While a little over half the league is enjoying playoff basketball, the Charlotte Hornets are getting their offseason itinerary set as they prepare for one of the more pivotal summers in the franchise’s history. The new ownership group gets their first full offseason in charge, and new executive VP of basketball operations Jeff Peterson gets his chance to establish the team in his image.
The Coaching Search
The first and perhaps most important part of the season is completing the ownership/front office/head coach leadership triangle. The Hornets have cast a wide net in their search thus far, and a couple of candidates have already accepted other jobs. Getting this hire right (and keeping them once the hire is made) is vital to the success of this rebuild. Here’s who they’ve interviewed so far:
- David Adelman
- Jordi Fernandez (hired by Nets)
- Charles Lee
- Kevin Young (hired by BYU)
- Lindsey Harding
- Jay Larranaga
- Jordan Ott
- Jerry Stackhouse
- Royal Ivey
- JJ Redick
The Hornets are clearly focused on getting a younger, up-and-coming coach. No one that they’ve interviewed thus far has served as an NBA head coach, but only JJ Redick is devoid of significant coaching experience as either an assistant or G League head coach. I’m sure we’ll see another couple of interviews in the coming days and a decision finalized by early to mid May.
The Roster
As for the product on the court, the Hornets have one big decisions to make, but the roster is otherwise mostly set unless they want to start wheeling and dealing.
Pending free agents:
Bridges is the only player whose contract expires this summer. He’s playing on the one year qualifying offer after his off the court transgressions ruined his long term contract negotiations. He has a cap hold of $15 million, which counts against the cap until the Hornets renounce him or re-sign him, or he signs with another team. He’s an unrestricted free agent, meaning he’s free to sign anywhere, but the Hornets have his Bird rights and can go over the cap to sign him.
Options to decide on:
- Davis Bertans – $16 million contract guaranteed for only $5 million
- Seth Curry – $4 million non-guaranteed
- Aleksej Pokusevski – $2.3 million non-guaranteed
- Bryce McGowens – $2.0 million non-guaranteed
- JT Thor – $2.0 million team option
The biggest decision the team has to make is with Bertans. He’s actually set to enter the offseason with the second highest cap hit on the team for 2024-25, which is a little bit not great for what his role is. That said, there might not be a huge benefit to outright waiving him unless the Hornets have a mid tier free agent they’ve got their eyes on.
The Hornets can clear up to about $30 million in cap space, but that would require them to drop all of the above players (including Miles Bridges). There’s probably not going to be any difference making player that the Hornets could reasonably expect to acquire for $20-$30 million. And if the team elects to keep Miles Bridges, they’re better off staying over the cap and utilizing their mid-level exception, which would be close to the same amount of cap space they’d have at their disposal if they are working around Bridges’ cap hold.
If the Hornets want to upgrade their roster via more than just the draft, they’ll have to do so by swinging a trade or two. Bertans’ contract comes in handy here, as he can be used to match a large salary, but the receiving team wouldn’t be on the hook for all that salary. We’ll look at potential targets another day, but that’s probably the move.
The Draft
The Hornets salvaged a little bit of draft value this summer in the Gordon Hayward trade to Oklahoma City. Along with all the players the Hornets got back, the Thunder also sent over 2024 and 2025 2nd round picks. The pick that the Hornets get this year was originally the Blazers pick at 34 overall, which is essentially where the Hornets would have been picking at they kept their own pick in the first place.
On top of that, the Hornets have the third best lottery odds after winning the luck of the draw tiebreaker over the aforementioned Blazers. They have a tick better than 50/50 odds to pick in the top four and have a 13.3% chance of landing the first overall pick. It’s not a very strong draft at the top in terms of star power, but the Hornets should be able to find an immediate contributor with that first pick. It’s also a very enticing trade chip when combined with other players should they’re be a young-ish veteran the Hornets think will push them into relevance.
Related
jondelong42
Source link
