Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Charlotte Hornets

The Hornets have only about half as much guaranteed salary for next season as the projected $92MM salary cap, but don’t count on them formally opening any cap room this summer. GM Rich Cho wants to keep the team intact, having said he wants to re-sign as many of the team’s free agents as possible. That means Charlotte will probably keep their cap holds on the books until those free agents either re-sign or sign elsewhere, and with the cap holds for Nicolas Batum and Al Jefferson taking up nearly $40MM alone, the Hornets are unlikely to have cap space to use on outside free agents if Batum and Jefferson return. Instead, the team appears poised to stay above the cap and take advantage of the larger mid-level exception afforded capped-out teams, worth $5.628MM, to supplement the roster or simply to re-sign Jeremy Lin, with whom they have only Non-Bird rights. See how Charlotte’s cap situation looks for 2016/17 as Hoops Rumors continues its offseason salary cap digest series.

Guaranteed Salary

• Michael Kidd-Gilchrist ($13,000,000)
• Kemba Walker ($12,000,000)
• Jeremy Lamb ($6,511,628)
• Spencer Hawes ($6,348,759)
• Cody Zeller ($5,318,313)
• Frank Kaminsky ($2,730,000)
• Total: $45,908,700

Player Options

• Jeremy Lin ($2,235,255)

Team Options

• None

Non-Guaranteed Salary

• Aaron Harrison ($874,636)

Restricted Free Agents (Qualifying Offers/Cap Holds)

• Troy Daniels ($1,215,696/$1,215,696)
• Jorge Gutierrez ($1,215,696/$1,215,696)
• Totals: ($2,431,392/$2,431,392)

Unrestricted Free Agents (Cap Holds)

• Al Jefferson ($20,250,000)
• Nicolas Batum ($19,687,961)
• Courtney Lee ($10,782,500)
• Marvin Williams ($9,100,000)
• Jeremy Lin ($2,566,800) — pending player option
• Tyler Hansbrough ($980,431)
• Total: $63,367,692

Other Cap Holds

• No. 22 pick ($1,199,900)
• Jason Maxiell ($980,431)
• Jeff Taylor ($980,431)
• Total: $3,160,762

Projected Salary Cap: $92,000,000

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.