Charlotte Hornets
Key additions: Miles Bridges (draft), Devonte’ Graham (draft), Tony Parker (free agency), Bismack Biyombo (trade)
Key subtractions: Dwight Howard (trade), Michael Carter-Williams (free agency), Julyan Stone (trade), Treveon Graham (free agency)
There was no Kemba Walker trade this summer. Nicolas Batum, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marvin Williams weren’t a part of a salary dump. In short, the Charlotte Hornets aren’t blowing it up in a weaker Eastern Conference, banking on competing in 2018-19 and being able to convince Walker to re-sign in free agency next summer.
For the time being, the Hornets added a nice young piece in the draft in Miles Bridges, a quality backup point guard in Devonte’ Graham and the perfect mentor for him in Tony Parker. Getting rid of Dwight Howard was a must, but doing so to take on an additional year of Timofey Mozgov salary and two second-rounders didn’t make much sense.
It made a little more sense once Charlotte jettisoned Mozgov in a three-team trade for Bismack Biyombo, but his deal is an albatross for the next two years too, making him only a slightly more useful version of Mozgov.
In the draft, new GM Mitch Kupchak did well. In free agency and on the trade front, he didn’t inspire as much confidence. The Hornets will still be on the cusp of being competitive next year, but they won’t contend for much in the playoffs and their cap situation is still awfully ugly. Bridges was a great pick, but for the most part, the Hornets didn’t really make waves in either direction.
Grade: C