The Charlotte Hornets may be under new ownership by the end of the 2023 offseason but their plan for how to build their roster in the immediate future will be mostly unchanged.
At least so says Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak, per the Associated Press:
“Typically, the basketball operations [such as] players, contracts, who you draft and all that stuff doesn't really get affected by that.”
With Charlotte projected to have $39 million in cap space this offseason, some might expect for them to go after a marquee player in free agency or even the trade market.
However, Kupchak shuts down that aspersion as well, saying that “although we have a lot of financial flexibility, we don't typically go big-game hunting with our free agent money.”
Instead, the Hornets will be using their salary cap space in order to “sign back players.”
So far as the trade market is concerned, Kupchak says they'll have to make deals that are “savvy.”
What these means for a player like restricted free agent Miles Bridges is unclear, as Bridges is currently under investigation by the league for multiple domestic violence charges.
Nonetheless, the Hornets have five players set to reach free agency this offseason.
Though they're unlikely to be able to re-sign them all, there's reason to believe they each of Kelly Oubre Jr., P.J. Washington, Dennis Smith Jr., Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, and Theo Maledon back.
Especially with Kupchak believing its unrealistic to assume a higher-level free agent would want to sign with them:
“Maybe one day we will get to the point where a marquee free agent would look at our team and we're winning a bunch of games and he'll say, ‘Hey, that's a place I really want to go… right now, I don't think that's realistic…”
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