Charlotte Hornets
The main goal of the OKC Thunder is to continue adding youthful talent to their roster and stockpile more and more draft picks, which is why trading away Al Horford near the NBA trade deadline makes sense. Long-term, he has no future with the OKC Thunder, but the Charlotte Hornets could absolutely use a veteran big man like Horford.
The Hornets have been one of the surprise teams early on in the season, as they look like a legit playoff team in the East with Gordon Hayward leading Charlotte’s young core. Terry Rozier, P.J. Washington and Devonte’ Graham are all continuing to play at a high-level this year, but the biggest addition to this team has been the play of rookie LaMelo Ball.
The 3rd overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft looks like the clear front-runner to be the Rookie of the Year this season and recently became the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double. With all the success the young Hornets players are having, all this team needs is more established, veteran talent like Hayward, which is why trading for a guy like Al Horford could be a great fit.
Being a reliable mid-range shooter and rebounder is what the Hornets could use, especially since Cody Zeller has been out since their first game of the season with a broken bone in his hand and since P.J. Washington is still a young player learning how to play in the NBA.
Even at full strength, this Charlotte team has some depth problems in their frontcourt, which is why adding Horford is even more crucial. Scoring has not been easy to find this season for Charlotte, who currently rank 24th in the league in points per game and adding a proven, veteran scorer like Al Horford can definitely ease things a little bit on the offensive end of the court.
You know what you are getting with a guy like Horford and if you are the Hornets, you have to be comfortable having Horford instead of a guy like Cody Zeller or Bismack Biyombo. The only bad thing about this trade for the Hornets is that they would be taking on Al Horford’s big contract, putting them over the salary cap and making things tough on bringing in more talent for future years.
The good thing though to negate not having cap space is that the Hornets have plenty of young talent that are going to continue improving, meaning that they will not have to go after big names on the free agent market as they will have their own.
Overall, this trade scenario makes a lot of sense for the Charlotte Hornets and if they want to look to add veteran role players to their roster for a small price, Al Horford is definitely the guy they should be taking a long look at. The OKC Thunder being more than willing to part with veteran talents only helps.
