The Charlotte Hornets have spent the final hours before the transfer deadline pulling the rug out from under them and tearing their current team into the ground.

And considering the team currently has a 10-40 record, one of the worst in the NBA, that’s a good thing.

Charlotte had already traded Terry Rozier on Jan. 23 and traded PJ Washington and Gordon Hayward in two separate deals on Thursday. Miles Bridges was not traded, which is a shame, but they got back a couple of future No. 1 picks and a couple of players who grew up in Charlotte – Grant Williams and Seth Curry.

Yes…Seth Curry. There have been rumors for years that Seth’s older brother Steph could be a candidate for the Hornets at the end of his career, but Charlotte got the younger Curry brother instead.

On the plus side, Seth can shoot really well, just like his dad Dell and older brother. And the Hornets can now field a team that all has North Carolina ties: Curry, Williams, Cody Martin (NC State), Leaky Black (UNC) and Mark Williams (Duke).

You can argue about the different aspects of this Hornets offensive streak, but surely no one will dispute this:

It’s a good thing to leave Hayward.

Hayward received a four-year, $120 million contract from the Hornets in 2020 and quickly began to get injured.

Well, not really all the time – 41.3% of the time.

It just seemed like it was more to me.

The Hornets always acted shocked when Hayward got injured again for some reason, calling it a weird injury or something like that. But weirdness must have been a trait of Hayward’s. And it has been for quite some time. Let’s remember: When they gave Hayward the $120 million, the Hornets knew he had missed the entire 2017-18 season with Boston due to a serious leg injury.

So Hayward was a nice guy who turned out to be a flop because he couldn’t stay on the court. He was brought in to help Charlotte win, but he never did. To be honest, no one else has since 2016, the last time the Hornets made the playoffs.

Now they’ve missed the playoffs eight seasons in a row, the longest streak in NBA history. Even on nights when someone scores 40 points – and that’s been Bridges lately, who’s done it twice in a row – the Hornets still lose.

For this reason, it is a shame that Bridges was not traded (he has a no-trade clause, which made it more difficult).

As I’ve written before, I was never keen on the idea of ​​the Hornets re-signing Bridges after the player missed an entire NBA season due to off-the-court issues. Now he’s in great shape, but for a Hornets team that’s still losing, the Hornets struck me as pretty amoral throughout the process, and I’d rather let Bridges find a new contract elsewhere for the 2024-25 season.

At the moment, however, he is one of the guys who the Hornets not transfer, and one who may stay long-term. Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak said of Bridges on Friday: “I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t want him as part of this team for a long, long time.”

As for next season, and that’s what we’re talking about now, LaMelo Ball (spectacular, but with injury issues of his own) and rookie Brandon Miller (Charlotte’s biggest star this season) will form the core, with Williams also expected to start at center long-term.

The rest? We’ll see.

When I think about the Hornets over the last eight years, the most important thing that comes to mind is inconsistency. And above all: inconsistency, inconsistency, inconsistency.

There is a season: stir, stir, stir.

The Byrds sang it as “Turn, turn, turn,” but you know what I mean.

The Hornets play, they make a trade, they don’t make the postseason. They try to fix the roster in the offseason. They play, they lose… And the whole thing repeats itself.

This last trading series?

You just don’t know yet. You just can’t know. The two first-round picks are still so far in the future. The salary leeway depends entirely on what you do with them.

Seth Curry can shoot and Williams can help out a bit, but will they make a real difference?

Hayward couldn’t do it. Rozier couldn’t do it. Washington couldn’t do it.

It’s been a long, hard fight for the Hornets, who also released former first-round pick James Bouknight on Thursday.

Maybe something bad happened to them.

But maybe they’re just in the middle of it.

But I like that they’re trying something, because the current formula isn’t working, just like it hasn’t really worked for the last eight years.