As NBA trade deadline nears, will Charlotte Hornets stand pat or make a move?
Events of the past few days, starting with the seismic trade reverberating around the NBA, shook up just about everyone.
Miles Bridges included.
As a fellow member of the Klutch Sports Group family, the Charlotte Hornets forward knows Anthony Davis a bit and was as stunned as anybody to see the 10-time All-Star traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Dallas Mavericks for star Luka Dončić.
“Yeah, that was crazy,” Bridges said. “That just shows that nobody is safe. So, it’s always scary around this time. But you’ve just got to focus on the game and control what you can control.”
With that in mind, at least Bridges can find solace in one thing: unlike this time a year ago, he’s not the subject of non-stop trade rumors and there wasn’t a huge curiosity about his status following Wednesday night’s 112-102 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at Spectrum Center.
The NBA’s annual day of tension comes on Thursday, when teams have until 3 p.m. ET to complete any player acquisitions before the trade deadline passes.
“Like I’ve said, I want to be a part of the Hornets my whole career,” Bridges told The Observer, “and for my name not to be out there, it’s still scary seeing Luka get traded, (De’Aaron) Fox getting traded. So, you can never be too comfortable. I just want to keep playing my game.”
For Charles Lee, this isn’t necessarily new territory, given his lengthy trek as an assistant at previous stops in Milwaukee and Boston among others. But it’s the first shot at navigating the tricky period for the Hornets coach.
His demeanor remains unchanged, though.
“I would say now just being the leader of a team, you’re just trying to keep everybody’s focus on the next day and what you can control,” Lee said. “And currently, all we can control is our shootaround that we had this morning, the preparation that we had before the game, watching film and learning and growing from what we did versus Washington and how we have to be better. …
“That’s where our focus has to stay, our obsession with daily improvement. And everything else will kind of play itself out.”
From all early indications, the Hornets (12-36) already made their key move when they sent Nick Richards and a second-round pick to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Josh Okogie and three second-rounders last month.
With the bulk of their core players hurt, the Hornets probably won’t be major players leading into the deadline, instead hanging off to the side to be a contributor to a multi-team trade or a smaller move that surely wouldn’t cause much of a tremor.
Internet detectives circled before tipoff against the Bucks, when Vasa Micić — originally listed as questionable with left ankle soreness — got downgraded to out. However, Lee said Micić wasn’t feeling right during the lead into the game and they decided to sideline him.
The 31-year-old Serbian has been rumored to be a candidate to be on the move, and the Hornets probably would deal him to a team needing a backup point guard for a second-round pick if they could get it. Otherwise, things are mostly quiet, although that could always change before the deadline.
Since the Hornets are far from a finished product, and boast one of the four worst records in the league, their true roster reconstruction will come in the summer. In the meantime, they have to keep sifting through the rubble of a somewhat lost season done in by a campaign that has them among the NBA’s top six teams for games missed due to injury.
When Lee looked across the floor, he could probably still see some of those good times he had in Milwaukee, the solid situation that helped propel him to where he is today. Eight months into his Hornets’ tenure, he’s meticulously constructing something in Charlotte, taking a piece of what he picked up during his stops along the journey in places like Massachusetts and Wisconsin.
“It was a heck of an experience in Milwaukee and I think it definitely showed me what is the right way to go about things,” Lee said. “In order to have sustained success to win a championship, what does your culture have to look like, what does your preparation have to look like, from the staff, front office, the alignment you have to have in all those areas, too.
“And the resilience you have to show and the adversity you have to get through in order to achieve great success. So, you need to have great people around you in different areas to make sure you can get through all those hard times. So, we are definitely trying to take some of what we did in Milwaukee and implement it here. We would be crazy not to try to learn from somebody who was able to win a championship.”
At least one person believes he’s headed in the proper direction.
“He’s doing a terrific job,” Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers said. “The first thing, I think that Charles is going to be a fantastic coach. And I’m not just saying that. I don’t even know Charles that well. I just know what I see. The other thing that stands out — and obviously I have some inside information because my son-in-law (Seth Curry) plays on the team — I think that Charles is trying to build a culture first.
“I think that’s the most important thing here and you can see Charles step-by-step doing that, doing a lot of family stuff, he’s going to build this culture right. He comes from Boston, he comes from Milwaukee where I would say around the league are two organizations that have done it right. So, he’s seen the way it’s done. I feel like you can see him put that into place. When you have a young team and you can build that, it’s priceless.”
That sums up exactly why Bridges still prefers to call Charlotte home.
“I like the squad we have,” Bridges said. “I like what we are building. I just hope guys get off the injury list. That’s all.”
