Miles Bridges trade rumors: Why would the Charlotte Hornets move him now?

The NBA trade deadline is less than two weeks ago and things around the Charlotte Hornets have been relatively quiet.

Since Kelly Iko dropped his explosive report on the fractured relationship between LaMelo Ball and the Hornets (which seems to have been mended as the team has won more games), rumors about Charlotte's deadline plans have been hard to come by.

Until today.

Sam Amick of The Athletic dropped some nuggets of information about the Hornets in his weekly rumor round up, including an intriguing note about starting power forward Miles Bridges.

'As for Hornets that might be on the move, veteran forward Miles Bridges is drawing significant interest, league sources toldThe Athletic. The Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns are all known to be among the interested parties, though it remains to be seen if any team can compel the Hornets to give Bridges up,' said Amick in his Friday morning report.

"Draft capital is also a pivotal part of the conversation. 'They want a first (round pick),” one league source said. “Maybe two.”'

Why would the Hornets trade Bridges now?

The Hornets are playing really good basketball of late. Since December 18th, a 19 game sample size, Charlotte boasts the sixth best net rating (+5.9) in the NBA. The preferred starting lineup of LaMelo Ball, Kon Knueppel, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, and Moussa Diabate has been blitzing opposing starters, and the former Michigan State Spartan has been pivotal in the Hornets' success.

Bridges is averaging 18.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 3.5 assists, on relatively inefficient shooting. However, he is a stalwart in the starting five, and by all accounts is a leading voice in the Hornets' locker room.

Which begs the question - why move him now? When the team is playing their best basketball in years?

A few reasons come to mind.

First, the Hornets are just better when Bridges is off the floor. Charlotte's net rating plummets when Miles plays, dropping by 10.1 points in his 1444 minutes this season. That can be explained by the Hornets' propensity to play Bridges as the lone starter with four bench players, tanking his on/off splits, but it also points to an over-reliance on his skill set that hasn't aged gracefully.

I have applauded Bridges' ability to operate as a role player in Charlotte's healthy starting five (lower usage, higher assist rate, better rebounding numbers, etc.), but his shooting accuracy has continued to dip. Even on a lower volume of shot attempts, Bridges isn't able to find the mark. His 52.2% effecitive field goal percentage is one of the lower numbers of his career.

If and when the Hornets become a competitive basketball team, they will need to upgrade the power forward spot. Bridges isn't a natural four based on size and play style. It is unlikely that he will be a member of this team when the young talent coalesces into a group ready to challenge for deep playoff runs in the Eastern Conference, so selling high while you can does seem like a prudent idea.

Lastly, the return of Grant Williams and the rapid development of Tidjane Salaun have made Bridges more expendable. At some point, the Hornets need to extend Tidjane's runway to see if his recent play is a blip on the radar of his long-term career arc or if it is real progress into something tangible.

Moving Bridges now, slotting Williams into the starting lineup, and making Tidjane the backup power forward is the perfect transaction tree to keep Charlotte competitive in the short term while assesing the future of Salaun in a larger role.

If Charlotte can nab a future first round pick and avoid taking on long-term salary that will clog up their books down the line, trading Bridges is a no-brainer. The trade return is the crux of this entire discussion.

Receiving anything other than peak value for a key member of a team with the best net rating in basketball over the last ten games in a non-starter, no matter what the statistics say.

This group of Hornets needs reps in meaningful basketball games, and a Play-In push with Bridges as the four would be more impactful for the overall development of Charles Lee's squad than a narrow-minded salary dump of a starter with two years left on his contract.

My predicition is that Bridges stays in Charlotte through the deadline and gets moved this summer when he becomes a useful player on an expiring contract.

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