Charlotte Hornets: 3 takeaways from the 2018 offseason

1. The Hornets still have a messy salary cap situation

While the Hornets did indeed shed some salary, Mitch Kupchak still has a lot of work to do. The Hornets seem confident they can keep Walker after 2018-19 when he is set to be a free agent, but the numbers, so far, say otherwise. Still, Kupchak hasn’t hid how much he wants to keep Walker.

Whether or not that happens, and if Kemba even wants to do that, there will be a lot of salary cap questions over the next two to three years, as three guys have player options in 2019:

• Michael Kidd-Gilchrist: $13 million
• Marvin Williams: $15 million
• Bismack Biyombo: $17 million

The Hornets have six players set for free agency next year, including Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb and Frank Kaminsky. Not only will the three player options limit Hornets in 2019, but if Lamb or Kaminsky take a big leap in production, the Hornets may be wanting to bring one of them back into the fold. Signing Kemba will make that a near impossibility.

This doesn’t even include the biggest elephant in the room, Nicolas Batum, who’s on the books  nearly $50 million over the next two years; he also holds a player option worth over $27 million in 2020.

The Charlotte Hornets may have improved themselves for the short-term, but when looking ahead over the next two years, Kupchak and company still have a lot of work to do to make this team a consistent playoff contender in the Eastern Conference.