As far back as July, my YouTube co-host/Hornets on SI colleague Albert Böttcher and I have discussed Tidjane Salaün, Pat Connaughton, and the outlook for Charlotte’s end-of-15-man-roster conundrum more than any sane human being should.
Alas, we are not sane human beings. Any person who covers a small market team in writing, visuals, and audio for virtually 7 days a week cannot accurately be categorized as “sane,” regardless.
I digress, though. I feel like I’ve talked about it for a million years at this point, and I've long since decided the Hornets will simply cut Pat Connaughton to keep Salaün.
The 6th overall pick from France just turned 21 two months ago. In my opinion, it would be antithetical to everything Peterson has done thus far to keep Pat and jump ship on a 21-year-old you still aren’t sure about.
The reasoning is sitting right on the Hornets’ roster alongside Connaughton and Salaün:
How do you think the Los Angeles Clippers feel about letting Moussa Diabaté walk out of their facility doors? Are you really willing to take a chance on Salaün, who didn’t start playing basketball until later in his adolescence?
I just don’t think you can. His sister was the WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year.
His family all played basketball; he’s grown TREMENDOUSLY in the weight room and has been solid defensively in a more defined niche this preseason with Charlotte. More defined this preseason, I’d say, than he ever did without his normally defined role during Summer League, where Tidjane struggled mightily.
So — with my opinion in place on what I believe will happen, you need some background on how I got here to give you a trade proposal that's coming shortly. It started with Marc Stein.
We’ve seen multiple reports in recent days from TheSteinLine’s Marc Stein and Jake Fischer that Charlotte is weighing the pros and cons of cutting Pat Connaughton’s.
Stein and Fischer note that the holdup is Tidjane Salaün, who is likely next in line if they wanted to keep Connaughton.
In Stein’s most recent report late last night, he ended his Charlotte section saying:
“The only other Hornet besides Salaün with a relatively sheddable contract to make room for Connaughton is another former first-round pick: Liam McNeeley.”
Stein doesn’t bring up McNeeley here as a means of being who is cut, in my opinion. There’s no way you could even considering cutting Liam McNeeley righty now with the control his contract still has on it.
I think if Liam is in the mix at all to keep Connaughton, it’s because Charlotte is considering a trade involving Liam to keep Connaughton… rather than cutting Tidjane Salaün to keep the former NBA Champion with Milwaukee.
If Salaün and wanting to keep him is the hold-up, but you also want Connaughton because of his Stein-reported close relationship with Kon Knueppel, you have to put yourself in a GM’s shoes to do it.
Now, for this hypothetical to work, you couldn’t trade Liam alone for another player. You’d have to trade him for picks alone to a team that can take on his salary. Or — you could attach Liam and Ryan Kalkbrenner together in a singular package for one player.
That’s the main hypothetical I’m monitoring as we approach the rookie-scale extension deadline on October 19th: A trade involving McNeeley and Kalkbrenner that brings back a more certified role player and allows you to keep both Pat and Tidjane in Charlotte.
I’m not suggesting I think Charlotte should trade Liam McNeeley and Ryan Kalkbrenner. As I said earlier — I truly think if I were Jeff Peterson, I’d have the tough conversation with Kon Knueppel and make it simple.
But this is a hypothetical I’ve arrived at because the consistently reported fact of Charlotte weighing the decision to waive or keep Connaughton hasn’t gone away.
That reporting -- especially from Marc Stein and Jake Fischer -- isn't meaningless. On top of their reporting, Ian Begley of SNY, a massive NY sports outlet and very strong source, said this, which helped me start thinking about this Liam/Ryan theory I’ll continue to unravel:
“Multiple teams,” Begley said, “Including the Charlotte Hornets, are trying to attach second-round picks in deals to ease their roster crunches ahead of Monday's 5 PM ET deadline.”
If Charlotte is throwing around attaching draft capital in trades to clear up end-of-roster confusion, it would be for a better player than whatever they’re sending out.
Getting a more bona fide role player in return for McNeeley and Kalkbrenner is the only way to justify losing control of their value contracts. So it makes sense that they’d add a sweetener pick(s) to a deal with these two to get something better for their here-and-now rotation.
To answer the question I can sense you’ve already been asking — Who are those potential trade options if we’re talking about trading Liam and Ryan, in order to keep both Tidjane AND Pat?
To find my candidates for this trade hypothetical, my mind immediately went to the rookie-scale extension deadline on October 19th— the same deadline Charlotte is facing with Brandon Miller if they want to get an extension done.
Miller isn't the only one in this situation, but one candidate stands out more than the rest. That’s Orlando’s Anthony Black.
Black’s talks with the Magic on an extension were reported to have stalled not long ago, and he played incredibly well for them last year. He had his best year as a pro so far. Orlando wants to keep him, I’d think.
But an extension for Black would almost undoubtedly put Orlando over the luxury tax, and it’s a massive part of the reason a deal hasn’t been done.
Black could bet on himself, but that’s risky if he loses a part of his role to better play from Jalen Suggs, who’s on a massive deal by himself and has something to prove this year.
That’s where Charlotte comes in. If Black wants security and Charlotte wants Connaughton, there are two deals that could make sense in my eyes.
Charlotte sends Liam McNeeley and Ryan Kalkbrenner + multiple 2nd-round picks to Orlando in exchange for Anthony Black (and his contract extension/bird rights to go with it).
The Hornets' biggest worry in this deal is losing Ryan Kalkbrenner, which would mean relying heavily on rookie Hannes Steinbach to back up Moussa Diabaté. Naz Reid would also have to play a real role in the C rotation, but his preseason post touches suggest that’s plausible. Black becomes a much-accelerated version of what you hoped McNeeley would become; Orlando gets some picks and multi-year control of two potential rotation players with room to grow.
The money is an easy match in this specific trade hypothetical, but I worry Charlotte isn’t willing to get so thin in their C rotation… they could see it differently if PJ Hall has a bigger future with the team than we all see right now and if they believe in the ability to occasionally have some form of inside-out possessions with Naz on the low blocks.
My worry over losing too much C depth in the first trade idea leads me to my second trade proposal:
Charlotte sends Liam McNeeley, Ryan Kalkbrenner, and Sion James to Orlando in exchange for Anthony Black (and his contract extension/bird rights to go with it), C Goga Bitadze (expiring contract), and multiple 2nd-round picks
This one was hard to write; I won’t lie to you all. I’ve been Sion James’ biggest proponent all offseason, and I still think there’s more meat left on the bone in terms of his potential.
That’s why, in the aforementioned proposal, Charlotte isn’t the team sending out picks; Orlando is.
Sion immediately becomes a consistent role player for Orlando, and the Magic also add cheaper, cost-controlled, non-expiring C play in Kalkbrenner rather than Bitadze. They get stronger in numbers and would love the cap flexibility from those three Hornets players, but losing Black and the picks would hurt.
Both teams feel a little as if they’re losing in the smallest way with this deal, but you see, that’s why I’ve proposed it to begin with:
Trade deals where both teams end up feeling like they won but also lost a little bit? Those are the kinds of trades that get called into the league office.
Charlotte gets better at the top end and would add another starting-caliber player to their bench in Black; Black, I’ll add, would be so helpful if Knueppel's hamstring issue continues to linger.
Looking at the potential Hornets rotation timeline RIGHT NOW — I’ve worked it out and done the math — if you want Brandon/Coby/Naz/Kon ALL playing near 30-minute nights, sometimes more?
If you want those three near or above 30 a night, and you also want Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale to play real 15-minute-or-more roles off the bench, AND you want to see Hannes Steinbach get in and mix it up with Ryan Kalkbrenner?
I’m telling you guys, it got tough trying to find minutes just for Sion James behind the whole rotation, much less for Liam.
Black would let you rely less heavily—not only on Knueppel, but also on Grayson Allen, who’s had consistent ankle issues. Black IMMEDIATELY becomes an I-have-to-play-you guy in the rotation in exchange for Ryan, who’s struggling, and Liam and Sion, who are fighting for rotation minutes at the end of the totem pole. They’ll be used if they stay, but they WILL BOTH get plenty of DNP-CDs if they stay in Charlotte and aren’t traded.
I say this about the rotation timeline, because if you drop those three for the two I’m proposing, you get Black, who will HAVE to get minutes on talent alone, and don’t have to yo-yo between Kalkbrenner and Hannes all season behind Moose.
Bitadze coming back gives Moussa a backup who’s a vet and will make fewer mistakes than Kalkbrenner. So yes, Charlotte sadly loses Sion in this scenario…
But you retain your center depth, get someone in Anthony Black, who’s shown more defensive promise than McNeeley and way more offensive potency than Sion James.
Both teams feel bad, ever so slightly, but they both win. I’m not sure this move makes Orlando better, but it gives them sorely needed breathing room below the Luxury Tax line for a team that shouldn’t even be close to the line. It also doesn’t make them significantly worse, and it could pay off for them in a few years.
The same could be true for Charlotte in a few years’ time if they get a value extension deal on Anthony Black and he continues to grow.
I will reiterate that these kinds of “We’re both sacrificing a little bit here” deals are what make GMs shake hands (over the phone) and send in a memo to the league office.
So that’s my idea for how Charlotte can keep Pat Connaughton AND Tidjane Salaün…
If it really is that important for the Hornets to keep Pat Connaughton as their 15th man, Knueppel friend, and playoff-experienced vet, If you want both… others will have to be casualties.
These are the things I think about starting bright and early in the morning to write about for 3 hours straight.
Maybe I am insane, after all.
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