The Charlotte Hornets are already gauging trade interest on shooting guard Lance Stephenson, as they see their supposed to be promising season slowly turning into a nightmarish campaign for the Michael Jordan-owned franchise.
After bagging Stephenson to a three-year, $27M deal last summer, the Hornets entered the 2014-15 NBA season with high expectation of becoming a major contender in the Eastern Conference.
However, instead of emerging as one of the top-4 teams in the East, the Hornets are suddenly found at the bottom-4 of the conference, amid the second longest losing skid this season just behind Philadelphia 76ers 16 consecutive losses.
According to Grantland NBA writer Zach Lowe, nine consecutive losses are enough for the Hornets front office to make everybody on its roster, aside from Kemba Walker and Al Jefferson, available on the trading block.
"The Hornets have been aggressive making trade calls, according to sources across the league," stated Lowe, who thinks the team is currently lacking with perimeter defender and three-point shooters.
"The Hornets are searching for upgrades on the wing and at power forward, per those sources, and they are willing to talk turkey on basically anyone other than Kemba Walker and Al Jefferson."
Stephenson, who is expected to have a breakout this year, is surprisingly struggling to make a big impact for his new team, only averaging 9.6 points, 5.4 assists and 7.7 rebounds per game.
Although he hasn't been known as an explosive scorer, Stephenson's terrible field goal shooting percentage (37 percent) and three-point shooting (18 percent) are simply unacceptable.
Hornets head coach Steve Clifford, who benched Stephenson in the fourth quarter several times already, has been honest about Stephenson's progress since he first arrived in Charlotte.
"To be fair, one of the things that's made it more difficult for him is that he came here and people proclaimed him as the next superstar," Clifford told reporters via ESPN. "He's not a star. He's a guy that has talent to become a star. To be a star in this league, you have to do it over years."
With Hornets apparently quitting on Stephenson experiment already, the team still has a lot option to make things work in their favor.
While Stephenson cannot be traded until December 15, the Hornets could be in position to pull off a deal for young talented winger like Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard Dion Waiters (little bit trickier because of Stephenson $9M contract), New York Knicks guard Iman Shumpert or Denver Nuggets shooter Aaron Afflalo, whom the Hornets tried to trade for last summer.
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