OKC Thunder trade primer: Hornets seek to build the hive around Kemba Walker

In the OKC Thunder trade deadline series, we dive into the Charlotte Hornets who seek to build a team around Kemba Walker with a long term success objective.

The OKC Thunder and their cohorts prepare for Thursday with an increasing buzz about trade deadline day in the air.  As it should be given how quickly a team can shift their future narrative — up or down.

The biggest star (Anthony Davis) is looking like he’ll remain in New Orleans. A smart move by the Pelicans at least until they get to see who wins the draft lottery.

While Davis appears to be stuck, at least in the interim, there are other elite talents actively being shopped and could also be on the move.

Of those top talents, one (Tobias Harris) moved to the 76ers leaving the expectation Mike Conley and Marc Gasol will very likely be moved as well.

The latter two were being mentioned in trade rumors all day Tuesday (Gasol especially) with different potential landing spots including Charlotte.

The Hornets are missing a true inside presence and a big man who ideally can offer floor spacing and stretch the court to the perimeter. Gasol would provide that in spades.

The thing is should fans buy into the banter? I know the same pair were linked in rumors to Toronto although there was zero substance to these whispers. This happens more than fans think as agents and teams drop rumors knowing the team they’re linking to not only don’t feed rumors they also generally refuse to comment on planted rumors to create buzz.