outing against the team that’s spent a hefty portion of the season atop the Eastern Conference should completely settle that. With another national television audience looking on, the Hornets were upended by Chicago, 121-109, and still find themselves in a free fall and are mired in their longest losing streak of the season.
The majority of the 19,089 attendees wanted to spend the night cheering on the Hornets, hoping to witness some of the magic that was pumping throughout the team prior to its funk. Instead, many who were in the house for the eighth sellout this season at Spectrum Center started making their exit with just over five minutes remaining, bothered by the Hornets’ sixth straight defeat. Five of the losses have come in uptown during a home-game-heavy February, meaning the place that was once an advantage has morphed into more of a neutral site.
Nothing is going according to plan for the Hornets. They’re in a funk. A bad one.
“Right now, we’re kind of at a place where we’re trying to figure it out in the moment,” Kelly Oubre said. “Nobody wants to lose six in a row. But we understand this is a learning experience for us down the line. We have to refocus, re-energize.
“Obviously, injuries, COVID — everything kind of messes up the rhythm of the flow. But we’re out there playing and we control what we can control. Just got to go out there and do it.”
That appears to be their only choice. The NBA trade deadline finally arrives Thursday and despite teams around them in the Eastern Conference standings, the early rumblings suggest the Hornets are going to stand pat and sit out the bulk of the festivities. In his four years with the Hornets, general manager Mitch Kupchak’s approach has been meticulous, with the only trade-deadline move being for Brad Wanamaker a year ago. And as of late Wednesday night, there wasn’t much evidence to indicate that’s going to change despite the Hornets’ rash of injuries.
Gordon Hayward likely sidelined for at least a month complicates things even more because the Hornets don’t play as well without him. There’s a reason they’re 50-42 with him and 11-25 when he’s not available. There’s little doubt among anyone who knows this team well that record is about to get worse. It’s not going to improve, at least not significantly enough to put a noticeable dent in the stat that underscores Hayward’s importance.
Unless they make a trade.
Let’s preface this by saying no one is suggesting the Hornets get reckless and surrender their best assets for a rental player or do something silly and acquire someone who’s not going to aid in improving the league’s 25th-ranked defense. But take a gander at the Eastern Conference standings and you’ll notice the Hornets are heading south. They’ve dropped into ninth — a game ahead of 10th-place Atlanta — less than two weeks after breathing down the neck of sixth place.
Teams all around the Hornets are making moves. If Charlotte can’t acquire a helpful piece for the right price, the pitchforks of Hornets’ fans will be out — if they weren’t already. Whether it’s professional insiders or amateurs, most who watch the Hornets believe an upgrade is a necessity.
They finally have an All-Star to build around in LaMelo Ball, who led them with 33 points, nine rebounds and five assists against the Bulls. Keeping the roster completely intact and continuing to move forward as it’s currently constructed is a waste, effectively throwing in the towel on the potential playoff development of Ball, Miles Bridges and the rest of the Hornets’ core.
This season was supposed to be partially about ridding themselves of that nasty taste left in their mouths following their drubbing by Indiana in the play-in tournament. But they’re speeding dangerously down a path of mediocrity that’s threatening to stifle the subtle growth they’re building.
Sure, their depth is a strong suit and was a point of emphasis for Kupchak in the offseason. That roster versatility is getting uncomfortably strained and the starters like Ball, Bridges and Terry Rozier and logging heavy minutes.
“Yeah, it’s a challenge,” coach James Borrego said. “It’s been that way for the last couple of years. We’ve had these stretches and it’s been throughout the league and it’s not just our program. Obviously, we are getting hit extremely hard by it. The last two weeks have been tough. You lose Gordon, you lose Jalen (McDaniels), you lose Kelly, you lose Cody Martin. ...
“This is life. This is the NBA. No excuse here. We’ll maybe look at another body here, but we are limited and those guys have just got to stay ready.”
Options are minimal for the Hornets. Barring a deal popping on the radar unexpectedly, internal improvement is going to be the only way to push back to greater heights. That’s their only hope of regaining their footing because unless things suddenly change, it doesn’t appear any outside reinforcements are heading in their direction.
“I think we’re good,” Ball said. “After the game, we were all talking and stuff. Pretty much just moving forward. You can’t really (dwell) in the past. All this losing and we’re still .500. Like I said, we got a lot more basketball to play and we can change this thing around real quick I feel like.”
