Charlotte Hornets

This season, the Charlotte Hornets have been one of the most intriguing teams to watch, not only because of their explosiveness and athleticism, but because they are a young, hungry team that is finally on the rise. For years now, the Hornets have been amongst the “bottom-feeders” of the league in the standings and finally, they are getting their chance to shine. 

After signing Gordon Hayward in the offseason and drafting LaMelo Ball 3rd overall, the Hornets currently find themselves as the 4-seed in the Eastern Conference and are a high-level, offensive-minded team.

Unfortunately, LaMelo Ball will be out for the remainder of the season with a fractured wrist, lowering their chances for playoff success this season by a lot, but moving forward, this team has a lot of potential if they can add more talent in their frontcourt. P.J. Washington is their only young, emerging talent in the frontcourt and with Cody Zeller set to become a free agent, they could greatly improve by adding a versatile big man like Lauri Markkanen. 

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He would fit in quite well in their system too because of his ability to spread the floor. Markkanen is not a great athlete and is not the type of big man who can push the tempo, but he is more than capable of being terrific in the Hornets’ pick-and-roll sets because of his ability to step out and knock down a three-pointer. 

With versatile, agile guards in LaMelo Ball, Terry Rozier and Devonte’ Graham, Lauri Markkanen could quickly become one of the deadliest scoring big men in the entire league because of all of the attention the rest of this Hornets team will draw. 

With an estimated $28.8M in cap space, the Charlotte Hornets will definitely have enough salary space to go after a guy like Markkanen and due to all that he can do for them offensively, he is exactly the kind of player they need to add at the power-forward/center position.