Charlotte Hornets Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Jeff Taylor To Play In Spain

August 27th, 2015 at 8:14am CST by Chuck Myron

AUGUST 27TH, 8:14am: The deal is official, the team announced (hat tips to HoopsHype and Sportando).

JULY 23RD, 1:28pm: Jeff Taylor has agreed to a one-year deal with Real Madrid, sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). It’s worth more than $900K, Charania adds, so it sounds like it’ll be roughly equivalent to the $981,348 the three-year NBA veteran would have made if he had stayed in the league at the minimum salary. Charania reported earlier this week that the sides were close to a deal after Taylor reportedly turned down an offer to play in Israel.

The Hornets elected not to make a qualifying offer to the 26-year-old after a difficult season that included a 24-game league-imposed suspension stemming from his guilty plea to misdemeanor domestic assault and property destruction charges in the fall. Taylor saw action in only 29 games for the Hornets in 2014/15, recording a career-low 14.8 minutes per contest, and he also spent time on D-League assignment.

Chatter regarding interest from other NBA teams hadn’t developed this month, but Taylor was the 31st overall pick three years ago, so it hasn’t been long since he was a fairly well-regarded prospect. The Todd Ramasar client is going to a European powerhouse that won this year’s Euroleague title, so he’ll most likely remain on NBA radars.

Do you think Taylor will play in the NBA again? Leave a comment to let us know.

Reaction To Michael Kidd-Gilchrist Extension

August 26th, 2015 at 2:28pm CST by Chuck Myron

The four-year, $52MM extension that the Hornets and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist made official today includes a player option on the fourth season, reports Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link). That’ll allow him to hit unrestricted free agency when he’s only 25 years old and the salary cap will be a projected $102MM. Hornets GM Rich Cho cited Kidd-Gilchrist’s age and upside as part of the reason for tying him up for at least this season and three more, as the Hornets’ official feed notes from today’s press conference (Twitter links).

“We feel like [he] is just scratching the surface of what he is as a player,” Cho said.

Cho had more to say, and Kidd-Gilchrist spoke, too, as we’ll round up here:

The Leon Rose client cited the presence of owner Michael Jordan, coach Steve Clifford, assistant coach Patrick Ewing and even former assistant coach Mark Price, who was in attendance at the press conference, for his desire to do the extension, according to Bonnell (All Twitter links). “Why wait? I’m learning from the best,” Kidd-Gilchrist said. “I don’t do this for the money.”
Kidd-Gilchrist “embodies everything we want in a Hornet,” Cho said, and Clifford expressed a belief that the former No. 2 overall pick should make the All-Defensive First Team this coming season, Bonnell relays (Twitter links).
The Hornets have signed Kidd-Gilchrist and Kemba Walker to rookie scale extensions in back-to-back years, and that represents a change in the organization’s strategy, after Charlotte let Emeka Okafor, Gerald Wallace and Gerald Henderson hit restricted free agency in the past, Bonnell observes. Hornets vice chairman Curtis Polk told Bonnell this past spring that the surge in the cap would create a more competitive marketplace, perhaps a hint at the reason behind the philosophical shift. It also coincided with the departure of former president of basketball operations Rod Higgins.

Hornets Sign Michael Kidd-Gilchrist To Extension

August 26th, 2015 at 12:40pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

TUESDAY, 12:40pm: The deal is official, the Hornets announced.

“Michael is a huge part of what we are trying to build here in Charlotte,” GM Rich Cho said in the team’s statement. “He has dedicated himself to improving and expanding his game. Michael continues to develop on both ends of the court and has become a key piece of our team. We are thrilled that he is a Charlotte Hornet.”

MONDAY, 8:09pm: The Hornets are close to signing forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to a four-year, $52MM contract extension, league sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. The agreement will be finalized this week with a news conference to follow, sources told Wojnarowski. Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer confirms the deal and adds that the Leon Rose client will take a physical on Tuesday (Twitter link).

The No. 2 overall pick in the 2012 draft will make $6,331,404 this season before the extension kicks in.

Kidd-Gilchrist averaged 10.9 points and 7.6 rebounds for Charlotte last season, his third in the league. He only appeared in 55 games before an ankle injury cut his season short.

The 21-year-old small forward has a reputation for being a stout one-on-one defender, and his player efficiency rating of 15.14 last season reflects that despite his relatively modest offensive contributions and the fact he’s averaged less than one block and one steal in each of his seasons. Hornets coach Steve Clifford proclaimed in March that Kidd-Gilchrist has the talent to become the best perimeter defender in this generation of NBA players.

He’s shot 46.4% from the field in his short career, though he’s not a threat from the 3-point line. He’s made only three shots from long range and didn’t even attempt one last season.

Southeast Notes: Kidd-Gilchrist, Horford, Deng

August 25th, 2015 at 10:07am CST by Chuck Myron

People around the league applaud what the Hornets are getting out of the extension deal Charlotte has reportedly struck with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe hears (All six Twitter links right here). The starting salary should be roughly in line with his cap hold for next summer, which would have been $12,662,808, so the Hornets aren’t truly compromising their cap flexibility, Lowe points out. The deal is not without its potential pitfalls, given his lack of outside shooting and elite ball-handling, so it will challenge the Hornets to surround him with others who can fill in the gaps, but it’s nonetheless a risk worth taking, given the work ethic of the former No. 2 overall pick. He’s capable of moving to power forward, giving him more versatility than Tony Allen, a player to whom Kidd-Gilchrist is often compared, Lowe adds. See more from around the Southeast Division:

The Hawks arguably took a step back this summer, having lost DeMarre Carroll to the Raptors, but Al Horford, set for free agency next summer, is pleased with the team’s offseason, especially the trade acquisition of Tiago Splitter, as Horford tells Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And also guys like Tim Hardaway. I feel like he has a lot of potential,” Horford said. “Once he figures everything out, I think he is going to be really good for us. It’s excited to have those guys. And even some of the younger guys. Justin Holiday and Edy Tavares, I’m excited to have both of them too. We know they will have to work but I’m sure they’ll have an opportunity to play at some point. I’m excited. Obviously with DeMarre being gone, we are going to need some other guys to step in and try to help alleviate everything that DeMarre did for us.”
The Heat clearly like No. 10 overall pick Justise Winslow, but he probably won’t perform well enough as a rookie to make Luol Deng expendable between now and the trade deadline, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel argues in a mailbag column.
We rounded up plenty more on the Heat right here.

Northwest Notes: Henderson, Wolves, Claver

August 24th, 2015 at 4:38pm CST by Chuck Myron

No player has been with a Northwest Division team longer than Nick Collison, who carved out a long-term stay with the SuperSonics/Thunder franchise even though he’s never played a starring role. He’ll make $3.75MM this season and next on the extension he signed in February. We listed the longest-tenured member of every team earlier today, and we’re sharing more from the Northwest Division here:

Trail Blazers trade acquisition Gerald Henderson wasn’t surprised the Hornets dealt him away, though the timing of the move caught him off guard, since it came the week after he opted in, as he tells Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. He maintains ties to the Charlotte area, but he’s enthusiastic about his new team. “It was not so much about being traded as where I was going. This is a contract year,” said Henderson, who’s set for free agency next summer. “I wanted to be at a place with opportunity, a good organization and potentially a chance to win. I got all those things in Portland.”
The Timberwolves allowed the $6,308,194 trade exception they picked up in the Kevin Love trade to expire unused Sunday, though that wasn’t a surprise, as I suggested earlier this month. They still have five other trade exceptions, the largest of which is worth $5MM and doesn’t expire until next July.
Victor Claver officially joined Valencia of Spain after the team matched the offer sheet he signed with Baskonia, the Spanish ACB league announced (Twitter link; translation via Austin Green of LosCrossovers). Valencia had held his Spanish rights from the time he spent with the team before his jump to the Trail Blazers in 2012. He finished up this past season playing in Russia after the Nuggets waived him following his inclusion in the Arron Afflalo trade.

Wizards Notes: Temple, Oubre, Camp Deals

August 21st, 2015 at 2:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

The summer has been relatively quiet for the Wizards, with the trade for Jared Dudley and the Alan Anderson signing perhaps the team’s most significant moves. Washington is hoping it’s a different story a year from now, with native son Kevin Durant poised to hit free agency. While we wait to see how that storyline develops, see the latest from the nation’s capital:

Jazz coach Quin Snyder, and not the Utah front office, is the party that expressed interest in Wizards guard Garrett Temple, according to a source who spoke with J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic (Twitter link). The Wizards don’t appear eager to trade Temple, and it seems unlikely he’ll be changing teams, Michael tweets.
Kelly Oubre intrigued the Hornets and the Heat, who had this year’s ninth and 10th picks, respectively, and the Celtics and Rockets tried to move up to draft him, reports Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Ulimately, the Wizards came up with the package the Hawks accepted for the No. 15 overall pick, allowing Washington to come away with the small forward from Kansas. Deveney chronicles the struggle Oubre’s family faced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which forced them from their home in New Orleans 10 years ago.
The Wizards aren’t offering partial guarantees with their training camp invitations, Michael writes in a separate piece, and that was a factor in the decision undrafted Maryland shooting guard Dez Wells made to turn down an offer from the Wizards for a deal with the Thunder instead, Michael adds.

Southeast Notes: Webster, Beal, Kalinoski

August 17th, 2015 at 5:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

Martell Webster‘s partial guarantee of $2.5MM for 2016/17 becomes a full guarantee of more than $5.845MM if he plays in 70 games this coming season, and the Wizards forward has embraced a new commitment to his fitness this summer, as he explains to Ben Mehic of Fansided’s Wiz of Awes blog. Webster also made it clear that he wants to continue to play past the expiration of the contract, backtracking from comments he made this past fall that indicated he would most likely retire in 2017.

“I feel amazing,” Webster said to Mehic. “I transformed by body, I dropped 20 pounds and I’m probably going to drop 10 more, so that I’m about 206 — anywhere from 206 to 210 this next year, that’s what I want to play at. I feel amazing, a lot of pressure has been taken off my back and off of my joints and I feel great.”

See more from Washington and elsewhere around the Southeast Division here:

The Wizards are hesitant to commit to the four-year, maximum-salary extension that Bradley Beal wants unless it contains some non-guaranteed salary, given his history of injuries, writes J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. That jibes with what Michael heard late last month, when he wrote that the Wizards wanted an escape hatch in any long-term deal while Beal’s camp was insistent upon a player option if he were to take less than the max. Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported in May that the Wizards were committed to giving him the max, but Michael says the club’s thinking has shifted slightly since last fall, when Washington seemed ready to move full speed ahead with extension plans despite Beal’s broken wrist.
The Heat and Hornets had expressed interest in signing undrafted Davidson guard Tyler Kalinoski to a deal for training camp, but he signed with Elan Chalon of France instead on a contract that included an NBA out, writes Ian Thomsen of NBA.com. That escape clause has expired, but the NBA dream is not dead for the Kenny Grant client, as Thomsen chronicles in a piece that examines the path of those on the fringe between the NBA and Europe. “A guy with his skill-set is intriguing,” said Dan Craig, who coached Kalinoski on the Heat’s summer league team. “I think he is right there on the brink of being a 14th or 15th guy on an NBA roster. In the right system, under the right coaching, he could possibly come in and give you impact minutes.”

And-Ones: Bucks, Oden, McRoberts, Nets

August 12th, 2015 at 1:29pm CST by Chuck Myron

A new arena for the Bucks moved one step closer to reality today, when Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed a bill that calls for $250MM of public financing, write Mary Spicuzza And Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Walker has long backed the arena project and said when the bill emerged from the state legislature late last month that he’d sign it. The team must still arrange for a land sale with Milwaukee County and receive approval for construction from the Milwaukee Common Council, Spicuzza and Stein note, but Bucks executives have said that can take place between now and the fall. Groundbreaking must take place soon for the team to stay on schedule to meet a league-imposed deadline, lest the league seize the franchise from its owners and move it elsewhere, but today’s news indicates that the Bucks remain on track to stay in Milwaukee. Here’s more from around the league:

Former No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden will take part in a weeklong workout later this month for Jiangsu Kentier of the Chinese Basketball Association, the Altius Culture agency tweets. It’ll constitute an audition for the team, the agency indicates. He reportedly drew eyes from the Mavs, Hornets and Grizzlies early in the summer.
Josh McRoberts had a frustrating, injury-riddled year for the Heat last season after his breakout campaign for Charlotte in 2013/14, and the subtraction of his nearly $5.544MM salary would go a long way toward preventing the Heat from paying repeater tax penalties this season. Still, he’s eager to return to playing in Miami, as he tells Kyle Neddenriep of his hometown Indianapolis Star. “I feel confident and comfortable going back there,” McRoberts said. “I kind of saw how things were last year. I’m excited to be back and part of the team because when you’re hurt, you are kind of isolated on your own. You’re not practicing and playing in games with them every day. I’ve worked with the coaches throughout the summer different times and feel good about the direction we’re headed.”
Nets majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov agreed to push back today’s deadline for minority owner Bruce Ratner to pay back his company’s debts to Prokhorov’s company, reports Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg.com (Twitter links). Ratner’s group now has until September 8th to pay or let their 20% share become 8%, with Prokhorov’s group taking over the other 12%.

Poll: 2013 NBA Draft Take Two (Pick No. 4)

August 8th, 2015 at 1:05pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Drafting players is far from an exact science, and many a GM has been second-guessed for his draft night decisions. I’m willing to bet that every team executive has at least one pick that he would like a mulligan for. While life, and the NBA, doesn’t allow for such opportunities, we at Hoops Rumors decided it would be fun to give our readers a second take at picking players, complete with the benefit of hindsight.

The first NBA Draft we’re tackling is 2013’s, the year that the Cavaliers surprised quite a few people when they nabbed UNLV forward Anthony Bennett with the No. 1 overall pick. Quite a number of talented players were in that year’s player pool, including Victor Oladipo, Nerlens Noel, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Rudy Gobert, just to rattle off a few.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll be posting a series of reader polls that will ask you to vote on the player whom you believe should have been selected with each pick. We’ll continue onward with the Hornets, who held the No. 4 overall pick that season. Readers, you are now on the clock! Cast your vote for Charlotte’s pick and check back tomorrow night for the results, as well as for your chance to vote for whom the Suns should have taken at No. 5. But don’t limit yourself to a simple button click. Take to the comments section below and share your thoughts on the pick and why you voted the way that you did. Also, if I fail to list a player who you think should be selected, feel free to post that in the comments section and I’ll be certain to tally those votes as well.

Draft Results thus far:

Cavaliers: Giannis Antetokounmpo
Magic: Victor Oladipo
Wizards: Nerlens Noel

If you’re a Trade Rumors app user, click here.

Southeast Notes: Richardson, Williams, Gordon

August 5th, 2015 at 8:58am CST by Chuck Myron

Heat trade candidate Mario Chalmers and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who’s eligible for an extension from the Hornets until October 31st, are among the five players Jessica Camerato of Basketball Insiders believes must show improvement this coming season. Chalmers will have motivation to bounce back after a poor shooting year that featured his career-worst 29.4% three-point percentage with his contract set to expire at season’s end, while Kidd-Gilchrist has to contend with trade acquisition Nicolas Batum at his position. While we wait to find out whether either of them will break through this coming season, see more from the Southeast Division here:

The deal that No. 40 pick Josh Richardson signed with the Heat features minimum salaries for all three seasons and no guaranteed money beyond this season’s fully guaranteed salary, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders shows (Twitter link). His 2016/17 salary becomes guaranteed if he sticks through August 1st, 2016, Pincus adds.
Elliot Williams received two years at the minimum salary with an $80K partial guarantee for this season and no guaranteed money for 2016/17 in his camp deal with the Hornets, Pincus also reports (Twitter link).
Aaron Gordon is among the players from the 2014 draft class who appear on the verge of a breakout, according to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. A fractured bone in Gordon’s left foot helped limit him to 47 games last season and made it tough to see why the Magic invested the No. 4 overall pick in the combo forward.