Contemplating the Charlotte Hornets trading for Markieff Morris

It has always been funny to me how a person in the media will write something and then the rest of the media will react to what that person wrote. Yet here we are now, reacting to Grantland's Zach Lowe's recent piece for the website. Included was a possible trade idea for the Phoenix Suns sending disgruntled star Markieff Morris to the Charlotte Hornets for Cody Zeller and Jeremy Lamb.

Morris has been very outspoken about his displeasure for the way the Phoenix front office has treated him and his recently traded twin brother, Marcus Morris. It has even reached the point to where Markieff has been fined by the league for his comments about the current situation in Phoenix. This is all stemming from Markieff's dislike for how the franchise traded his brother after they both took discounts on their extensions in order to stick together on the same team.

Markieff's extension starts this season and is a flat $8 million per year for four years. With how talented a player he is, that is going to be one of the best contracts in the league over the course of those four seasons. That is part of the reason why a trade for Markieff is so difficult to try and conjure; even though he is causing a lot of ruckus with his demeanor, that contract is an absolute steal for a player like Markieff.

This site has mentioned it a ton, but it is no secret to the world that the Hornets were one of the worst shooting teams in the league last year, coming in at dead last in three point field goal percentage. While Markieff isn't a dead eye three point shooter by any means (32.8% for his career), he is killer from the mid range, shooting 42.2% from 15-19 feet last season. It won't add much in the way of floor spacing, but any amount of floor spacing is welcomed with how bad Charlotte was last year shooting outside.

With how bad Al Jefferson is at protecting the rim, it would be nice to have a player like Markieff next to him who is solid at protecting the rim. Opponents shot 52.4% at the rim against Morris last season, a number ranks pretty average amongst bigs in the league. The Hornets are void of any sort of rim protecting presence as well and Markieff would be an improvement in that regard.

While Markieff would be a nice addition of talent to this current Charlotte Hornets roster, is it worth giving up on 2013 #4 pick Cody Zeller and promising young wing Jeremy Lamb?

Both players have brought mixed opinions in their short careers thus far. Zeller doesn't have one skill that you can point to that he does well and Jeremy Lamb hasn't quite delivered on his promise of being an every night 3-and-D wing. If you're going to trade them, you're making the assumption that neither of them is going to end up being what they had hoped to be.

The thing about young players, however, is that they are going to improve. That can be said for all three players in this scenario, which would the trade all that more appealing for both sides. There is also the question of fit as well. Zeller might be a better fit in a more free and up tempo style where he can show case his athleticism. Same with Lamb, who can run on the wing and shoot threes much in the way that Gerald Green did for them the last few seasons.

It is an interesting trade scenario, one that I'm sure both teams have discussed already, along with numerous others. There is a good chance that with how much turnover the Hornets have already had this offseason that they wouldn't want to pull the trigger on another trade, but it's still a situation worth monitoring nonetheless.