Jail hornets?

I can see LaMelo getting “injured” and suddenly the Hornets are in the hunt for Wemby. Hahaha, yeah something’s up with the Hornets culture.

Bridges is different level of seriousness. There are ways guys can screw up, and there are ways you can’t. Beating up your wife/gf in front of your children is not something that can just go away. James Bouknight could have gone the way of Henry Ruggs, especially after a pair of recent reckless driving stops. He is lucky it is not a more serious outcome, but it is unfortunately a relatively common way people have screwed up. That said, for a guy who had a rough rookie year and less than impressive preseason, he is more than inching closer to the NBA exit.

With Miles Bridges not on the team I don’t see them being above 0.500 and unless LaMelo can really carry the team they could well be in the mix for Wemby. Imagine the story MJ’s team drafts Wemby and the hype of the photocall, MJ would likely get Wemby a great sneaker deal and with talk Wemby could add $500 million to a franchise’s value I could see LaMelo being given a few night’s off if the Hornets start slowly or have injuries or more guys behind bars.

The Hornets were going to take a huge step back the moment the news of Bridges came out. He was on the verge of not necessarily stardom, but of the kind of player who could be Jaylen Brown if the Hornets could get their Tatum. Now, even if he can avoid jail time, he is going to out of the league for a while. Who knows if he can get back to where he was last season. When everyone has to move up one notch in the pecking order, it looks like a 25-30 win team. It will probably look even worse if they end up moving Hayward, Oubre, and Plumlee. I don’t think they could get value for Rozier with essentially three more years (the third year is mostly but not entirely guaranteed). The Hornets could probably get a 1st round pick from a playoff team for PJ Washington, but I am not certain they will want to move him though he will be a restricted free agent next summer. It could get ugly, at which point we will see if there is any difference between James Bouknight and Bryce McGowens in those games down the stretch as well as the Kai Jones/JT Thor minutes that will almost certainly be the impressive per minute stat line filling if you ignore the -25 plus/minus.

My mechanic says he can fix anything but stupid. Can’t fix stupid.

Oubre and Plumlee both have expiring deals so with their cap space for next season Charlotte could take on a salary dump and get assets. It could be a point where everybody bar LaMelo would in theory be available. If anything last season the Hornets overperformed and minus Bridges they are more likely to be a lottery team.