The Charlotte Hornets have an opportunity to find a five man who matches Steve Clifford’s system in free agency.

If you read Charlotte Hornets general manager Rich Cho’s postseason autopsy press conference, you came away with several ideas. One is that the Hornets are going to push for at least some their outgoing free agents to come back. Jeremy Lin, Nicolas Batum, and Marvin Williams were specifically mentioned in that press conference.

The second idea is that the Hornets are very excited about the Greensboro Swarm, the new NBDL team that will begin operations. The opportunity for the Hornets to have a minor league team that runs their schemes and can actually develop players in that scheme is better than the status quo. Cho talked about Aaron Harrison’s exciting basketball adventure to learn multiple playbooks when he was sent down to a couple of NBDL teams over the year.

The third idea is that the Hornets are pleased with the development of Cody Zeller this season. Zeller moved into the five spot this year and that allowed him to do the things he is comfortable doing. Zeller was posited as a possible power forward at the beginning of the season, but the team had enough three point shooters to get the job done without Zeller needing to shoot them.

Zeller’s eight points and six rebounds per twenty-four minutes of action are not prohibitive to the Hornets doing something at the center position. In the background is Al Jefferson, and Big Al has made noises about taking a pay cut to stick around. Yet there has always been a slight disconnect between Jefferson and the preferred basketball style of Coach Steve Clifford.

That disconnect is the defense. Clifford and his former leader Stan Van Gundy like to anchor their defensive units in the middle with a big shot blocker like Dwight Howard or Andre Drummond. It helps if that big guy is a threat for inside scoring as well.

Jefferson is sort of the mirror of that. He is an inside scoring threat who is not a great defender on the other end. He is here because the Hornets needed something to help become competitive, but he is what he is. If the Hornets are going to gain almost $14 million dollars from his departure then maybe they could try to spend some of that money on somebody who truly fits the mold that Clifford wants.

The trick is that the best candidates are going to be more $14 million a year guys. For the sake of the increased cap, let’s look at the free agent big men who are out there and might fit the bill regardless of price tag.