Charlotte Hornets 2024 Free Agents
Miles Bridges and Amari Bailey are the two Charlotte Hornets players who will enter free agency July 1.
Before going in-depth on the Charlotte Hornets’ upcoming free agents, let’s first look at their cap sheet.
At first glance, Miles Bridges and Amari Bailey are the only 2 Hornets players who will become free agents July 1.
The Hornets could have more than those 2 players enter free agency depending on what decisions they make with 5 other players:
Davis Bertans - Bertans has an early termination option (ETO) in his contract, where he can use the option to become a free agent. If Bertans doesn’t want to use the option and the Hornets instead waive him, he’ll walk away with $5.2 million in guaranteed money. If the Hornets don’t waive him by January 10, 2025, then he’ll earn the full $16 million for next season.
Aleksej Pokusevski - Poku’s deal will become guaranteed for $2.2 million if he’s not waived by July 8.
Bryce McGowens - The Hornets have until July 18 to decide if McGowan’s contract will be fully guaranteed next season for $2 million.
So on paper, while the Hornets have just 2 players entering free agency, they could have up to 7 players going into free agency depending on decisions they make in the next month.
If the Hornets were to waive all players on non-guaranteed contracts and let all free agents walk, they could open a maximum of $33.7 million in cap space.
Now let’s look at the Hornets’ free agents.
Miles Bridges 6’7” - Unrestricted Free Agent
69 games played (84% of season), 37.4 minutes
Position - Forward. Bridges logged 73% of his minutes at the 4 and 27% of his minutes at the 3 per CleaningTheGlass.com.
Free agent status - Bridges made his return to the court last season after sitting out the 2022-23 season, after pleading no contest to a felony domestic violence charge from the summer of 2022. He then served a 30-game suspension from the NBA, in which he missed 10 games last season, as part of that suspension. Last summer, Bridges signed and played on a $7.9 million qualifying offer. After playing on a qualifying offer for a season, he will now become an unrestricted free agent this summer. As Bobby Marks of ESPN noted, if cap space teams don’t send Bridges offers, there may be over-the-cap teams who may look at sign-and-trade deals if the Hornets don’t re-sign Bridges.
NBA Experience - At 26, Bridges has 5 years of NBA experience.
Seth Curry 6’1” - Unrestricted Free Agent
Primary Position: Shooting guard | Secondary Position: Small forward
Free agent status - Curry will be an unrestricted free agent after he was waived by Charlotte.
NBA Experience - Curry will be 34 when next season begins, with 10 years of NBA experience.
JT Thor 6’9” - Unrestricted Free Agent
Primary Position: Power Forward
Free agent status - Thor will be an unrestricted free agent.
NBA Experience - Thor will be 22 next season, with 3 years of NBA experience.
The Two-Way Free Agent - Amari Bailey
The Hornets have until June 29 to tender Bailey a $1.8 million qualifying offer to return to Charlotte on a two-way contract.
Should the Spurs try to sign any of the Hornets’ free agents?
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