As the NBA Finals are heading into Game 3 on Wednesday, the other 28 teams in the league are already planning for offseason moves in efforts to play their way into June next season.
For the Charlotte Hornets, they’re first priority this summer, outside of finalizing their next head coach, is to resign restricted free agent Miles Bridges, who is coming off a borderline All-Star caliber season. Alongside retaining Bridges, an upgrade in the middle is a must for Mitch Kupchak and company.
Eric Waldon of the Salt Lake Tribune came up with a Utah Jazz trade with every NBA team, and for the Hornets, that proposed trade landed them a three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year in a blockbuster deal.
Waldon proposed that Charlotte send Terry Rozier, Kelly Oubre, PJ Washington, Mason Plumlee, James Bouknight, Kai Jones, and the No. 13 pick in 2022 draft to Utah for Rudy Gobert and Jordan Clarkson.
Waldon’s thinking:
Charlotte needs a big, Utah doesn’t have to bring back Gordon Hayward. This is a sheer talent-for-volume deal, as the Jazz would get a combo of existing talent and swings on upside at positions of need.
Gobert would be an immediate upgrade for Charlotte and you can only imagine the amount of easy buckets that LaMelo would create for Rudy on lobs and dump offs down low. The Hornets’ depth would certainly take a hit with losing the likes of Rozier, Oubre, and Washington, but landing Clarkson back in the deal provides that scoring punch off the bench that Oubre and company brought last season.
For the Hornets, you do this trade 100% of the time.
Stay tuned to Lonzo Wire. Follow us on Facebook!