Meet the new Charlotte Hornets – At The Hive

Yesterday was a busy day for the Charlotte Hornets. The previously mostly dormant front office came to life and sent out Gordon Hayward and PJ Washington a couple weeks after trading away Terry Rozier. Apparently that wasn’t entirely of their own doing.

This matches what I heard too.

In the build up to the trade deadline the current front office answered the phones and facilitated calls but new ownership was leading on decisions.

Ownership sought advice from external advisors, as well as Charlotte’s front office. https://t.co/NoB9WwALvM

— James Plowright (@British_Buzz) February 8, 2024

Regardless of whose idea it was to churn a third of the roster, there are a lot of new faces to get to know. Given that the Hornets are presumably opening an extra roster spot by waiving three players on top of eventually buying out Kyle Lowry, there will be at least one more player to get acquainted with at a later date. We’ll worry about that if and when the time comes. For now, let’s meet the newest Charlotte Hornets.

Davis Bertans

Because I consume media, I know the best way to make sure most people consume all of the media is to make sure the less interesting stuff is presented before building up to the more interesting stuff. So that brings us to our first newest Hornet, Davis Bertans.

The best thing Bertans has to offer at this point in his career is a nickname that Eric Collins is going to absolutely love. He’s the Latvian Laser. The Laser has seen his playing time dwindle to almost nothing as he moved from the Wizards to the Mavericks to the Thunder. He can shoot the basketball but at this point of his career, his other deficiencies (read: just about everything else) make it hard to give him consistent playing time. His contract has an early termination option with only $5.25 million guaranteed next season, so it’s more than likely that he’ll be traded or released before the start of next season.

Vasilije Micic

Another fun name. The Thunder brought the 30 year old over from Anadolu Efes in Turkey to provide some guard depth behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. They ended up not needing his services with Cason Wallace being a usable player right out of the gate, so his playing time was limited.

The 2021 EuroLeague MVP was a good shooter and very efficient scorer during his time in Europe. He was more of a facilitator in Oklahoma City and never really found his footing. The Hornets will be hoping he can return to the form of his European glory days in a new situation.

Tre Mann

Tre Mann’s name literally translates to “guy who makes 3-pointers.” He probably has the most accurate name in NBA history. The efficiency hasn’t quite matched the talent yet, but he’s fully capable of getting scorching hot from three. He fell out of the rotation in Oklahoma City this season given their aforementioned guard depth, but he’s still a talented player. He only just turned 23, so there’s still time for him to put it all together.

He’s not dissimilar from Hornets rookie Nick Smith Jr. They probably won’t get a ton of court time together, but it’s kind of fun having a couple of microwave guards waiting in the wings on the bench.

Grant Williams

The Hornets were rumored to be interested in the native Charlottean when he was an unrestricted free agent last summer despite his redundancy with PJ Washington and Miles Bridges. They swapped Washington for Williams and other pieces, which removes that redundancy.

Williams has a reputation as being a good defender and immediately steps in as the Hornets most physical player. If nothing else, he can be a tone setter for a team that needs one. He’s developed into a good catch-and-shoot threat and should be a very good glue guy for the Hornets.

Seth Curry

Hornets fans (and I) have been clamoring for the Hornets to bring in a Curry. The older one is probably pretty tough to pry away from Golden State, but the younger Curry still brings a lot of what the Hornets need. And that’s purely from a basketball perspective. That’s not even considering the fact that it’ll be super fun to hear Dell Curry do totally unbiased commentary about his son, especially if he has a game where he gets hot.

Curry has seen his minutes reduced the last couple of seasons. He’s played sparingly this season, but he can still be an important player. He’s a career 43.2% 3-point shooter, which is seventh best in NBA history and better than Stephen Curry. He’s also capable of running an offense as a point guard even if he’s not the most advanced ball handler. He’s going to get plenty of burn as long as LaMelo is out and will hopefully provide some extra oomph to the Hornets below average but improving 3-point attack.