One trade every NBA team needs to make

Charlotte Hornets

The days of Al Jefferson as a borderline MVP candidate are long gone. Kemba Walker is having the best year of his career and the Hornets were playing surprisingly well earlier this season, despite being without their best defensive player, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

The arrival of Nicolas Batum has been tremendous as well, but the Hornets aren’t going to be contending in the improving Eastern Conference and they must know it now. One area in which they should look to improve is with the troubled Jefferson at center, and the Heat just so happen to have a perfect target.

If there’s any chance the Hornets can pry Whiteside away from Miami, they can offer the Heat a couple of packages:

A) Jefferson and Kidd-Gilchrist (maybe Tyler Hansbrough, too) for Whiteside, Josh McRoberts, Chris Andersen and Luol Deng.

B) Nicolas Batum and Hansbrough for Whiteside, McRoberts and Andersen.

Any suggested Whiteside trades obviously come down to the vital matter of whether or not the Heat think he’s going to leave this summer and what offers they receive. It’s going to be incredibly difficult for them to create the right amount of cap space to offer him a max contract and they may not even want to do that given his still limited time playing for them and the fact their defense allows fewer points when he’s actually on the bench (per Basketball Reference). Yes, he’s highly talented and has exceptional upside, but the Heat can’t ignore this situation.

So, if the Heat think he’s going to leave, they may want to capitalize by bringing in someone else. With idea A, they can create $13.8 million in cap space when Jefferson’s contract expires after this season which gives them more flexibility to pursue top free agents such as Kevin Durant, while also landing a top perimeter defender in MKG. As for idea B, they acquire one of the most versatile wing players in the NBA with Batum, a versatile big man with good passing in McRoberts, and an expiring $5 million contract with Andersen.

Meanwhile, the Hornets can move on from Jefferson with a new franchise center who’s only 26 years old. Plus, seeing as Whiteside is from North Carolina and the Hornets can give him a large contract, he may have more incentive to re-sign than he will for other teams.

Again, there are a lot of “ifs” with this idea, but it could pay off for both parties.

Next: Indiana Pacers