Is it time for the Charlotte Hornets to blow it up?

The Hornets may have hit rock bottom.

Zach Roberts | 18 Hours Ago

Dec 26, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Charlotte Hornets forward Brandon Miller (24) knocks the ball from Washington Wizards guard Malcolm Brogdon (15) in the fourth quarter at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

In this story:

Charlotte Hornets

The Charlotte Hornets just lost to the Washington Wizards, the team with the worst record in the NBA. They have a singular win this entire month, and the Wizards, who have five total, have two wins over Charlotte in December. This is presumably rock bottom because it can't get much worse.

It begs the question since they are mostly healthy: Do the Hornets need to blow it up? First-year head coach Charles Lee has had much better injury luck of late, but the Hornets just seem incapable of beating anyone. It might be time to make a hard decision.

The Hornets should probably blow it up

It's probably not wise to make a rash decision on a franchise's future after one loss. Fortunately, it's anything but. The Hornets have 23 losses, two of which came to a team with three and then four wins when they faced them. Even the "bad" teams beat Charlotte, which says a lot about the Hornets.

By this point in the season, it's clear that this unit is going nowhere. It is time to blow it up. Everyone not named Brandon Miller or LaMelo Ball, and probably Mark Williams, should not only be available but pushed to teams in the trade market.

Those three represent the core that the Hornets should build around. They're all very talented and 23 or younger. Those players should remain untouchable, but everyone else should be available because it's just not working.

There is a lot of chatter about whether or not Charlotte should trade Ball. He's on a max rookie extension, somewhat injury-prone, and (according to a lot of the media) not a winning player. His stats are impressive, but critics point to the team's record and say that they're just empty numbers.

However, trading Ball would be foolish. He's clearly the best player on the roster and possibly the most talented Hornet ever. Trading him would net a massive haul, but what would the Hornets be doing with that haul? Trying to find a player of Ball's caliber.

They'd have a lot of chances to do so, but he is special and the Hornets have a rough track record with that sort of thing. They lucked into Ball in 2020, and hoping to catch lightning in a bottle twice is asinine.

Miles Bridges, Nick Richards, Tre Mann (when healthy), Josh Green, and several other rotational players would bring back solid returns, especially based on what Terry Rozier and PJ Washington garnered last year.

The wild card in this hypothetical situation that probably should be reality is Tidjane Salaun. He's probably untouchable, too, since he was just drafted. He's only 19. At times, he looks every bit of being one of the youngest NBA players. At others, he looks like a promising player. Salaun won't be traded, but it's not clear yet if he's a part of that core mentioned above.