The Charlotte Hornets made their first move a couple of days ago sending Terry Rozier to the Miami Heat and with roughly two weeks until the trade deadline, more moves are expected to be on the way.
On Tuesday, Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports dropped an interesting nugget on ESPN Charlotte's 730 The Game.
"One player's name I keep hearing a ton about is Nick Richards. He just signed that three-year, $15 million deal that a lot of teams consider to be quite valuable for the length, for the average annual value. He's only 26 if my memory serves correctly...there's a very competitive big-man market right now for teams around the league who want reserve bigs. From Phoenix to Oklahoma City to New Orleans to New York. Boston would like to get their hands on another big man. I think Nick Richards could have like half the league interested in him based off of his contract right now."
In 33 games this season (20 starts), Richards is averaging 9.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.4 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game while shooting 67% from the field and 76% from the free throw line - all of which would be career highs if the season ended today.
It's worth holding onto a quality backup center if you're on the cusp of contending, but the Hornets need to hit the reset button. Moving Richards now can help arm the front office with more assets in the draft, albeit likely second round picks.
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