Terry Rozier has outperformed his Hornets contract; should the team address that now?
Can the Charlotte Hornets keep Terry Rozier from ever reaching free-agency in the summer of 2022?
Just as importantly, should the Hornets make that bet now on Rozier’s long-term impact?
Rozier is having a career season and was named the NBA’s Eastern Conference player of the week Monday. He is arguably the Hornets’ MVP so far this season. So naturally fans are curious about retaining him beyond his current contract.
That topic leads this Hornets mailbag.
Tom Wise asks, can the Hornets sign Rozier to an extension? Would it be in their interest to do so before his price tag rises even more?
The rules on NBA contract extensions often limit what a team can offer a player until his current contract expires. For instance, that made it a practical impossibility to extend Kemba Walker until his Hornets contract expired in the summer of 2019. Then, as an unrestricted free agent, Walker ended up with the Boston Celtics.
Rozier’s current contract is up after next season. The last of three seasons on that deal pays him $17.9 million. The contract was structured for salaries to descend each year. That was smart for salary-cap management, but now Rozier might have earned a big raise in order to stay in Charlotte beyond the current contract.
I don’t think the odds are good that the Hornets and Rozier would agree to an extension in advance of free-agency. The positive for the Hornets is Rozier’s Bird Rights would allow them to exceed the salary cap to re-sign him.
Will Taylor asks, if the Hornets sign a “buyout” player, who is most likely to be waived?
Andre Drummond (Lakers), LaMarcus Aldridge (Nets) and Gorgui Dieng (Spurs) are all gone, so this might be a moot point.
However, Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak said Friday he was willing to release a current player to create a roster spot if he could improve the roster in the buyout market. So it’s natural to wonder who would be cut.
The Hornets couldn’t cut one of the two-way contracts (Grant Riller or Nate Darling) to sign a veteran. My guess — purely a guess — is Brad Wanamaker, Jalen McDaniels or Caleb Martin would be released if it came to that.
Cutting Wanamaker, after the trade with Golden State, would again leave the Hornets potentially shorthanded at point guard while LaMelo Ball is hurt. McDaniels isn’t playing, but I think the Hornets value his length and positional versatility.
Caleb Martin is valued, but with his brother Cody on the roster, much of what Caleb does can be found elsewhere. So it wouldn’t surprise me if he was cut if Kupchak needs a roster spot.
Also, if Caleb Martin was cut, I don’t assume that would end his Hornets career. It wouldn’t surprise me in that scenario if Caleb was part of the Hornets’ summer-league team and was back in their training camp.
Buzz Central asks, when Malik Monk becomes a restricted free agent, do you expect the Hornet to make him an offer prior to letting him hear other teams’ offers, or or wait to match what another team offers?
I expect both to happen: That the Hornets would make Monk an initial offer that conveys their interest and that this could come down to another team’s offer sheet.
It’s common when a player reaches restricted free-agency for a team to make an offer, then tell the agent to shop the market for an offer sheet. More often than not, teams match offer sheets. But the Atlanta Hawks succeeded last summer in getting Bogdan Bogdanovic away from the Sacramento Kings with a $72 million offer sheet, so it does occasionally happen.
If I were Monk and his agent, I’d want to explore the market before making a decision. The second contract of a player’s career, following his rookie-scale deal, is the most important as far as career earnings. So this could take some time once free-agency begins.
Bob Gordon asks, how much is too much for a second-team point guard? Rate the difficulty in executing a sign-and-trade deal.
I gather you are asking about Devonte Graham’s impending restricted free-agency. There are factors beyond Graham’s performance that will play in whether he is re-signed: Starting point guard Ball’s presence, Monk’s free-agency and the Hornets need/desire to improve at center.
Getting an asset out of Graham via a sign-and-trade is possible, but not likely. Teams see free agency as a way to upgrade talent without giving up draft picks or other players. So sign-and-trades these days generally just create trade exceptions, like the Boston Celtics did with Gordon Hayward’s departure.
Colby Trotter asks, can the Hornets sustain this level of defense?
Since Ball got hurt in the loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, the Hornets have been better defensively, a factor in them going 3-1 since the wrist fracture. The Hornets have allowed 1.026 points per opponent possession in their past three games, 7th-best in the NBA in that span. For the season, they are 19th, allowing 1.093 points per opponent possession.
Ball does many things that make the Hornets better, but he’s sometimes a defensive liability. NBA defensive schemes — particularly switches — are generally the toughest thing for a rookie to learn.
Coach James Borrego has shaded his rotation slightly toward defense of late, starting Bismack Biyombo and increasing Cody Martin’s minutes. I don’t see anything gimmicky about this improvement, so it could last.
Mike Lipp asks, with the excitement around Ball and the Hornets, and the pessimism about the Carolina Panthers’ quarterback situation, is this the closest Charlotte has come to switching to an NBA city since the Panthers arrived?
I don’t think the Hornets will ever be more popular in Charlotte than the Panthers, and I don’t think the gap in interest between the two teams has closed significantly of late.
However, I do think the Hornets are a lot more interesting at a time when the MLS is coming to Charlotte, and that could be important. New is always attractive, and I could see pro soccer drawing some attention from the Hornets. So the Hornets playing well seems well-timed from a marketing standpoint.
