Hoops Rumors takes a look at the 2024 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, breaking down the summer’s signings, transfers, draft picks, departures and more. We take a look at each team’s offseason transfers and consider what might be coming before the regular season begins. Today we’re focusing on the Charlotte Hornets.

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New signings of free agents

• Mile bridges: Three years, $75,000,000. Re-signed with Bird rights.
• Seth Curry: One year, minimum salary. Signed except for minimum salary.
• Taj Gibson: One year, minimum salary. Partially guaranteed ($1,082,270). Signed except for minimum salary.

Trade

• Acquired Devonte’ Graham and the Pelicans’ 2025 second-round pick from the Spurs for cash.
  • Note: Graham was later released.
• Acquired Josh Green, Reggie Jacksonthe Nuggets’ 2029 second-round pick and the Nuggets’ 2030 second-round pick from the Mavericks and Nuggets in a six-team trade in exchange for the Sixers’ 2025 second-round pick (to the Mavericks or Timberwolves) and cash (to the Nuggets).
  • Note: Jackson was later bought out.

Draft selections

• 1-6: Tidjane Salaun
  • Signed a rookie scale contract (four years, $34,035,472).
• 2-42: KJ Simpson
  • Signed a two-year contract with two objectives.

Two-way signatures

Departed/unsigned free agents

Other movements

Salary cap situation

• Went under the canopy to make use of space.
• Currently, the amount is above the cap ($140.6 million) and below the luxury tax limit ($170.8 million).
• The salary is approximately $153.6 million.
• Hard cap at $188,931,000.
• Exception for full room ($8 million) possible.

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The off-season so far

The Hornets won just 21 games in the 2023-24 season, their lowest mark in over a decade, but there were some positive developments throughout the season – the first under their new ownership group – that could pay off for the franchise in the long run.

Firstly, the second pick of last year Brandon Miller looks like a long-term building block and a future star. Charlotte also made a smart move mid-season, accepting the best offers on the veteran trade market Terry Rozier, PJ WashingtonAnd Gordon Haywardwhich brought the club several future draft assets. Finally, the team made a change in the front office in the spring and hired Jeff Peterson as the new head of basketball operations.

It will be some time before we can truly evaluate some of the decisions Peterson made during his first offseason. For example, hiring his head coach seems to have been a good decision – Karl-Heinz has received rave reviews for his work as an assistant. But new head coaches also bring risks, and it remains to be seen whether Lee’s transition into a leadership role will be smooth.

The biggest change in the Hornets squad this summer was the re-signing of striker Mile bridges to a three-year, $75 million contract as an unrestricted free agent. That seems like a fair deal considering his performance on the court, but Bridges’ past regarding domestic violence cases cannot be ignored. Charlotte hopes that Bridges’ past behavior is completely behind him and he will be an upstanding citizen in the future, but it can certainly be argued that the Hornets should never have made such an investment in a player who has such allegations on his record.

The Hornets’ lottery pick for 2024 is also not without risk, albeit for entirely different reasons – Tidjane Salaun just turned 19 last week and is unlikely to make much of an impact in the NBA as a rookie. Many people around the league were surprised that Salaun was selected as high as No. 6, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Woo; ESPN’s Jonathan Givony describes him as a player who is “still getting his first taste of the highest level.” That doesn’t mean Salaun won’t become an impact player at some point, but Charlotte will have to be patient with his development.

The Hornets operated under the salary cap in the offseason, with Peterson using that leeway to make a handful of salary cuts (Devonte’ Graham, Reggie Jackson, Josh Green) instead of pursuing external free agents.

Graham and Jackson were draft picks and then released, while Green – a 23-year-old wing with three-and-D skills – is projected to be a rotation player in Charlotte going forward, with a contract that runs through the 2026-27 season.

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Next

The Hornets still need to fill spots on their roster before the start of the regular season; 14 players are on standard contracts and two are on two-way contracts.

While the team could leave the 15th spot on the standard roster open at the start of the season, there’s no real reason not to fill it considering how far Charlotte’s team salary is from the luxury tax line. If the Hornets aren’t ready to sign a player for the full season, they could sign a 15th man on a non-guaranteed salary in the fall.

Tre Mannwho was acquired by the Thunder at the 2024 trade deadline, is eligible for a rookie scale extension, while Cody Martin is eligible for a veteran contract extension. Martin is not currently a candidate for a new contract because he has struggled with injuries over the past two seasons, but Mann could be one to keep an eye on – he started 28 games for Charlotte in the final period and played well (11.9 PPG, 5.2 APG, .453/.364/.759 hitting percentage).

That’s a relatively small sample size, so the Hornets may prefer to wait another year for Mann and then negotiate a deal with him in restricted free agency next summer. But if they’re encouraged by his performance in camp and the price is right, I wouldn’t be entirely surprised to see the two sides work something out sooner rather than later.

The Hornets are a team to keep an eye on in the transfer market during the preseason and early in the season, as they can afford some salary sacrifice and have shown over the past eight months that they are happy to take on unwanted contracts in order to continue to accumulate draft assets.