Zach Lowe suggests Jeff Green as a player the Charlotte Hornets could trade for

To the delight of bee-pun enthusiasts everywhere, the Charlotte Hornets are in a bad way currently. At 4-14, one of the summer's most talked about teams have fallen completely flat in the first quarter of the season. So flat, that are already theorizing that the Hornets might be scrambling to improve their roster.

One of those people are Grantland Zach Lowe. Courtesy of his piece that ran on The Triangle today:

Now the Hornets are in trouble, and they’ll scour the trade market while hoping the status quo roster can find just enough punch to trample over a few of the teams that will surely stumble down the Eastern Conference ladder. You could see them making calls on a number of potentially available wings: Randy Foye or Wilson Chandler in the Denver overflow pile; Jeff Green in Boston, capable of swinging between both forward positions; Corey Brewer, suddenly weirdly essential for a banged-up Minnesota team; and in a much lower trade-value range, shooting tweeners like Dorell Wright and old friend Anthony Tolliver.

Green makes a good deal of sense for Charlotte. He provides them another good combo-forward defender who can shoot - something they desperately need - and he'd figure to be a pretty significant upgrade over Marvin Williams in just about every asset of the game. While some will be quick to point out that Green is a subpar rebounder for a power forward, his current average (4.8) actually falls in line with the rebounding production that Josh McRoberts provided in the same role for them last season.

While acquiring Green makes sense for the Hornets, it's unclear if the teams could work out a trade. I'm sure plenty of folks will be quick to throw Cody Zeller's name out as a possible target, but I can't imagine Charlotte giving up on their seven foot lottery pick so soon, especially for a player that hasn't ever made an All-Star team (even with Vonleh waiting in the weeds).

There in lies the major issue; provided that the Hornets are unwilling to move Zeller in a trade for Green, in order for things to work financially, the Celtics would almost have to take back Gerald Henderson (who is scheduled to make 6 million dollars this year, and six next year when he exercises his player option). While Henderson is a nice role player, that's a tough pill to swallow, and one that would probably require fairly substantial compensation.

I think it comes down to this; if the Hornets are willing to part with their first round pick a trade can be made. At the beginning of the season that might have been easier for them to pull the trigger on, but sitting at 4-14 (playoff odds: 9.4%) that becomes a much riskier proposition, even with pick-protections.

If I'm the Hornets, I hold onto my assets and hope the ship rights itself. But I'm not, so the Hornets should definitely do this trade because Jeff Green rulez, and he'd definitely help them win the championship! HIT THE MUSIC



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