Fans of the Charlotte Hornets are hoping for good news and an excellent rotation for the remainder of the campaign.
For the Charlotte Hornets, the long-needed winds of change have finally arrived. Charlotte has now traded away a third of their roster in a flurry of transactions. In summary:
Two players will need to be waived because the Hornets are starting five players instead of just three. I have projected James Bouknight and Frank Ntilikina as the cuts for this exercise, but this is not confirmed.
Charlotte made trade deadline moves with the intention of acquiring draft picks. This indicates that there is not a clear “fit” for the majority of the new players with the Hornets. There are far too many backcourt players on the current Hornets depth chart, which appears highly imbalanced, but that will only be a short-term problem for the remainder of the 2023–24 season.
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I can not decide if the Hornets should go with Seth Curry, an experienced veteran, or force-feed minutes to young players like Mann and Nick Smith Jr. My expectation would be the latter if Steve Clifford remains the head coach.
It makes sense to let Micic manage the second unit in the backcourt to see if he can carry over into the upcoming season or if he will be dealt again during the off-season.
Another choice would be for Charlotte to go “big” and start Grant Williams at PF, Bridges at SF, and Miller at SG. But having so many guards—Martin, Smith Jr., and Mann—would cause a logjam in other areas of the roster.
