The Charlotte Hornets have struggled recently, dropping two straight games at home after consecutive road wins against the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder.
Although star players LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller are back from injury, the Hornets have been dealing with a tremendous amount of injuries within the frontcourt.
Power forward Grant Williams has yet to debut this season, while rookie Ryan Kalkbrenner has missed the last 10 games due to an elbow injury.
Mason Plumlee suffered a groin injury while filling in for Kalkbrenner and now remains sidelined having required surgery.
Due to all of these injuries, Charlotte called up PJ Hall to play in tandem with Moussa Diabate.
That said, Charlotte has recently been linked to making a frontcourt acquisition as the trade deadline approaches. Due to his connection with head coach Charles Lee, Bobby Portis has been mentioned as a fit. However, the Hornets could have a new target.
After reports came out Friday suggesting that the Atlanta Hawks are uncertain of their chances to contend with center Onyeka Okongwu at center, speculation began to pick up.
Not only could Charlotte use the depth in the interior, Okongwu has experience playing with LaMelo Ball, as the two were high school teammates at Chino Hills.
With Okongwu scheduled to make no more than $16.8 million over the next three seasons, Charlotte certainly has contracts to match salaries in a possible deal. The contracts of Williams, Josh Green and Collin Sexton all come to mind, as the three are each within $3 million of Okongwu.
Although no official reports have been made linking Okongwu as a trade target, he could be an interesting player for Charlotte to monitor moving forward.
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