A summary of all the Hornets offseason moves so far – At The Hive

The Charlotte Hornets have had a refreshingly active offseason after a couple summers of sitting on their hands and doing very little to improve or shake up the roster. There were a flurry of moves that happened all around the end of the moratorium, so I figured it’d be a good idea to use this downtime between the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League to catch up on all of the stuff the Hornets did and where they currently stand.

Draft Picks

The Hornets entered the 2024 NBA Draft with the 6th and 42nd overall picks. Despite reportedly gauging interest in a trade involving the 6th pick, they stood pat and made their pick. They did the same at 42 while seemingly the rest of the league hopped around for one reason or another.

With the 6th pick, they took Tidjane Salaün. We’ll look at him in more depth later. He’s already signed his rookie contract, which ties him to the team for four years unless they decline one of the last two years. The Hornets used the 42nd pick on KJ Simpson, who they inked to a two-way deal. He’ll spend most of his time with the Swarm and will fill in for the Hornets in the case of significant player absences.

Departures

• Seth Curry (waived)
• JT Thor (waived)
• Davis Bertans (waived)
• Aleksej Pokusevski (waived)
• Bryce McGowens (waived but still playing summer league)
• Devonte’ Graham (acquired in trade and subsequently waived)
• Two future 2nd round picks (for Josh Green)

The Hornets waived just about everybody they possible could to get under the salary cap, which allowed them to acquire draft capital in exchange for using that cap space. The team is reportedly interested in potentially bringing Curry back, and McGowens is still playing summer league with the team, so they clearly aren’t entirely done with him yet. The rest of the players are seemingly gone.

Acquisitions

• Miles Bridges (re-signed for 3 years, $75 million)
• Reggie Jackson (acquired in salary dump along with three 2nd round picks)
• Josh Green (acquired in exchange for 2nd round picks)
• Devonte’ Graham (acquired with a 2nd round pick in salary dump, immediately waived)
• Four future 2nd round picks (three with Jackson, one with Graham)

The Hornets retained their one major free agent and added two new players via trades. The expectation was that the Hornets would reroute Jackson somewhere else or waive him (again), but that hasn’t happened yet. I’d be surprised if both he and Vasilije Micic are on the roster come opening night. They both seem like prime trade candidates.

Current Roster

• LaMelo Ball (guard)
• Tre Mann (guard)
• Reggie Jackson (guard)
• Vasilije Micic (guard)
• Nick Smith Jr. (guard)
• Josh Green (wing)
• Cody Martin (wing)
• Brandon Miller (wing)
• Miles Bridges (forward)
• Grant Williams (forward)
• Tidjane Salaün (forward)
• Mark Williams (big)
• Nick Richards (big)

• KJ Simpson (guard, two-way)
• Leaky Black (wing, two-way)

The Hornets netted Josh Green and two 2nd round picks purely by letting teams dump players into their cap space, which feels like stealing. It’s the kind of move we haven’t seen from the Hornets really ever. The new front office is clearly very aggressive at inserting themselves into whatever deal they can to try to siphon off assets from teams with big plans.

The Hornets have 13 players on their active roster and two players inked to a two-way deal. That means they have two open roster spots and one open two-way slot, so there are still plenty of moves left to be made. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the two-ways go to players currently in the summer league. There have been plenty of viable candidates in the 3-0 start to play like Mouhamadou Gueye, Zavier Simpson, or even Bryce McGowens. And there are still a handful of interesting options in the free agent market. There’s also the possibility that the Hornets try to flip some of their guard depth into big depth.

They’ve set themselves up well to be competitive this season and they have the resources to make even more improvements between now and the start of the season.