How the Charlotte Hornets are Perfectly Positioned to Play Facilitator at the NBA Trade Deadline

If you were asked to name the third team involved in the Luka Doncic trade, how long would it take you to guess the correct answer?

The Utah Jazz were roped into the groundbreaking swap of Luka and Anthony Davis, netting Jalen Hood-Schifino and two second-round picks for their troubles. The Jazz, in this scenario, are a recent example of a team greasing the wheels of a superstar trade by opening their checkbooks to facilitate money that would hold up a potential deal.

The Charlotte Hornets have done this before (think back to their involvement in the KAT-Julius Randle swap in the autumn of 2024), and according to a trusted NBA insider, they are liable to do it again in the coming week.

Jake Fisher of The Stein Line Substack dropped this nugget on Wednesday afternoon: "With various teams hard-capped at the first apron or just trying to remain below that threshold — or out of the luxury tax altogether — there's a growing belief leaguewide that we'll see Brooklyn, Charlotte and Utah play facilitator in a few of these more complicated frameworks. Sources say that the Nets, Hornets and Jazz have all been reiterating to teams in ongoing conversations that they are willing to help grease trades in exchange for draft capital."

Fischer's intel tracks with how I imagine Charlotte will attack the trade deadline. The vibes inside the Hornets' locker room are too good to move a key contributor right now, meaning the team is likely to stand pat outside of a marginal move (think Tre Mann, Pat Connaughton, or Collin Sexton) or two.

If Charlotte does take a facilitory mindset into the trade deadline, they have a couple of avenues to lend some rival organizations a helping hand.

1. The Non-Taxpayer MLE

If you're interested in a depeer explanation of how Charlotte can weaponize their full mid-level exception, dive into this article that I wrote a few weeks ago.

In short, Charlotte can absorb a 2025-26 salary up to $14.1M without sending any money out in return. If Milwaukee ends up trading disgruntled superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo in a deal that is complicated financially (if they do move the Greek Freak, it will be), Charlotte can take back money to ease the burden on either side of the trade, just like Utah did in the Doncic/Davis deal.

The Jazz acquired Jalen Hood-Schifino to make the complicated math work, and were compensated with a pair of second round picks for doing so. Charlotte can do the same this week.

2. $29M in Expiring Salary

Charlotte could dangle Collin Sexton's $19M expiring contract or Pat Connaughton's $9M expiring contract in return for draft capital from a team looking to offload a potential superstar.

Exorbitant salaries like that of Domantas Sabonis, Anthony Davis, Giannis, and Michael Porter Jr., the 2025 trade deadline darlings, often require complex accounting to move in-season. If contracts need to be exchanged and a team doesn't want to add long-term money to their books, both Sexton and Connaughton represent intriguing options at different price points to facilitate a larger deal.

Expect some second-round picks in return if Charlotte moves one or both of them before February 5th.

3. A Limitless Future

The Charlotte Hornets are in an enviable position heading into the trade deadline.

They are a relatively young team that is currently exceeding expectations. The Hornets stumbled into the league's most efficient starting five, they've already equaled their 2024-25 win total, and they control all of their future picks plus a handful of selections from rival teams.

Jeff Peterson can do whatever he pleases in the next week.

Facilitate a larger deal to continue adding assets to his overflowing war chest? That option, the most likely one, is available. While Charlotte's January success is exciting, the sample size is still realtively small, and the Hornets have a large gap to close between themselves and the giants at the top of the Eastern Conference.

However, there is another trade deadline path worth exploring...

Take the big swing on a superstar now, and attempt to win with Ball, Miller, and Knueppel as soon as this spring. That is a realistic option for Peterson and company too.

The Hornets are open for business, and the world is their oyster. A quiet, marginal deadline for Charlotte is likely, but the optionality they boast does leave the door cracked for something much greater.

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