CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte Hornets have a rare chance to make a big splash Wednesday night in the NBA draft.
They should maximize it, doing whatever it takes to end up with University of Memphis center James Wiseman.
Holding the No. 3 pick thanks to some fine lottery luck, the Hornets might get even luckier and have Wiseman fall to them without having to do anything other than sweat.
But I don't think that will happen. I would bet Golden State won't let Wiseman pass by at No. 2, even if Minnesota does skip over him at No. 1 because the Timberwolves already have a great center in Karl-Anthony Towns.
So that may mean Charlotte is going to have to trade up between now and 8 p.m. Wednesday to get Wiseman — either with Minnesota or Golden State — and I'd absolutely do that if I was Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak.
The Hornets should propose to Minnesota a trade in which they give the Timberwolves the No. 3 pick and the No. 32 pick in this draft, as well as anyone on their roster besides Devonte Graham or P.J. Washington (Miles Bridges, Malik Monk, Cody Zeller and Terry Rozier would all have some legitimate trade value). If absolutely necessary, they could consider throwing in a lottery-protected future first-round pick, too.
That's a king's ransom, but Wiseman is a player you can build a future around. As an NBA scout recently told The Charlotte Observer about Wiseman, a springy 7-footer with a 7-foot-4 wingspan: "He has Dwight Howard's body and Emeka Okafor's mind. Draft him."
Draft analyst Jay Bilas said Wiseman reminds him of Chris Bosh when Bosh first came out of Georgia Tech — a mobile lefty who can "step out and shoot it."
Wiseman isn't a 3-point shooter. But if you surrounded him with four guys who could do that, the Hornets would have a heck of an offense. He would also be a rim-protector on a team that doesn't have one on the roster and also would greatly improve the Hornets' league-worst defensive rebounding percentage, which is one of Charlotte coach James Borrego's primary missions this offseason.
The other two players the Hornets could easily end up with Wednesday night are Georgia's Anthony Edwards or LaMelo Ball, the third and potentially the most talented of the Ball brothers. Or they could trade down, although that doesn't sound terribly likely, because this team needs quality, not quantity.
Edwards, a wing from Georgia, would be fine. Jay Bilas calls him the best athlete in the draft. If Edwards can improve his shot selection and sometimes disinterested defense, he could be an all-star.
Ball seems like the most problematic choice to me, and not because former Carolina Panther LaVar Ball is his bellicose father.
Ball just doesn't shoot well, and that's a major problem for a player who projects as an NBA point guard.
"He's going to have to really work on it," Bilas told me recently about LaMelo's jumper. "He's got an odd release. And worse than the odd release? It doesn't go in."
I don't think the Hornets will trade down Wednesday. It sounds like they will take one of those three players — Wiseman, Edwards or Ball.
But I like Wiseman the most and Charlotte fans would, too.
He wouldn't put as many fans in the seats for a team that was tied for 28th out of 30 in attendance last season (if fans are allowed into games at all in our COVID-19 world).
What Wiseman would do, though, is get the Hornets closer to becoming the thing that Kupchak most wants and that the Hornets have never had under Michael Jordan's ownership: A consistent winner.
