What’s worse than being stuck in basketball purgatory, as the Charlotte Hornets are by virtue of consistently finishing among the morass of medicore teams in the Eastern Conference? best nfl jerseys That’s a question with a simple answer: being stuck in basketball purgatory while eyeing future luxury-tax payments.
As Tim Bontemps detailed for the Washington Post in early January, financial hope doesn’t sit on the horizon:
“To make matters worse, the financial situation isn’t getting better anytime soon. Next season, the Hornets—as constructed—are guaranteed to be a tax-paying team. They have 10 players with guaranteed contracts making a combined $116.4 million. Add in the cost of their first-round pick—currently the No. 9 selection, which would be about $3.6 million—and three minimum contracts (worth roughly $4.5 million), and the Hornets would already official nfl jerseys cheap be more than a million into the tax.
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“Charlotte likely will enter next season with an aging, expensive roster, with a combined $62 million going to three players—[Dwight] Howard, Nicolas Batum and Marvin Williams—who signed contracts during the halcyon days of July 2016. If those three were free agents this summer, they might struggle to land much more than half of that amount.”
Dropping down to the No. 11 pick in the 2018 NBA draft saves a marginal amount of money but not enough that the Hornets can enjoy a carefree existence and waltz into the 2018-19 campaign with the intention of running it back. Something has to change.
But what? nfl authentic jerseys
With $23.8 million owed to Dwight Howard and Nicolas Batum still staring at $76.7 million of payouts over the next three years (assuming he picks up a $27.1 million player option in 2020-21), the Hornets won’t be able to move their highest-paid pieces without including substantial sweeteners. Marvin Williams ($14.1 million) and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist ($13 million) might not return much either. nfl jersey for cheap
Moving Kemba Walker, though, nfl authentic jerseys cheap is a possibility.
Dealing away the franchise icon would be a bitter pill to swallow. It would plunge the Hornets somewhere below the level of mediocrity they’ve enjoyed over the past few seasons. But it would also allow them to imbue the organization with more long-term upside, escape luxury-tax ramifications and finally set the stage for a brighter future. nfl jersey wholesale
NBA franchises sometimes have to take that proverbial step backward for a subsequent leap forward, and this might be 2018’s best example.