The Hornets have waived guard KJ Simpson, the team announced today (Twitter link).
The 42nd overall pick in the 2024 draft, Simpson signed a two-year, two-way contract with Charlotte as a rookie that summer and remained on that deal until today. He has appeared in a total of 50 regular season games for Charlotte since making his debut in the fall of 2024, averaging 7.3 points, 2.9 assists, and 2.8 rebounds in 21.3 minutes per game.
Simpson has posted a subpar shooting line of .346/.266/.773 in his 50 NBA outings and struggled with his shot in the G League this year too, making just 37.6% of his attempts from the floor and 24.1% from beyond the arc in 11 games with the Greensboro Swarm. He has been sidelined since mid-January due to a left hip injury.
Charlotte will fill its newly created two-way opening by signing forward Tosan Evbuomwan, agent George S. Langberg tells ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
A former Ivy League Player of the Year at Princeton, Evbuomwan went undrafted in 2023 and has spent the two-and-a-half seasons since then bouncing back and forth between the NBA and G League.
The 6’8″ forward signed 10-day contracts with the Grizzlies and Pistons as a rookie before finishing that season on a two-way deal with Detroit, then spent the majority of his second season on a two-way deal with Brooklyn. Evbuomwan was waived by the Nets this past August and signed a new two-way contract with the Knicks in September before being cut by New York last month.
Evbuomwan, who has also made 50 total appearances at the NBA level, has been playing for the Maine Celtics since being let go by the Knicks. He has averaged 19.4 PPG, 5.9 RPG, and 4.7 APG in nine contests (35.2 MPG) for Boston’s NBAGL affiliate in recent weeks.
The Hornets will be able to have Evbuomwan active for up to 19 NBA games for the rest of the season.
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