After yo-yoing back and forth between the postseason and the lottery during Steve Clifford‘s first four years with the club, the Hornets failed to bounce back in Clifford’s fifth year, enduring a second straight 36-46 season. That disappointing outcome resulted in the ouster of both Clifford and GM Rich Cho, so Charlotte will head into the 2018/19 league year with a new management team and head coach in place as the club mulls its next moves.
Here’s where things currently stand for the Hornets financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2018:
Guaranteed Salary
- Nicolas Batum ($24,000,000)
- Dwight Howard ($23,819,725)
- Marvin Williams ($14,087,500)
- Cody Zeller ($13,528,090)
- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist ($13,000,000)
- Kemba Walker ($12,000,000)
- Jeremy Lamb ($7,488,372)
- Frank Kaminsky ($3,627,842)
- Malik Monk ($3,447,480)
- Willy Hernangomez ($1,544,951)
- Dwayne Bacon ($1,378,242)
- Total: $117,922,202
Player Options
- None
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Julyan Stone ($1,656,092)1
- Total: $1,656,092
Restricted Free Agents
- Treveon Graham ($1,699,698 qualifying offer / $1,699,698 cap hold): Early Bird rights
- Total: $1,699,698
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- No. 11 overall pick ($3,346,518)2
- Michael Carter-Williams ($3,240,000): Non-Bird rights
- Total: $6,586,518
Projected Salary Cap: $101,000,000
Projected Cap Room: None
- With 11 of their 14 current players still on guaranteed contracts next year, the Hornets don’t have a whole lot of flexibility. Adding those 11 salaries to the team’s cap hold for its lottery pick works out to a total team salary of $121,268,720, which is well above the cap and may be right around the tax line. While new GM Mitch Kupchak will almost certainly look to reduce that figure this summer, creating any short-term cap room is unlikely.
Footnotes:
- Stone’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after August 1.
- The Hornets are 11th in the draft lottery standings. They’ll likely have the No. 11 selection, but could end up picking as high as No. 1 ($8,095,595) and as low as No. 14 ($2,869,353).
Note: Rookie scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I laughed out loud when I got to the Projected Cap Room. I mean it is comical. What on earth possessed them to give Batum that contract? Like they had to have outbid by 10 or 12M from the next team right? I dont remember him getting some RFA sheet from the Nets like Johnson and Crabbe.
Ya def too much money there. If they wanna avoid tax line they may have to package that pick with Marvin Williams, zeller or batum to reduce cap and sign a few guys for small contracts to fill out the roster but we shall she
They could do some kind of 3-way deal that includes Chicago taking on salary plus another team’s pick. Hornets will try and keep their own pick at all costs. I threw out a 3-way trade with Cleveland and Phoenix:
Cavs get: Batum, Howard, Walker
Hornets get: Hill, Thompson, Dudley
Phoenix gets: Clarkson
For the Hornets it saves them 46.5M over the next 3 seasons. They would need to do something of this ilk to even attempt to get out of this salary cap hole.
They could always attempt to re-sign Walker after trading him too in 2019-20. Williams and MKG could be moved in 2019-20 as expiring deals.
I remember that, and at some point, I may have said that Kemba W, Cody Z and Marvin W made for an attractive $40mil trading package with a motivated seller.
Batum is like Wesley Mathews: as soon as he left Portland, started going downhill.
In theory he’s an ideal complEment to Walker but that was before.
James might holler at Howard a bit to much for Howard’s taste.
Yea, Zeller, Williams, and Batum all nice players. But Batum should be making the same as Williams. Also look at Crabbe, another portland product.
Batum raises any package cost considerably– that would be $52mil and NOT a hot item! I had Walker, Zeller & Wlms. Walker&Zeller had chemistry last year.
So then we have a bunch on salary with a 20 win team. Not gonna happen. We have the all-star game and Jordan isn’t going to have us as the laughing stock of the league with ALL THE MEDIA ATTENTION on Charlotte this yr. Come on fellas let’s do REALISTIC trades. Kemba isn’t going anywhere
Dude, Dudley and Hill are expiring contracts. The only contract they take back beyond 1 season is Thompson at 17.4 and 18.5 M each season. Getting out from under Batum without giving up their 1st rounder would be Houdini-esque.
But you’re saying if they have the All Star game, and they’re 10 games below .500 like they finished the season, that will make the locals happy? But being worse, and in-line for a better draft pick will make them mad?
This year they’d probably land Collin Sexton in the draft. The following year you have some intrigue – RJ Barrett, Cameron Reddish, Zion Williamson, 7-2′ Bol Bol lol.