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2019 Offseason In Review: Charlotte Hornets

October 12th, 2019 at 8:48am CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2019 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s moves from the last several months and look ahead to what the 2019/20 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Charlotte Hornets.

Signings:

Standard contracts:
- Terry Rozier: Three years, $56.7MM. Acquired via sign-and-trade.
Two-way contracts:
- Robert Franks
- Ahmed Hill
Non-guaranteed camp contracts:
- Joe Chealey: One year, minimum salary (Exhibit 10).
- Caleb Martin: One year, minimum salary (Exhibit 10).
- Josh Perkins: One year, minimum salary (Exhibit 10).
- Kobi Simmons: One year, minimum salary (Exhibit 10).
- Thomas Welsh: One year, minimum salary (Exhibit 10).

Trades:

Acquired Terry Rozier (sign-and-trade) and the Celtics’ 2020 second-round pick (top-53 protected) from the Celtics in exchange for Kemba Walker (sign-and-trade) and either the Nets’ or Knicks’ 2020 second-round pick (whichever is less favorable).

Draft picks:

1-12: PJ Washington — Signed to rookie contract.
2-36: Cody Martin — Signed to three-year, $4.47MM contract. Third year non-guaranteed. Signed using mid-level exception.
2-52: Jalen McDaniels — Signed to one-year, minimum-salary contract. Non-guaranteed. Exhibit 10.

Departing players:

Frank Kaminsky
Jeremy Lamb
Shelvin Mack
J.P. Macura (two-way)
Tony Parker (Retired; waived)
Kemba Walker

Other offseason news:

Tony Parker announced his retirement.
Michael Jordan sold part of the franchise to minority stakeholders.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist underwent groin surgery.

Salary cap situation:

Remained over the cap.
Hard-capped.
Carrying approximately $122.44MM in guaranteed salary.
$8.08MM of mid-level exception still available (used $1.17MM on Cody Martin).
Full bi-annual exception ($3.62MM) still available.

Story of the summer:

The Hornets entered the 2019 offseason in a no-win situation, forced to decide between two unfavorable paths.

Re-signing franchise player Kemba Walker would have meant investing between $30-40MM per year in a long-term contract for a point guard who turns 30 years old in the spring. It would have meant either pushing team salary into tax territory for the 2019/20 season or sneaking below the tax line by attaching assets to unwanted contracts in trades. And it would have meant essentially doubling down on a core that had missed the playoffs for three consecutive seasons.

On the other hand, letting Walker go would mean losing the only All-Star on the roster and not getting anything back for him or gaining the cap flexibility necessary to replace him in any meaningful way. The team’s cap would still be overloaded with lucrative contracts for unspectacular veterans with no real way to get out from under those contracts for another year or two.

Once it became clear that Walker wasn’t interested in sticking around for the terms the Hornets were offering (reportedly about $160MM for five years), president of basketball operations Mitch Kupchak attempted to thread the needle between those two unfavorable outcomes by working out a sign-and-trade with the Celtics to get something back for his All-NBA point guard. The result was a three-year, $56MM+ investment in Terry Rozier, who has started 30 career games and has never made more than 39.5% of his field goal attempts in a single season.

An optimist might argue that the Hornets were at least able to get something back for Walker, pointing to Rozier’s impressive 2018 playoff run as proof that he’s capable of more than he showed during a mediocre 2018/19 season. The glass-half-empty argument would be that Rozier wasn’t worth a $56MM investment and will simply become the latest overpaid Hornet, hampering the team’s ability to clear its cap sheet in 2020 and/or 2021.

No matter how the Hornets’ commitment to Rozier plays out, it’s clear that the franchise is entering a new era, one that might get worse before it gets better. Walker’s departure this summer signaled that a full-scale rebuild is on the way.

Key offseason losses:

Having spent the first eight years of his NBA career in Charlotte, Walker leaves the Hornets as the organization’s all-time leader in points, three-pointers, minutes played, and a handful of other categories. He played his best ball in recent years, earning All-Star nods in each of the last three seasons and making his first All-NBA team in 2019.

That All-NBA nod may actually have helped cement his departure from Charlotte, as it made him eligible for an extra $31MM+ over the course of a five-year, maximum-salary contract. The Hornets weren’t willing to go nearly that high, with Kupchak suggesting in an interview this offseason that the team was “blindsided” by Walker qualifying for the super-max based on the preparations they’d made heading into the season.

Would the Hornets and Walker have been any more likely to work something out if he hadn’t qualified for the super-max? Maybe not. But it’s still a question that might linger for the next few years, especially if Kemba thrives in Boston and the Hornets’ rebuild comes along slowly.

While the loss of Walker was the story of the summer in Charlotte, Jeremy Lamb‘s departure shouldn’t be understated. He was the club’s second-best player for much of last season, averaging a career-high 15.3 PPG and 5.5 RPG and becoming a fixture in the starting lineup for the first time in his career. He’ll be missed on the wing.

Tony Parker‘s and Frank Kaminsky‘s exits from Charlotte are also worth noting. Parker provided veteran stability behind Walker at the point last season, though of course he was no longer the same player he was in his prime with the Spurs. Years from now, his one year in Charlotte might be remembered like Hakeem Olajuwon‘s time with Toronto or Patrick Ewing‘s stops in Seattle and Orlando.

Kaminsky had a longer stay with the Hornets, but his on-court contributions were modest relative to the expectations he faced entering the NBA as the ninth overall pick in 2015. Hornets fans may be left wondering what the roster would look like today if the team had accepted the Celtics’ offer of four first-rounders for that No. 9 pick in ’15 instead of using it to draft Kaminsky.

Key offseason additions:

As noted above, the best stretch of Rozier’s career came during the 2018 postseason, when the Celtics came within one game of the NBA Finals without star point guard Kyrie Irving. In that 19-game playoff run, Rozier averaged 16.5 PPG, 5.7 APG, and 5.3 RPG while starting every game and playing a team-high 36.6 minutes per contest. He even made 40.6% of his field goal attempts, topping his career-high regular season mark.

In Charlotte, without any legit competition for the starting point guard job, Rozier will get the chance to show that performance was for real. I’m not convinced he can be an above-average NBA starter, but the Hornets are pot-committed to their bet on the former Celtic and will give him every opportunity to succeed.

Besides Rozier, the Hornets’ most notable incoming players are rookies, led by lottery pick PJ Washington. The versatile forward out of Kentucky may not become a star, but like 2018 first-rounder Miles Bridges, he has a high floor and could be ready for a regular role sooner rather than later. He has the skill set necessary to make an impact on both ends of the court.

Cody Martin, the 36th overall pick in this year’s draft, will also battle for minutes in Charlotte this year, but it doesn’t seem as if No. 52 selection Jalen McDaniels is a big part of the club’s long-term plans. He was the last unsigned pick from this year’s draft – with the exception of players who agreed to spend the season overseas or in the G League – and isn’t a lock to make the regular season roster.

Outlook for 2019/20:

Even with an All-NBA point guard in their backcourt, the Hornets weren’t a playoff team. Now that they’ve lost that All-NBA point guard without making many other changes to the roster, it’s not a real surprise that oddsmakers are projecting them to have the league’s worst record in 2019/20.

That’s not to say the Hornets can’t exceed expectations. Maybe getting out of Boston and having a starting job will buoy Rozier to a career year. Maybe young players like Washington, Bridges, and Malik Monk prove they’re capable of being immediate contributors and long-term building blocks. Maybe some of the Hornets’ veterans on expiring contracts play well and allow the club to flip them for positive value at the deadline.

Still, it’s hard to envision a path to playoff contention for this Charlotte squad. This roster will likely have to be torn down further before it can be built back up.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post. Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

McDaniels' Contract Is Non-Guaranteed

October 11th, 2019 at 8:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Rookie forward Jalen McDaniels‘ contract with the Hornets is a non-guaranteed one-year contract with an Exhibit 10 provision, John Hollinger of The Athletic reports. McDaniels, a second-round selection, didn’t come to an agreement with Charlotte until Thursday.

While McDaniels could make the opening-night roster, it’s quite possible he’ll be waived and end up in the G League via the Exhibit 10, according to Hollinger. If so, the Hornets will lose their NBA rights to him and another team could sign him at any time, though no one besides Charlotte can sign McDaniels to a two-way contract this season.

Hornets Sign Jalen McDaniels

October 10th, 2019 at 3:53pm CST by Luke Adams

The Hornets have officially signed second-round pick to Jalen McDaniels to a contract, the team announced today in a press release. Charlotte waived Thomas Welsh earlier this afternoon, opening up a spot on the 20-man roster.

McDaniels, who declared for the draft this spring after spending two seasons at San Diego State, averaging 15.9 PPG, 8.3 RPG, and 2.1 APG in 34 games (31.0 MPG) in 2018/19. The 6’10” forward was selected with the 52nd overall pick in the 2019 draft.

The Hornets faced some criticism in some circles for selecting McDaniels, who has been sued by two former female high school classmates who claim that he recorded them without their consent while they were performing sexual acts.

McDaniels had been the last 2019 draft pick whose status remained up in the air. As our tracker shows, 54 of this year’s draftees had previously signed NBA contracts, while three will spend the 2019/20 season overseas and two are signing G League deals.

The terms of McDaniels’ first NBA contract aren’t clear, but the Hornets are only carrying 13 players with fully guaranteed salaries, so there’s room on the roster for him to become one of the 14 or 15 players that starts the regular season with the club.

Hornets Release Thomas Welsh

October 10th, 2019 at 3:04pm CST by Luke Adams

The Hornets have waived big man Thomas Welsh, according to Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer (Twitter link). The club’s preseason roster now stands at 19 players.

Welsh, the 58th overall pick in the 2018 draft, spent his rookie season on a two-way contract with the Nuggets, but was waived by Denver in July. After catching on with the Hornets in August, the 23-year-old saw very little action in the team’s first two preseason games, logging just six total minutes.

As Bonnell notes, Welsh always looked more likely to end up with the Greensboro Swarm, Charlotte’s G League affiliate, than the Hornets themselves. That remains a possibility if he doesn’t land with another team in the NBA or overseas.

Welsh will become an unrestricted free agent on Saturday if he goes unclaimed on waivers.

Kemba Walker Discusses Decision To Leave Charlotte

October 5th, 2019 at 6:38pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kemba Walker says he understands the Hornets‘ decision to offer him a contract worth less than he was eligible for, relays Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. That move led Walker to leave the franchise where he spent the first eight years of his career and sign with the Celtics, even though Boston’s max offer of $141MM over four years was about $19MM less than he could have made on his five-year offer from Charlotte. The Hornets elected not to extend a super-max offer that would have paid him $221MM.

“They offered, but it just wasn’t an offer I could accept. I guess that’s the (most) money that they had,” Walker said. “I know they didn’t want to go over the (luxury) tax. Which I completely understand. It’s a business at the end of the day, and I respect the decision that they made. No hard feelings at all. I still love that organization and everything around it. It was tough for me (to leave), and I know it was tough for them; for MJ (owner Michael Jordan) and (general manager) Mitch (Kupchak) to let me go. But at the end of the day you have to do tough things in life. It just happens.”

During his time in Charlotte, Walker was committed not just to the team, but to the city. He said he remains grateful for the opportunity that Jordan provided when he took Walker with the ninth pick in the 2011 draft. Walker recalls the struggles of a 7-59 record in his first season and said the community remained supportive as the franchise improved. He said he felt obligated to give back to the city and try to inspire young people.

However, Charlotte made the playoffs just twice while Walker was there and got bounced in the first round both times. He immediately noticed a different atmosphere in Boston.

“Here, these guys are about winning — everything is about winning,” Walker said. “About getting to the playoffs every single year. You can feel that culture, that vibe, that environment each and every day. You walk into (the Celtics’) practice facility and they have all the (championship) banners up. The arena has all the banners up. It is such a legendary organization. That’s all they know is win! It’s a very high expectation. And that can be tough, too, to come into a situation like that, but that’s what I want. I want to have that expectation and to compete at the highest level. I think I have a real shot at doing that here with the Celtics.”

Hornets Notes: Rotation, Williams, Friedman, Rozier

October 3rd, 2019 at 9:57am CST by Luke Adams

With Kemba Walker no longer on the roster, the Hornets are entering rebuilding mode, and head coach James Borrego has made it clear he’ll prioritize developing the team’s young prospects during the 2019/20 season. Still, as Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer details, that doesn’t mean that the Hornets’ veteran players won’t have opportunities to play regular roles.

“If I’m going to be a coach who says, ‘Competition is the No. 1 thing on my board,’ then I have to give (veterans) the ability to compete for minutes,” Borrego said. “I’m not strictly handing minutes to young guys. The young guys have to go earn this.”

Nicolas Batum, Marvin Williams, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Bismack Biyombo are among the high-priced veterans on the Hornets’ roster who could be competing with younger players like Malik Monk, PJ Washington, Miles Bridges, Willy Hernangomez, and Dwayne Bacon for minutes during the 2019/20 season. It’s possible the situation could lead to some frustration over the course of the year, but for now Williams had nothing but praise for the way Borrego is handling things.

“J.B. has been amazing for us older guys. He’s been straightforward with us, he told us the direction he’s going in, and what he wants from us. That’s all you can ask,” Williams said. “We understand the situation. When we get our opportunities, we’ll make the most of it.”

Here’s more on the Hornets:

The losses of Walker and veteran guard Tony Parker created something of a leadership void in the Hornets’ locker room, but Borrego believes that Williams is capable of setting an example for his younger teammates, per Bonnell. “One of the biggest things for our young guys is (to think), ‘Look at Marvin, he’s a true pro.’ Marvin checks those boxes every single day. He takes this as his job, as his profession, and there is a pride about his work every single day,” Borrego said. “I’m going to expect him to lead us in that area. He understands that.”
In a mailbag for The Charlotte Observer, Bonnell suggests that the Hornets probably shouldn’t expect to net more than a second-round pick if they try to trade a veteran on a pricey expiring contract this season. Biyombo, Williams, and Kidd-Gilchrist are all on expiring deals worth between $13-17MM.
The Hornets issued a press release today announcing a series of changes and additions to their basketball operations staff, including Nick Friedman being named a player development coach. Friedman will bounce back and forth between the Hornets and the Greensboro Swarm, accompanying players on G League assignments.
Ben Nadeau of Basketball Insiders explores whether a breakout season is around the corner for new Hornets starting point guard Terry Rozier.

Zeller: "Something Is Missing" Without Kemba In Camp

October 2nd, 2019 at 12:03pm CST by Luke Adams

Hornets big man Cody Zeller said on the first day of camp that it felt like “something is missing” in Charlotte without Kemba Walker in the locker room, writes Steve Reed of The Associated Press. Zeller added that it was especially tough to lose Walker because he felt like the Hornets were “close” to breaking through and becoming a playoff team.

Kidd-Gilchrist Unsure Of Role

September 30th, 2019 at 9:59pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Hornets forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist comes into camp without a clearly defined role, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer writes. Kidd-Gilchrist opted in to his $13MM contract this season rather than pursue free agency, which he did for his family’s financial security, Bonnell continues. Kidd-Gilchrist’s stock has plummeted in recent seasons and he would have had to settle for a major pay cut if he had dipped his toe into the free agent pool. He was used sparingly last season by coach James Borrego and it’s uncertain if that will change. “I don’t know,” Kidd-Gilchrist said of how he fits on the current roster.

Southeast Notes: Rozier, Sheppard, Spoelstra, Wizards

September 29th, 2019 at 5:32pm CST by JD Shaw

New Hornets guard Terry Rozier is eager to prove himself after changing teams this past summer in free agency, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer writes.

Rozier, 25, left the Celtics after spending four seasons on the team, opting to sign a three-year, $58MM contract with the Hornets organization.

“I’m pissed off about a lot of stuff,” Rozier said. “I want to prove myself again.”

The Hornets lost All-Star guard Kemba Walker to Boston on a four-year pact during free agency, and they’re widely projected to be one of the league’s most underwhelming teams this season.

For Rozier, joining the Hornets — a team that had immediate interest in him — offers the ability to receive a clear starting role at point guard. The topic was briefly discussed with team owner Michael Jordan, who expressed his desire to add Rozier on a new deal.

“He didn’t have to show me too much. Him being Michael Jordan was 80 to 90 percent of it,” Rozier recalled. “He believes in me. He wanted to give me the opportunity to show my talent at the highest level. How can you turn that down?”

There’s more from the Southeast Division tonight:

Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard will be more focused on player development than win totals this season, Howard Fendrich of The Associated Press writes. Washington drafted impressive forward Rui Hachimura with the No. 9 pick in the draft and could play the entire season without All-Star John Wall due to a ruptured Achilles’ tendon.
The contract extension between Erik Spoelstra and the Heat may have been finalized, but there remains plenty of work ahead for Spoelstra with the organization, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel writes. Spoelstra is the second longest-tenured head coach in the NBA (2008), trailing behind only San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich (1996).
Candace Buckner of the Washington Post examines three questions for the Wizards entering the 2019/20 season. Washington has several important factors to discuss this season, including a potential extension with Bradley Beal, whether Hachimura should start and Wall’s progress from injury rehab.

Michael Jordan Sells Part Of Hornets

September 27th, 2019 at 4:15pm CST by Arthur Hill

SEPTEMBER 27: The transaction has been approved by the NBA and is effective immediately, according to a team press release.

SEPTEMBER 14: Hornets owner Michael Jordan has reached an agreement to sell a portion of the franchise to two investors from New York, but he will retain control of the team, reports Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer.

The buyers are Gabe Plotkin, a founder of Melvin Captal, and Daniel Sundheim, a founder of DI Capital. They must receive league approval, but a source tells Bonnell that process is already under way and the sale is expected to be finalized in about two weeks.

The percentage that Plotkin and Sundheim will acquire and the price they will pay were not revealed. Jordan presently controls roughly 97% of the team. Another source indicates that he plans to run the organization for “a good, long time.”

“I’m excited to welcome Gabe and Dan as my partners,” Jordan said in a statement tweeted by Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “While I continue to run the Charlotte Hornets, make all decisions related to the team and organization, Gabe and Dan’s investment in the franchise is invaluable as we continue to modernize, add new technology and strive to compete with the best in the NBA.”

Despite being considered a small-market organization, the Hornets have appreciated greatly in value since Jordan bought them in 2010. The purchase price was about $180MM, and Forbes estimated in February that the franchise is currently valued at $1.3 billion.

A source tells Bonnell that Jordan wanted to find investors who could help guide the team with technological advances. The Hornets also have a few smaller investors who owned part of the team before Jordan purchased it.