The Hornets rejection is expected Ryan Nembhard after acquiring him in a trade with the Hawks, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports.
There was trade officially completed on Tuesday night with a veteran forward Dorian Finney-Smith going to Atlanta in exchange for Buddy HieldNembhard and cash.
The Hornets currently have 18 players on standard contracts, including 17 with guaranteed salaries. They will have to cut that number down to 15 by opening night. Nembhardt is among the players on a guaranteed deal, but he’ll only make $2,150,917 through 2026-27, so waiving him wouldn’t significantly affect Charlotte’s salary cap situation.
The club also has several other options at point guard, with Dennis Schroeder and a first-round pick Christian Anderson Jr predicted to back up Kobe White.
Nembhardt was traded to the Mavericks earlier in the offseason. He was sent to Atlanta in a trio Lugenz is there/Zachary Ryzaker trade in July Last year, Nembhard played in 60 games for Dallas, starting 27 times and being upgraded from a two-way contract to a standard deal. He averaged 6.6 mpg, 5.3 mpg and 2.2 mpg at 19.5 mpg with a solid .415/.356/.806 shooting line.
Nembhardt is expected to have a number of suitors ready to offer a two-way contract should he decline, with Nuggets among the teams interested in the point guard, Mark Stein of The Stein Line tweets. He could sign with any team but Atlanta.
Jake Fisher speculated in his latest Bleacher Report live broadcast (video link) that Charlotte might as well give up Hilde. However, this will leave a larger amount of dead money on the team’s books. Hield is on a fully guaranteed $9.66M contract this season, and his deal also includes a $10.1M player option for 27/28 that will be partially guaranteed for $3.14M if he opts out.