This Hornets roster isn’t enough to be a true playoff team. They need to trade for a fix

There’s an issue bubbling that is slowly growing desperate for a solution and it’s all tied to the Charlotte Hornets’ rise. Not properly taking care of it could lead to their demise.

But the chance to do just that is officially here with the calendar flipping to February.

The NBA trade deadline is creeping closer by the day. Usually, the Hornets aren’t major participants in the sweepstakes for a variety of reasons. That needs to change in 2022.

Somehow, before 4 p.m. Feb. 10, the Hornets must solve the conundrum that goes slightly unnoticed until they have fourth-quarter woes and their poor defense shows: They need to badly upgrade their center position. Casting their line into the pool of available candidates is a necessity because of their own success and the free-throw struggles of their current starter.

Mason Plumlee is shooting a meager 33.7 percent from the free-throw line, which means the Hornets can’t play him much in crunch time and are often forced to feature smaller lineups late in the fourth quarter. That makes it awfully difficult for a team that’s already defensively challenged and ranks next-to-last in the league in free-throw shooting at 73.5 percent. There’s always the potential of Plumlee getting fouled on a dunk or layup underneath the basket. An opposing coach could also employ the classic Hack-a-Shaq strategy, purposely sending him to the line. It’s been done already this season and why wouldn’t you when you see the results?

Plumlee clanked all four attempts in the Hornets’ loss to the LA Clippers on Sunday, leading to a collective groan throughout Spectrum Center. Although he’s never featured the best of strokes at the free-throw line given his 56.1 percent career percentage, this season is a bit on the extreme. There is no doubt it’s in Plumlee’s head at this juncture, which is wild considering his Duke pedigree.

Listening to assistant coach Jay Triano during our extended conversation on The QC Hornets Nest podcast solidifies that. If the Hornets are going to vault themselves into the postseason and make the kind of noise they want by having the ability to pull off a first-round upset, they would be much stronger if Plumlee was their positional backup instead.

Going externally for a solution is their only answer.

Second-year big man Nick Richards has some skills — displayed in his 37 games of action this season — and could be an answer down the line. But they don’t trust him enough to do it in big moments.

Inevitably the next question becomes, “OK, well who then?”

Most of the possible targets aren’t secrets. Indiana’s Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis, Portland’s Jusuf Nurkic. Guys like Sacramento’s Richaun Holmes, Houston’s Christian Wood, New York’s Mitchell Robinson, New Orleans’ Jaxson Hayes, Washington’s Thomas Bryant and Montrezl Harrell. Name an athletic big man on an underperforming team and just insert his name.

Some fit better than others and not everyone is going to improve the Hornets defensively and offer better rim protection. But they have to do something. They can’t stand pat, not with them hovering around seventh place (cut-off line for the play-in tournament) in the Eastern Conference despite a 28-23 record and boasting one of the best seasons in recent history. The Hornets’ defensive rating entering Monday night stood at 26th in the league, courtesy of the 112.5 points per game they’ve yielded.

This isn’t advocating the Hornets burn through all their valuable assets and simply acquire one of the aforementioned players just for the sake of shuffling their roster. They actually have a sunny outcome as a franchise for the first time in years thanks in part to the meticulous nature of their general manager, who refuses to surrender a first-round draft pick or a promising young prospect for a rental player.

Mitch Kupchak has made that crystal-clear in the past and there is little logic to suggest the veteran executive is suddenly going to reverse course in his thinking and acquire a player just for the sake of doing something. He’s made one trade-deadline move in three seasons in Charlotte (a rental of Brad Wanamaker) and made only eight from 2000-2017 with the Lakers.

But it makes no sense to allow a potential opportunity for significant growth to melt away faster than snow on sun-splashed Charlotte pavement after Friday’s winter storm. In order for the Hornets to take a step further than they did last year, when they faltered badly in their play-in tournament game against Indiana, they have to fix their weak link.

We’ve seen all the warning indicators, underscoring the need to do it. Ignoring them and moving forward without adding to their young core could be detrimental to the Hornets’ short-term prognosis and interrupt their wishful vision for sustained long-term success.

They are on the clock over the next week-plus and it’s ticking.