Looking back on the Hornets 2018 draft night trade that still stings

On June 21st in 2018, the Hornets held the 11th pick in the draft with a tough decision to make. Unfortunately, nearly seven years later, it's become very clear that the decision they made wasn't the best decision, as they traded a future MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander away...technically.

On Wednesday, it was announced that Gilgeous-Alexander had officially won the MVP award, which makes it a perfect time to take a look back on the details of the trade and the potential what-if aspects of it.

The Hornets selected SGA with the 11th pick, but sent him to the Los Angeles Clippers for the 12th pick, which turned out to be Miles Bridges and two future second-round picks.

The two future second-round picks that the Hornets received in the deal proved to be very disappointing. The first future pick the Hornets had from the trade was a 2020 second-round pick, which ended up landing relatively high with the 32nd pick.

The not-so-good part about it was the selection at pick 32 when the Hornets drafted Vernon Carey Jr from Duke. Carey played just 23 games total across one and a half seasons spent with the team.

The other future pick the Hornets received in the SGA deal was a late second-round pick in the 2021 draft when the Hornets selected Scottie Lewis with the 56th pick in the draft. Short story short, he played two games with the team, and those were the only two games he played in his entire NBA career. Yikes.

Who knows whether the Hornets actually would've kept SGA or if the selection was made just to trade back for Bridges and other assets, but the fact he was once a Hornet, even if it was just for less time than it takes to microwave popcorn, it still counts as a draft mistake.

At the time the decision wasn't viewed that negatively since the Hornets had their star in Kemba Walker and a lot of people didn't think the two guards could co-exist. As well, many people felt Bridges was a positive piece to help boost the Hornets and potentially keep Kemba around since he was a looming free agent the following season.

Unfortunately, drafting Bridges wasn't enough to keep Kemba around as the Hornets organization decided it was time to let him go. The decision to trade Kemba to Boston made the trading of SGA even worse, since he would've been a perfect fit to replace the former Hornets guard after he left.

The Hornets selected Devonte Graham in the same draft in the second round, which at the time made the night feel much better, as he had an incredible season at the guard position in the 2019-20 season, averaging over 18 points a game and close to eight assists a game.

However, that didn't last long as he only spent three seasons with the team and now finds himself without a spot on an NBA roster.

Losing the potential of what could've been with SGA is brutal, but it's not like Miles Bridges was a bust or anything. In fact, he's been one of the Hornets most reliable players over the years.

Bridges has three straight seasons of 20 or more points per game, while also appearing in 60 or more games in each of the six seasons he's played. Depending on how his future goes, he could continue to climb the ladder in Hornets history in multiple categories.

At 27-years-old, Bridges seems to be determined to get better and get the Hornets back in the playoffs, which they haven't been a part of since the 2015-2016 season.

It's undeniable that being a Hornets fan is not easy, especially when you have two players who were drafted by the Hornets become MVPs at some point in their career, like Kobe Bryant and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who both ironically were sent to Los Angeles teams on draft night.

However, there's a lot of things to consider when looking back at that day. For one, nobody knows if SGA would've panned out as well in Charlotte, as he has in Oklahoma City. Especially since the Thunder organization is constructed so well outside of him, which makes it a lot easier for him.

The Hornets have never been successful at putting the necessary players beside their best players, which makes it hard to believe that SGA would've been anywhere as close as good as he is now with OKC.

Also, the Hornets aren't the only team that traded him. If you think about the Clippers when they traded him after his rookie season, that situation was much worse than the Hornets situation.

Another aspect to think about is if the Hornets had selected SGA instead in 2018, then the Hornets never would've drafted players like LaMelo Ball or potentially Brandon Miller.

Sometimes it's easy to look at these types of things years later and say "oh well the Hornets should've done this or that," but what's done is done and the Hornets certainly could've drafted a bust instead at the 12th pick, which would've been much worse than what they got.

Bridges is certainly not a bust and the Hornets still got a very good quality player, but it's quite obvious he's not as talented as SGA. Along with that, those second-round pick outcomes proved to be the biggest failures in that trade.

The Thunder and SGA will be looking to win an NBA Championship soon as they currently lead the Timberwolves 1-0 in the Western Conference Finals.

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