Hornets & Wizards: A fork in the road for each franchise

[drosestruts]

Will actually be two separate trades as these teams decide to move in two different directions.

Trade #1:

Charlotte in: Kyle Kuzma and Daniel Gafford

Washington in: Gordon Hayward, Mark Williams, and Nick Smith


Trade #2:

Charlotte in: Jordan Poole and PHX 2025 2nd

Washington in: Kyle Lowry


Hornets:

Ball/Smith.Ntilinkina
Bridges/Poole/Bouknight
Miller/Martin/McGowens
Kuzma/Washington/Thor
Gafford/Richards

Hornets add some talent in Kuzma, Gafford, and Poole to create a complete roster of young veterans that are aligned in age, contracts, and timing. The excuses are over with this group, perform or fail.


Wizards:

For the Wizards it's expiring contracts and young players. Expirings help them expidite shaping a compliemntary roster around their young pieces. I think some guys have talent like a Kuzma, whose then in direct contention with Avdija and Coulibaly for minutes. It cleans up the roster while gaining financial flexibility.

[BK_2020]

I don't think the Hornets will trade their valuable players for Wizards' not valuable players but I will let the Hornets fans weigh in.

[psman2]

What....why would Charlotte eat Poole for a 2nd after the disaster of a season he has had? Even with a year off his contract, the hope that a change of scenery would untapped him somehow is now gone. The trade is dead there.

Plus why not keep the younger, cheaper Williams that has upside than swapping him out there. This just makes Charlotte more expensive, older, and less upside and no where to go.

[penbeast0]

Not sure it cleans up the roster any, adding another 2 guard who hasn't shown much to our deepest position and subtracting a PF, our thinnest position.

Both guys we are getting are former late 1sts on rookie deals so that's sort of our ask for Kuzma and dumping Jordan Poole for expirings makes up for the shorter contracts (and probably the biggest selling point in the deal for long suffering Wizards fans).

Biggest question is how the two teams feel about Gafford and Williams since they are being swapped straight up. I'd probably do it overall for the Wiz but I know many Charlott fans love Williams.

[JustBuzzin]

Bro Poole is probably the most untradable player in the league. Washington is stuck with that contract until he's expiring.

Kuzma would be nice but he and Bridges play the same position.

[luciano-davidwesley]

Will actually be two separate trades as these teams decide to move in two different directions.

Trade #1:

Charlotte in: Kyle Kuzma and Daniel Gafford

Washington in: Gordon Hayward, Mark Williams, and Nick Smith


Trade #2:

Charlotte in: Jordan Poole and PHX 2025 2nd

Washington in: Kyle Lowry


Hornets:

Ball/Smith.Ntilinkina
Bridges/Poole/Bouknight
Miller/Martin/McGowens
Kuzma/Washington/Thor
Gafford/Richards

Hornets add some talent in Kuzma, Gafford, and Poole to create a complete roster of young veterans that are aligned in age, contracts, and timing. The excuses are over with this group, perform or fail.


Wizards:

For the Wizards it's expiring contracts and young players. Expirings help them expidite shaping a compliemntary roster around their young pieces. I think some guys have talent like a Kuzma, whose then in direct contention with Avdija and Coulibaly for minutes. It cleans up the roster while gaining financial flexibility.

Trade 1: Are you crazy?

Trade 2: Obviously yes

How is a future late second fair compensation in any universe for one of the worst contracts in the league. Not sure how you thought this was a good proposal.

[jayjaysee]

If you take out Williams/Gafford.. it probably is pretty close to fair?

But you probably just pay Bridges before taking on Poole to get Kuzma.

[luciano-davidwesley]

Not sure it cleans up the roster any, adding another 2 guard who hasn't shown much to our deepest position and subtracting a PF, our thinnest position.

Both guys we are getting are former late 1sts on rookie deals so that's sort of our ask for Kuzma and dumping Jordan Poole for expirings makes up for the shorter contracts (and probably the biggest selling point in the deal for long suffering Wizards fans).

Biggest question is how the two teams feel about Gafford and Williams since they are being swapped straight up. I'd probably do it overall for the Wiz but I know many Charlott fans love Williams.

Nick Smith had been very good for us but he needs to work on his rim pressure and finishing. He has shown a lot and shoots the ball from deep beautifully.

Both of these trades have zero chance of happening or being salvagable. Washington isn't giving up firsts for Poole and we aren't taking him for free.

Williams and NS Jr are very much in our plans and are both well thought of in Charlotte. Absolutely no interest here.

[KembaWalker]

Id rather stick the fork in a power outlet

[babyjax13]

Taking out Williams and all the picks, the real deal (obviously broken up into two pieces) is:

Kuzma + Poole for
Hayward + Lowry

I don't think Kuzma has enough value to move Poole for expirings, and at the point you start to ask for more it becomes a better option for Washington just to stand pat (I imagine what would balance it is the inclusion of Avdija).

[HornetJail]

absolutely not lol.

Washington could include their upcoming 1st and we wouldn't do that

[drosestruts]

Will actually be two separate trades as these teams decide to move in two different directions.

Trade #1:

Charlotte in: Kyle Kuzma and Daniel Gafford

Washington in: Gordon Hayward, Mark Williams, and Nick Smith


Trade #2:

Charlotte in: Jordan Poole and PHX 2025 2nd

Washington in: Kyle Lowry


Hornets:

Ball/Smith.Ntilinkina
Bridges/Poole/Bouknight
Miller/Martin/McGowens
Kuzma/Washington/Thor
Gafford/Richards

Hornets add some talent in Kuzma, Gafford, and Poole to create a complete roster of young veterans that are aligned in age, contracts, and timing. The excuses are over with this group, perform or fail.


Wizards:

For the Wizards it's expiring contracts and young players. Expirings help them expidite shaping a compliemntary roster around their young pieces. I think some guys have talent like a Kuzma, whose then in direct contention with Avdija and Coulibaly for minutes. It cleans up the roster while gaining financial flexibility.

Trade 1: Are you crazy?

Trade 2: Obviously yes

How is a future late second fair compensation in any universe for one of the worst contracts in the league. Not sure how you thought this was a good proposal.

Because due to trade rules around trading Lowry it's like "a wink wink two trades" that's really one trade. So does "are you crazy" and "obviously yes" net out somewhere as an overall yes?

[nate33]

The Wizards wouldn't do this either. Moving off of Poole doesn't really help a team that already has plenty of cap flexibility. No good young free agent is going to join a terrible team.

It would be much better to keep Poole and then try and trade Kuzma elsewhere for pick capital.

[drosestruts]

Hornets fans - you place a high value on a guy (Mark Williams) who has played in 47% of available games

Gafford has missed 9 games total over the past two seasons.

Your best ability is availability

[Texas Chuck]

Yikes this feels awful for Charlotte. Ball/Juz/Poole is an expensive core that doesn't make the play-in and you have them paying to do so?

Washington should do this so incredibly fast. Get a decent prospect and get rid of a ton of money. No chance Kuzma has more value than Williams and dumping the worst contract in the league. Take the huge value win obviously.

Continues to amaze me how many fans of bad teams with no real path to being competitive but locked into payrolls would rather stay the course than get rid of that money and start over. I would do the opposite. Nothing is gained by continuing as is.

[drosestruts]

Interesting responses overall. I think Mark Williams is getting way over valued here.

Per36 he and Gafford are pretty identical.

Advanced stats give the edge to Gafford.

Not to mention Gafford actually plays basketball.

But the responses here are not in line with this at all.

[nate33]

Continues to amaze me how many fans of bad teams with no real path to being competitive but locked into payrolls would rather stay the course than get rid of that money and start over. I would do the opposite. Nothing is gained by continuing as is.

Because rather than sacrifice Kuzma's value to get rid of a bad contract, I'd prefer to use it to acquire picks. I'm amazed that you are confounded by this stance. What exactly would the Wizards do with $90M in cap room this summer? Give a guy like Immanuel Quickley a max salary?

[HornetJail]

Interesting responses overall. I think Mark Williams is getting way over valued here.

Per36 he and Gafford are pretty identical.

Advanced stats give the edge to Gafford.

Not to mention Gafford actually plays basketball.

But the responses here are not in line with this at all.

you should watch the two playing against each other earlier this season. they are not the same

I'll admit that I'm concerned about Mark's back because of how long he's been out, but I'll take the risk just holding onto him, not remotely interested in selling cheap during an injury. His impact has been pretty insane for us. He's started 36 games (since Clifford stashed him in Greensboro for half his rookie year ) and we are 16-20 in those games. With all other starting centers over this season and last, the Hornets are 21-74. And those numbers are not skewed by injuries, a lot of those wins with Mark came without Bridges+LaMelo last season when we were playing total nobodies on the perimeter, and early this season without Rozier.

For a little more perspective, the Hornets have been looking for a two-way center of his type since trading Alonzo Mourning 29 years ago. He's not going anywhere unless his injury leaves him a shell of himself

[basketballwacko2]

Will actually be two separate trades as these teams decide to move in two different directions.

Trade #1:

Charlotte in: Kyle Kuzma and Daniel Gafford

Washington in: Gordon Hayward, Mark Williams, and Nick Smith


Trade #2:

Charlotte in: Jordan Poole and PHX 2025 2nd

Washington in: Kyle Lowry


Hornets:

Ball/Smith.Ntilinkina
Bridges/Poole/Bouknight
Miller/Martin/McGowens
Kuzma/Washington/Thor
Gafford/Richards

Hornets add some talent in Kuzma, Gafford, and Poole to create a complete roster of young veterans that are aligned in age, contracts, and timing. The excuses are over with this group, perform or fail.


Wizards:

For the Wizards it's expiring contracts and young players. Expirings help them expidite shaping a compliemntary roster around their young pieces. I think some guys have talent like a Kuzma, whose then in direct contention with Avdija and Coulibaly for minutes. It cleans up the roster while gaining financial flexibility.

Are you projecting Miles Bridges as a 2 guard?

[basketballwacko2]

Bro Poole is probably the most untradable player in the league. Washington is stuck with that contract until he's expiring.

Kuzma would be nice but he and Bridges play the same position.

Yeah Poole is hot guarbage!