Michael Jordan and the Charlotte Hornets are all but admitting failure for their experiment from last season by already trading Lance Stephenson away less than one year from when he was signed to the team. Stephenson was in numerous trade talks throughout the season but they literally couldn’t get rid of him. Now, a deal actually is going through to send him from the East Coast, across the country, to the Los Angeles Clippers.
LA, in return, will send their own free agent failure from last season, Spencer Hawes, along with defensive minded forward Matt Barnes to the Hornets.
Following from Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski.
In a high-risk, high-reward move, the Los Angeles Clippers have acquired guard Lance Stephenson from the Charlotte Hornets, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
The Clippers are sending forwards Spencer Hawes and Matt Barnes to the Hornets, sources said. The teams were having a trade call with the NBA office to finalize the deal on Monday evening, sources said.
The Hornets will likely buy out Barnes’ contract before July 1, when they would only have to pay him $1 million of the $3.5 million owed him, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
As the trade looks right now, it appears to be a swap that can benefit both sides next season. Both teams are over the cap so they had to make a deal that was both friendly with the collective bargaining agreement rules as well as the contracts. As far as the talent, it might fit one team more than the other.
Barnes and Hawes going to the Hornets appears to be a tiny, head-scratching move. Hawes didn’t perform up to his expected level last year, struggling to get anything going and what should’ve been a big acquisition for the Clippers just turned into another guy who just relaxed on the bench. Hawes going to the Hornets might not be beneficial to the growth of some other young big men already on the roster. Barnes on the otherhand had a good season for the Clippers last year but it won’t matter, the Hornets don’t want him and he will be a free agent by July 1st, according to Wojnarowski. Whether he goes back to the Clippers on the cheap or joins another team could be interesting to watch, especially with Barnes’ increased age.
With Al Jefferson electing to stay with the Hornets next season, the addition of Hawes might cut the minutes for guys like Bismack Biyombo, Cody Zeller and Noah Vonleh. The young guys might be already more talented than Hawes but if the Hornets want to go anywhere in the Eastern Conference, they need some production from those young guys this season and Hawes coming in might shorten the rotation for one or two of them.
On the flipside, the Clippers get exactly what they’ve been looking for with the little wiggle room they had, being the team with the second highest payroll in the NBA. They get a veteran wing who’s athletic, can score, play a little defense as well as handle the ball when they want to give Chris Paul a break. While last season might have been less than stellar for Stephenson, maybe a change of scenery can bring back his talents from his days with the Indiana Pacers. He’s going to immediately be instrumental in order to help the Clippers succeed next season, so hopefully Lance can keep his cool and perform well on this veteran-filled team. Stephenson’s deal expires after the 2016-17 season so he won’t be around long, just in case it doesn’t work for Los Angeles. Like Woj said, it could be high-risk, high-reward scenario.
The Clippers had to do something to make sure everyone, including DeAndre Jordan, knew that the team was seriously trying to be a title contender next season. Jordan has the option of leaving this Clippers this offseason so maybe this move is one that might convince DeAndre to come back with the additional firepower.
