Best. Trade. Ever... Hornets Edition

Today the SBNation NBA Blogs are joining forces (kind of) in determining the Best. Trade. Ever. for their respective teams. Needless to say, we here at At The Hive have been licking our chops for an opportunity like this one (or at least I have).

There are so many options here, just going off the top of my head, for Best. Trade. Ever. (in case you couldn't tell I really like writing that). But as any good writer does, I dug a little deeper into our franchise's transactions records, going back into our days in Charlotte to find any little nuggets that might qualify for Best. Ever. Status.

First off, I just want to apologize to all Lakers and Clippers fans, because I will not be including the Kobe or CP3 trades in this discussion (though it is TBD if Gordon, Aminu and Rivers can take us to the promised land...fingers crossed!). However, in digging through the trade archives, I did discover these gems, which in my opinion deserve honorable mentions:

August 2, 2005

§ As part of a 5-team trade, the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets traded Roberto Duenas to the Miami Heat; the Boston Celtics traded Antoine Walker to the Miami Heat; the Memphis Grizzlies traded Andre Emmett, James Posey andJason Williams to the Miami Heat; the Memphis Grizzlies traded Greg Ostertag to the Utah Jazz; the Miami Heat traded Qyntel Woods, Albert Miralles, a 2006 2nd round draft pick (Edin Bavcic) and a 2008 2nd round draft pick (Nikola Pekovic) to the Boston Celtics; the Miami Heat traded Eddie Jones to the Memphis Grizzlies; the Miami Heat traded Rasual Butler to the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets; the Utah Jazz traded Curtis Borchardt to the Boston Celtics; the Utah Jazz traded Raul Lopez to the Memphis Grizzlies; and the Utah Jazz traded Kirk Snyder to the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets.

Did you know we were part of the 5-team Antoine Walker trade? I sure didn't; plus we got Kirk Snyder (everyone remembers him, of course) and Rasual Butler out of it!

December 13, 1989

§ Traded Kurt Rambis, a 1990 2nd round draft pick (Negele Knight) and a 1991 2nd round draft pick (Chad Gallagher) to the Phoenix Suns for Armen Gilliam.

I know what you're thinking - Kurt Rambis played for the Hornets?! The answer is yes, and he averaged 9.1 points and 7.5 rebounds for us in 16 games. That's what I'm talking about.

January 31, 2006

§ Traded a 2006 2nd round draft pick (Edin Bavcic) and a 2009 2nd round draft pick (Jack McClinton) to the Toronto Raptors for Aaron Williams.

This is the guy whose rights we acquired a month ago in the Jarrett Jack deal. (That's the NBA for you. We also owned the rights to such notables as Darrell Arthur and Marcin Gortat in recent years.)

October 25, 2001

§ As part of a 3-team trade, the Charlotte Hornets traded Derrick Coleman to the Philadelphia 76ers; the Charlotte Hornets traded cash to the Golden State Warriors; the Golden State Warriors traded Chris Porter to the Charlotte Hornets; the Golden State Warriors traded Corie Blount and Vonteego Cummings to the Philadelphia 76ers; the Philadelphia 76ers traded George Lynch,Jerome Moiso and Robert Traylor to the Charlotte Hornets; and the Philadelphia 76ers traded Cedric Henderson and a 2005 1st round draft pick (Joey Graham) to the Golden State Warriors.

February 19, 1992

§ Traded Rex Chapman to the Washington Bullets for Tom Hammonds.

Anytime you can trade for "The Tractor" (Robert Traylor) and a guy whose nicknames are "Hambone" and "The Terminator" (Hammonds) you have to do it.

November 3, 1995

§ Traded LeRon Ellis, Alonzo Mourning and Pete Myers to the Miami Heat for Matt Geiger, Khalid Reeves, Glen Rice and a 1996 1st round draft pick (Tony Delk).

I am personally a huge Glen Rice fan so I really, really, really liked this trade. Granted Zo went on to kill it for the Heat for the next decade plus (including being a part of the 06' championship team) but I feel like this trade worked out well for both sides. Miami got their block-machine starting center for the next 10 years and we got 4 years of the sharpshooting magician known as Glen Rice.

Bronze Medal

July 11, 2012

§ Traded Gustavo Ayon to the Orlando Magic for Ryan Anderson.

This one gets the bronze because: A) we don't know how good Ryan Anderson will be in a Hornets uniform and B) I had to work Dell Demps into this piece somehow. Of all the moves he's made, this could easily be the best move of his tenure. Nothing against Gus, but this one was pretty lopsided.

Best. Hornets. Trades. Ever.

July 12, 2006

§ Traded Andrew Betts to the Indiana Pacers for Peja Stojakovic.

July 14, 2006

§ Traded P.J. Brown and J.R. Smith to the Chicago Bulls for Tyson Chandler.

I put some of my own personal bias into this co-#1 pick, but the two guys we traded for were huge reasons behind the 2007-2008 run. Both players were plagued by injuries while wearing the teal and gold, and both underperformed relative to their respective contracts, but without them, we wouldn't have that glorious year to begin with. Chris Paul is on record saying that he's never trusted anybody shooting the basketball more than Peja Stojakovic, and we may never see a more awesome/electric/well-run/automatic pick & roll and alley-oop combination than CP3 to Chandler.

There are many more trades that could've made this list, and I apologize if your favorite trade isn't mentioned in this rant. But one thing is for sure; there's nothing more fun than taking a trip down memory lane to see all the amazing (or amazingly awful) decisions your favorite team has made over the years. Let's hope for more of the former from this point on.