A few hours after it was reported that the Charlotte Hornets would be waiving guard James Bouknight, the team officially announced that decision and added that guards Ish Smith and Frank Ntilikina were also waived.
OFFICIAL: We have waived guard James Bouknight, guard Frank Ntilikina, and guard Ish Smith.
— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) February 9, 2024
Read Full Release: https://t.co/5m9MVLvkbf pic.twitter.com/12DC1r5n7a
The semi-interesting thing about this news is the omission of someone–Kyle Lowry. The Hornets have made it clear that they have no intention of playing him, so it’s strange that he wasn’t part of the roster cutdown today. Perhaps they’re still working out the terms of his buyout or something like that.
The Hornets brought in a handful of guards at the deadline with Tre Mann and Vasilije Micic from the Thunder and Seth Curry from the Mavericks. That incoming trio is going to be the majority of the Hornets guard rotation for the rest of the season.
We talked about Bouknight in the post about his release earlier. Ntilikina and Ish and have been similarly unimpactful. Ntilikina has (inexplicably, in my opinion) been kept on the roster all season while recovering from a leg injury and then various smaller ailments in recent weeks. He’s now finally been waived after appearing in five games, attempting nine shots (eight of them being 3-pointers), and making one. Pretty nifty use of a roster spot to this point.
Ish Smith seems like one of nicest people ever, so I don’t want to trash him too bad, but he was playing a role that should not have been asked for him. The Hornets basically coaxed him out of retirement to join the team and then gave him significant minutes when injuries hit the Hornets guard rotation. His lack of outside shot has been very detrimental to the Hornets and he doesn’t have the juice to make up for it anymore, especially in today’s NBA. He’ll finally be allowed to retire like he intended to.
Assuming Lowry is bought out in the next couple of days, the Hornets will have an open roster spot to use between now and the end of the season. With the newfound impetus to acquire assets, I’d expect they use that spot to sign young G League player(s) to 10-day contracts to see if they can find a diamond in the rough.
