The Charlotte Hornets have extended qualifying offers to forwards Miles Bridges and Cody Martin, making them both restricted free agents.
The qualifying offer allows the Hornets to match any offer sheet either player signs with another team.
During the 2021-22 season, Bridges averaged 20.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 35.5 minutes per game in 80 contests. He set new career highs in points, rebounds and assists per game, increasing his scoring average by 7.5 points per game from the 2020-21 season. He opened the 2021-22 season by earning Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the first week of games played and finished the season ranking 15th in total points (1,613). He scored 20-plus points in 44 games and 30 points or more in nine games in his fourth year after just 24 20-point performances through his first three seasons. Bridges also ranked amongst the NBA’s top paint scorers with 840 paint points, the sixth-most in the NBA last season.
The 12th overall selection in the 2018 NBA Draft, the Hornets acquired the draft rights to Bridges from the LA Clippers. Over four seasons in the NBA, Bridges has amassed 13.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 29.1 minutes per game. He holds a career field goal percentage of .473% and has made 434 career 3-point field goals, which is seventh on the franchise’s all-time 3-pointers made list.
Martin, who appeared in 71 games during the 2021-22 season, averaged 7.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 steals per game, setting all new single-season career highs. In his third season out of Nevada, Martin connected on .482% of his field goal attempts, including shooting .384% from beyond the arc, which are both are new career highs for a single season. He ended last season ranked 26th in steals per contest among league leaders and was tied for 16th in the NBA in multi-steal games (28).
Selected with the 36th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft by Charlotte, Martin has made 171 career appearances, accruing averages of 5.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.0 steals in 21.2 minutes per outing.
