- The Hornets confirmed today in a press release that Michael Carter-Williams underwent successful surgery to address the torn labrum in his left shoulder. As initially reported last week, the former Rookie of the Year will miss the rest of the season before reaching unrestricted free agency this summer.
The Hornets have been one of the most disappointing teams in the NBA this year. Expected to make the playoffs and owing a payroll nearing $120MM, a seldom few could have foreseen a 29-38 record through the first week and a half of March and the word “rebuild” come into the picture.
And according to Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer, team leader and All-Star point guard Kemba Walker isn’t sure he’s prepared to undergo another rebuilding effort in Charlotte. “I’m not sure. Nobody wants to lose. Especially not me,” Walker said at practice Friday, following the Hornets’ fifth consecutive loss.
Walker, who was part of a Bobcats team (before becoming the Hornets) that went 7-59 in his rookie season, has one season left on his contract, which will pay him a team-friendly $12MM, making him a hot commodity on the trade market this summer. When asked about what the offseason may have in store, he added, “I haven’t thought about any of that. It’s something I’ve got to deal with whenever it happens. It’s just not something that has come up to me.”
Hornets point guard Michael Carter-Williams will miss the rest of the season due to a posterior labral tear in his left shoulder, the Hornets announced today in a press release. Carter-Williams, who sustained the injury on Sunday, will undergo surgery on his shoulder.
Carter-Williams, 26, signed a one-year, $2.7MM deal with the Hornets last summer and has served as Kemba Walker‘s primary backup this season. However, he struggled mightily in Charlotte, enduring the worst season of his five-year NBA career. In 52 games (16.1 MPG), the former Rookie of the Year averaged 4.6 PPG, 2.7 RPG, and 2.2 APG with a shooting line of .332/.237/.820.
With Carter-Williams on the shelf, the Hornets are expected to turn to Malik Monk and Julyan Stone to back up Walker at the point.
As for Carter-Williams, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent this summer, so any teams interested in signing him will keep a close eye on his recovery from shoulder surgery.
Given all the pricey long-term contracts on the books, blowing up the Hornets’ roster and rebuilding would be a painful process, writes Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. However, in Bonnell’s view, an overhaul of some sort needs to happen. Eleven players on the current roster have guaranteed contracts for next season, but if the Hornets bring back nearly the same roster in 2018/19, they’re “running themselves into a wall that will not budge,” says Bonnell.
At 28-38, the Hornets aren’t technically eliminated from the postseason, but their playoff hopes are on life support, and the players sound like they know it. “(With) the talent in this room, starting with us, everyone expected something more,” Nicolas Batum said after the team’s latest loss. Marvin Williams also expressed concern about the Hornets’ collective effort.
“It’s been difficult. It hasn’t ever been this way here,” Williams said, per Bonnell. “I remember, even going back to my first year here (the 33-48 season in 2014-15), we weren’t very good, but we still competed, we still defended. We weren’t the most talented, but we played hard. We didn’t just play for ourselves, we played for each other and for coach. Right now, we’re just not giving the effort we need to give.”
Here’s more on the Hornets:
- Whether or not Michael Carter-Williams is able to get back on the court this season after suffering a shoulder injury, rookie guard Malik Monk should remain in the Hornets’ rotation the rest of the way, Bonnell writes in a separate piece for The Charlotte Observer. With Charlotte’s playoff aspirations no longer realistic, the team needs to see what it has in Monk, according to Bonnell.
- Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders explores whether it would make sense for the Hornets to hire a veteran executive like Mitch Kupchak as their next general manager, or whether the club would be better off rolling the dice on an unproven candidate with promise.
- League sources tell Kyler that former Cavs GM David Griffin was contacted by the Hornets as part of their search, but Griffin may not be a serious candidate for the Charlotte position. According to Kyler, the prevailing thought on Griffin is that he’ll want “complete control” in his next job, and the Hornets may not be willing to sign off on that.
- Speaking to Ben Nadeau of Basketball Insiders, Willy Hernangomez admits that 2017/18 has been a tough season for him, but says he’s comfortable in Charlotte and is happy to get a fresh start. “It’s a new environment and a new chapter, so I have new goals — I feel more free here, they want me to create for others,” Hernangomez said. “Maybe in New York, I was just playing the low-post instead of the pick-and-roll. Here, I can do many things: create offense, maybe three-pointers, rebound, play pick-and-roll — so I feel more comfortable here.”
After signing with the Hornets during the 2017 offseason, Michael Carter-Williams has served as the team’s primary point guard behind Kemba Walker. However, Carter-Williams’ season appears to be in jeopardy.
As Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer writes (via Twitter), the former Rookie of the Year suffered a left shoulder injury on Sunday and is currently weighing whether to elect for surgery or rehab. According to Bonnell, it could be a few days before Carter-Williams makes a decision, but if he opts for surgery, it figures to end the 2017/18 season for the Hornets guard.
For now, the Hornets figure to turn to Malik Monk for the backup minutes behind Walker, and the team’s lone All-Star is also ready to play a few extra minutes if needed, as Bonnell notes (Twitter links).
The Hornets are expanding their search for a new GM even though former Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak remains a leading candidate, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports.
The Hornets are looking to replace Rich Cho after announcing last month they wouldn’t extend his contract.
The club has received permission to interview Sixers VP of Player Personnel Marc Eversley, Rockets Executive VP of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas and Heat assistant GM Adam Simon, league sources told Wojnarowski.
However, Kupchak’s longstanding relationship with owner Michael Jordan could still tip the scales in his favor, Wojnarowski adds. The Lakers replaced Kupchak with Magic Johnson last season.
Assistant GM Buzz Peterson is currently running the day-to-day operations for the Hornets and is expected to remain with the organization once a new GM is hired. Charlotte hopes to fill the position by the end of the regular season, Wojnarowski adds.
- It doesn’t matter that the Hornets haven’t named a successor to GM Rich Cho yet, but they need to find one quickly once the season ends, states Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. In addition to evaluating the coaching staff and preparing for the draft, the new GM will need to get control of the team’s salary cap situation by trading one or more rotation players and will have to manage the cap to stay under the luxury tax threshold. Bonnell adds that several viable GM candidates will probably emerge as their teams are eliminated from the playoffs.
The Raptors and Celtics are eight and seven games ahead, respectively, of the third-place Cavaliers, making it unlikely either team will fall below the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference with only about 20 games remaining in the regular season.
Along with the top two teams in the East, the aforementioned Cavs and the Wizards and 76ers also have a 99% chance or higher of making the postseason, per FiveThirtyEight, with the remaining Eastern Conference teams’ chance of making the playoffs as follows:
- Indiana Pacers (94%)
- Miami Heat (89%)
- Milwaukee Bucks (88%)
- Charlotte Hornets (20%)
- Detroit Pistons (12%)
And despite the discrepancy in percentage between the Pacers, Heat and Bucks as compared to the Hornets and Pistons, only 7.5 games separate the five teams, with the eighth-place Heat and ninth-place Pistons only separated by three games.
Moreover, Charlotte and Detroit have the 29th and 25th hardest schedules remaining, while Indiana, Milwaukee and Miami have the 2nd, 18th and 26th hardest remaining schedules, per tankathon.com.
For their part, the Pacers still have to face the Warriors and Raptors twice each (home and away for both), in addition to one more game in Boston, while the Hornets’ toughest remaining game is in Toronto. Accordingly, the race could come down to the final days of the regular season, where the Hornets and Pacers finish off their schedules with a home-and-home on April 8 and 10.
So what do you think? Which three teams will join the other five likely contenders from the Eastern Conference? Will the Pacers, Heat, and Bucks hold on to their playoff spots or will the Hornets and/or Pistons bump one of them from the postseason? Vote below in our poll for three teams and then jump into the comment section to share your thoughts!
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
Earlier this month, we identified the NBA teams with open roster spots. Since then, clubs have completed a flurry of 10-day signings, and a couple players have even received rest-of-season deals.
However, there are still plenty of teams around the league with openings on their respective rosters, which could come in handy with Thursday’s de facto buyout deadline around the corner. Once March 1 comes and goes, teams will have a better idea of which players will or won’t have postseason eligibility the rest of the way, creating a clearer picture for how to fill those open roster spots.
In the space below, we’ll take a closer look at teams with an open roster spot, breaking them down into three categories. Each of the clubs in the first group actually has a full 15-man roster right now, but in each instance, one of those 15 players is only a 10-day contract. With those contracts set to expire soon, it’d be very easy and inexpensive for these teams to create an opening if they need to.
Teams with full 15-man rosters who are carrying at least one player on a 10-day contract (10-day player noted in parentheses):
- Dallas Mavericks (Scotty Hopson)
- Indiana Pacers (Trey McKinney-Jones)
- New Orleans Pelicans (Walter Lemon Jr.)
- New York Knicks (Troy Williams)
- Orlando Magic (Rashad Vaughn)
- Phoenix Suns (Shaquille Harrison)
- Utah Jazz (Naz Mitrou-Long)
The next list of teams includes the clubs with one open spot on their roster and no players on 10-day contracts. These clubs each have 14 players on standard, full-season NBA deals, leaving one spot open for either a 10-day player or a rest-of-season signing.
Teams with one open roster spot:
- Charlotte Hornets
- Chicago Bulls
- Los Angeles Clippers
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Note: The Lakers will create a second opening when they officially waive Corey Brewer.
- Memphis Grizzlies
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- Sacramento Kings
- Toronto Raptors
Finally, the last group of teams features four clubs that have been grouped together before. These four teams saw their roster counts slip to 13 players around the time of the trade deadline, and each had to add a player to get back up to the NBA-mandated minimum of 14. To reach that minimum, each team signed a player to a 10-day contract. That means these four franchises still only have 12 or 13 players on full-season contracts, with at least one player on a 10-day deal.
Teams with one open roster spot, plus at least one player on a 10-day contract:
- Atlanta Hawks
- Note: 12 full-season contracts, plus Antonius Cleveland and Jaylen Morris on 10-day contracts
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Note: 13 full-season contracts, plus Marcus Thornton on 10-day contract.
- Portland Trail Blazers
- Note: 13 full-season contracts, plus Brandon Rush on 10-day contract.
- Washington Wizards
- Note: 13 full-season contracts, plus Ramon Sessions on 10-day contract.
For roster-count details on all 30 teams, be sure to check out our roster count page, which we updated daily throughout the 2017/18 season.
Note: Roster info current as of Wednesday, February 28 at 12:00pm CT.
Dwight Howard has surpassed expectations this season for the Hornets. In 58 games, Howard is averaging 15.4 PPG and 12.8 RPG for Charlotte, which is his best output since 2013/14 for a season in which he played more than 41 games.
Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer opines that trading Howard after such a productive season may be the team’s best option of shedding salary. Howard will make $23MM next season and if the Hornets can get some salary relief and young players in return, Charlotte should pull the trigger, Bonnell writes.
A trade would mean that Howard would join his fourth team in four years. This time, however, he would be dealt because his value is high rather than as a straight salary dump.
“If I went back and told our trainers in Orlando, and our strength coaches, that he was going to be playing at this level now, with the state that his knee was back then, they would have said, ‘No way,’” said head coach Steve Clifford, who was a coach with the Magic and Lakers during Howard’s stints with those organizations. “You’re talking about a guy that’s had major knee surgery and major back surgery … You’d never know it.”
Check out other Southeast Division notes below:
- Howard drew his 12th technical foul of the season in Friday’s road contest against the Wizards, Bonnell writes in a separate story. The center has a history of racking up technical fouls; he is now four away from an automatic suspension.
- It has been three years since the Heat acquired an All-Star caliber player (Goran Dragic) and seven years since the team assembled LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in South Beach. Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald looks at the future and Miami’s chance of landing another top free agent.
- Tomas Satoransky has played well for the Wizards as the team has struggled with injuries and lack of depth at the point guard position. Candance Buckner of the Washington Post writes that Satoransky and the team are both happy to see reinforcements on the way — including Ramon Sessions, who signed a 10-day deal — to aid the team in the postseason chase.