Exactly on the NBA trading deadline on February 18, the Charlotte Hornets consummated a trade that sent shooting guard/small forward P.J. Hairston to Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for shooting guard/small forward Courtney Lee.
It is obvious that it was Charlotte Hornets who benefitted from the trade given the vast playoff experience of Courtney Lee playing for the Grizzlies.
The Hornets also needed to pull the trigger to the trade because its prolific small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has suffered a re-injury after successfully making a comeback late in January. It is likely that Kidd-Gilchrist is out for the remainder of the season.
Injuries to key players have been plaguing the Charlotte Hornets almost all season long so while they have won big games against top teams in the league, they also lost to the not-so-tough teams in the league, because often, their lineup is not healthy.
Nicolas Batum has had a string of minor injuries during the current season and had to miss several games. Kemba Walker has also been out for a couple of games. Jeremy Lin also went down during some games because of injury.
Jeremy Lin sprained his ankle in December, which kept him out of some games in January.
Pray for health
In fact, the nagging team injuries was the reason why he sent an e-mail recently to his digital prayer group asking people to pray for his health and that of his teammates, reports the Christian Post.
Jeremy wrote asking the prayer group to pray for the overall health of the Charlotte Hornets team. He said that his ankle looked like there was a tennis ball in it for a while, as well as some other nagging injuries that he and his teammates have been dealing with.
He also asked the people to pray for the sanctification of his teammates. He said that lots of guys in Charlotte Hornets are open to learning more about and growing their relationship with Christ and he hopes that the Holy Spirit further fills the team.
Lin also said in his prayers that he was not able to enjoy his first five years in the NBA as much as he is enjoying his season now. He said that there was something he felt was missing but this year, he was able to slow down and enjoy each day and game more than ever before.
May take minutes off
Some critics believe that the arrival of Courtney Lee could take the minutes off Jeremy Lin in the shooting guard position but Hornets head coach Steve Clifford has already found a way to insert Michael Kidd-Gilchrist along with Jeremy Lin back in January.
In fact, the two players played their hearts out in their victory against Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James, much to the delight of team owner, Michael Jordan, who was sitting at the end of the Hornets bench to watch the game.
But it is also possible that Courtney Lee could further bring out the best in Jeremy Lin as the former is also an excellent ball handler so he could actually play backup to Kemba Walker on the point or help in facilitating the offense.
Courtney Lee could actually facilitate Jeremy’s constant incursions to the shaded area for his fearless drives to the basket.
Sporting a 28-26 win-loss record after February 20, with a come-from-behind victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, the Charlotte Hornets are now on the 7th spot in the Eastern Conference and with a rather easy game schedule the rest of the season, it looks like the stars are aligning towards making sure that the team makes it to the playoffs for the second time in three seasons.
Meanwhile, veteran journalist Chris Baldwin has recently chastised Houston Rockets Daryl Morey for his huge blunder of trading Jeremy Lin to the Los Angeles Lakers two years ago.
Baldwin is a Rockets beat writer and former editor at CultureMap Houston. He wrote an opinionated article on Pepper City, expressing his frustrations on Morey for trading Lin to the Lakers, notes Yibada.