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The Charlotte Hornets are going to be in an interesting position for the next few months because they have been playing some excellent basketball.
They have certainly exceeded expectations this year as they are currently 22-19 despite many of the injuries that they have had to face. There is clearly a need for a center so that is going to be their number one priority for the next few months.
Charlotte does need to realize that they have a lot of young star players on their team and that one move by trading some of those guys could be a mistake which is something they are going to need to avoid. Let's take a look at three areas the Hornets must avoid if they want to continue playing as well as they have been throughout the season.
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Hornets Must Avoids 2022
3. Need a center
There is no denying that the Hornets need to go out and make a move for somebody at the center position. It just so happens to be that Myles Turner, who is one of the best centers in the NBA, is going to be moved at the trade deadline. The Hornets need to be all in on this. What they do need to realize is that they need to be very smart about this decision because it seems like they have a very good locker room and one move could hurt that locker room which would make them start playing worse.
At the end of the day, a team is only going to be as good as their chemistry and that's something that the Hornets certainly have at the moment. Charlotte desperately needs a center so they need to go out and make a move but must be very cautious about what they do and who they do trade.
2. Make some moves, but be very selective
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The hornets have a very close-knit group and have some players who need to be off-limits. Guys like Lamelo Ball, Miles Bridges, Gordon Hayward, and Terry Rozier are four players who Charlotte can absolutely not think about trading.
There are definitely areas of improvement that the Hornets can make but they need to be very selective about who they do trade. Trading any of those four guys is not going to make this team better unless they can go out and get a superstar type of guy. They also need to factor in that they have some very good role players and that they could be a team who is just missing a piece or two to start competing for an NBA title.
What Charlotte also needs to realize is that they aren't necessarily in a win-now situation. They're playing much better than anybody could have anticipated out of them but that doesn't mean that they need to speed up their process by going out and getting guys just to compete at the moment. This team is going to be very good for the next few years and there's no reason to speed it up.
1. Keep having fun and playing with the same passion and fire
For a team that is as young as the Hornets, this season already has to be looked at as a success. They obviously do have some veteran guys like Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward, along with others, but they are still a very young team and with the way that they have played at 22-19 on the year, it is certainly a success. Factor in that they have had to deal with some injuries and a lot of players coming in and out of the covid protocols, and this is a year that the Hornets should be happy about so far.
They are a team who isn't necessarily in a position to compete at the moment but if they do make a few trades and moves, they could be right there competing with the other best teams in the Eastern Conference. They are coming off two very impressive back-to-back wins against the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks which is certainly not an easy thing to do. Milwaukee was missing some guys but that's not taking anything away from the Hornets because they still had Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton out there on the court. Whenever the Bucks have their two best players, they usually find a way to get a win but the Hornets did a great job of not allowing that.
The reason why the Hornets have had so much success this year with some of their younger guys mixed with those veterans is that they play with a type of fashion that can't be found by many other teams around the league. If the Hornets want to continue finding the success that they have had, they need to continue playing with that fire and passion because it surely gives them a lift and helps them win ball games.
