Charlotte Hornets 2015 NBA season preview

Key Offseason Losses

As a small-market team in this league, the Hornets are always at risk of losing bigger named players in free agency. Luckily for them, the only huge offseason loss that the team could have incurred this season would have been if Al Jefferson chose to opt out of the third year of his contract with the Hornets, but he chose to say.

That being said, the Hornets did lose some key components from their roster from last season, for better or worse. In terms of being for the better, being able to trade Lance Stephenson once again shows up as a move with major effects for the Hornets for the upcoming season.

As I’ve said, being able to move Born Ready is huge for the Hornets as it allows them to essentially erase a poor free agency decision and get back to building a team that fits and works well together.

In terms of potentially costly losses, the Hornets acquired Mo Williams at the trade deadline last season to try and make a second-half run at the playoffs, though that plight was ultimately fruitless. Williams, however, was effective in giving the offense a spark off of the bench during his brief run in Charlotte last year, but the Hornets were unable to bring him back for at least another year as the veteran reunited with LeBron James in Cleveland.

Key Offseason Additions

Despite the fact that the Hornets had to give up Vonleh in the trade, landing Nicolas Batum from the Trail Blazers is enormous for the Hornets. With Kidd-Gilchrist healthy, he and Batum would form a long, defensively dangerous duo on the wing. With MKG out, though, Batum at least alleviates some of the pressure that the loss of such a key player creates.

The only potential issue with adding Batum is that his contract is up at the end of this year. If they’re unable to re-sign him next summer, they gave up a key prospect and lottery pick to acquire a one-year rental of a player. No matter how important he is or how well he plays, that’s at least mildly troublesome.

After losing Williams to free agency, the Hornets were able to make a nice under-the-radar move in landing Jeremy Lin. While Lin has never fully been the same player that he was during the Linsanity run that thrust him into the spotlight, he can serve as an offensive spark for the team and a quality backup to Walker at point guard.

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