Grantland’s Zach Lowe dissects the problems facing the Charlotte Hornets and speculates Jeff Green could be one of their potential trade targets:
Now the Hornets are in trouble, and they’ll scour the trade market while hoping the status quo roster can find just enough punch to trample over a few of the teams that will surely stumble down the Eastern Conference ladder. You could see them making calls on a number of potentially available wings: Randy Foye or Wilson Chandler in the Denver overflow pile; Jeff Green in Boston, capable of swinging between both forward positions; Corey Brewer, suddenly weirdly essential for a banged-up Minnesota team; and in a much lower trade-value range, shooting tweeners like Dorell Wright and old friend Anthony Tolliver.
The Hornets have to be careful here. They cannot trade themselves into anything like contendership, and they cannot afford to cough up a valuable future asset to chase the no. 7 spot — not even within a conference in which the presumed top two seeds have played uneven ball. They may well get there without doing anything.
Any team haggling with Charlotte over a quality player will ask about Zeller, Vonleh, and a future first-round pick; (Gerald) Henderson’s a tempting suggestion, but his $6 million player option for next season kills his trade value. Zeller has cooled after a strong start, but he’s a 22-year-old seven-footer with clear NBA skills — teams should tread carefully in flipping those guys. Vonleh is completely unproven but well-liked by personnel guys. Charlotte’s 2015 first-rounder may well end up in the lottery, and teams these days almost never trade picks with a high lottery likelihood.
Outside of that 1st round pick, I’m not enamored with anything Charlotte has to offer. Do we really need another Zeller? Maybe Vonleh is worth a shot, but he’d have to play behind Jared Sullinger. I’m betting Danny Ainge is content with Jeff Green opting out of his contract after this season and freeing up $9 million in cap space.
