Category: Charlotte Hornets Blog

Charlotte Hornets General Manager Rich Cho announced today that the team has exercised its fourth-year option on forward Frank Kaminsky.

“We’re happy to have Frank as a part of what we’re developing here in Charlotte,” Cho said. “His work ethic and commitment to improvement are showing early returns this season and we look forward to what the future holds for Frank.”

The 7-0 Wisconsin product is in his third NBA season after appearing in 156 games (19 starts) in his first two seasons in Charlotte. In five games this season, Kaminsky is averaging 14.2 points per game on 45.6% shooting, a mark good for sixth in the NBA in bench scoring. He holds career averages of 9.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 23.7 minutes per game in 161 contests. Kaminsky was selected by the Hornets ninth overall in the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft.

Charlotte Hornets guard Julyan Stone has suffered a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring. The injury occurred in practice on Sunday, Oct. 22 and he did not travel with the team to Milwaukee.

Stone is listed as out for tonight’s game against the Bucks and his expected recovery time is estimated at four to six weeks. Further updates on his status will be provided when available.

Stone, a 6-6 guard and fourth-year player out of Texas-El Paso, appeared in the Hornets first two games and averaged 3.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 9.0 minutes per game. For his career, he has averaged 1.4 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 49 games with the Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors and Hornets. Stone signed with Charlotte as a free agent on Aug. 23, 2017 after playing with Reyer Venezia Mestre of the Lega Basket Serie A in Italy.

Charlotte Hornets General Manager Rich Cho announced today that the team has waived Terry Henderson, Isaiah Hicks, Luke Petrasek and T.J. Williams.

Henderson, a 6-4 guard, spent his final two seasons at North Carolina State after transferring from West Virginia. The Raleigh, N.C. native appeared in two exhibition games for the Hornets totaling eight points, four rebounds and two assists in 38.5 minutes of play.

Hicks, a 6-9 forward from North Carolina, appeared in 151 career games, helping the Tar Heels win the 2017 NCAA National Championship. He appeared in one exhibition game for the Hornets recording two minutes of play.

Petrasek, a 6-10 forward from Columbia University, earned Second Team All-Ivy League Honors during the 2016-17 season. The four-year college player did not appear in any preseason games with Charlotte.

Williams, a 6-4 guard from Northeastern, played in 151 career games with the Huskies, and averaged a team-high and CAA-leading 21.4 points per game during his senior season in 2016-17. He appeared in three exhibition games with the Charlotte Hornets during the preseason averaging 1.3 points, 0.7 rebounds and 0.7 steals in 10.1 minutes per game.

The Hornets roster now stands at 16 players, which includes the two players that have signed two-way contracts.

The Charlotte Hornets have promoted Stephen Silas to associate head coach and have hired Eddie Jordan as an assistant coach.

The team also made the following announcements regarding basketball operations personnel: Rick Higgins has been promoted to coaching assistant/video coordinator, Cam Twiss has been promoted to General Manager of the team’s G League affiliate the Greensboro Swarm, David Kaplan has been promoted to manager of basketball analytics, Adam Filippi has transitioned to collegiate scouting and Jakub Kudlacek has been hired as an international scout.

Silas is in his eighth season on the Charlotte bench and 17th in the NBA, coming to Charlotte after spending the previous four and a half seasons as an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors. Prior to joining the Warriors, Silas served as an advance scout for the Washington Wizards during the 2005-06 season.

Silas also spent five seasons as an assistant coach under his father, Paul Silas, with the original Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets (2000-03) and Cleveland Cavaliers (2003-05). Silas, who joined the original Hornets in the summer of 1999 as an advance and college scout, was promoted to assistant coach on June 5, 2000, making him the youngest assistant in the NBA at that time at 27 years old.

The Boston-native graduated from Brown University in 1996, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in sociology and management and played four seasons for the Bears basketball team. Upon graduation, Silas spent three years as the assistant executive director of the National Basketball Retired Players Association in Providence, Rhode Island.

Jordan played seven seasons in the NBA from 1977-84 with four different teams, helping the Lakers to an NBA Championship during the 1981-82 season. He began his coaching career as an assistant in the college ranks with Boston College (1986-88) and Rutgers University (1988-91), before returning to the NBA as an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings from 1992-97. Jordan has been a head coach with three NBA teams: the Kings (1997-98), the Washington Wizards (2003-08) and Philadelphia 76ers (2009-10). Most recently, he was the head coach at his alma mater, Rutgers University (2013-16).

The Washington, D.C. native has additional coaching experience as the lead assistant with the New Jersey Nets (1999-03) and Los Angeles Lakers (2012-13), where he coached alongside current Hornets Head Coach Steve Clifford. While with the Nets, Jordan helped guide the team to back-to-back NBA Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003.

Higgins’ promotion to coaching assistant/video coordinator comes after serving as the team’s video scout for the past four seasons. In his expanded role, Higgins will assist with game planning, scouting reports and player workouts in addition to his role in the video department.

Twiss has been promoted to General Manager of the Greensboro Swarm after serving as the Swarm’s Director of Basketball Operations for the G League affiliate’s inaugural season. Twiss will manage the Swarm’s roster, advise on G League and college personnel and assist with the integration between the Hornets and its G-League team.

Filippi, who previously scouted internationally, is now focused on collegiate scouting. Entering his seventh season in Charlotte, Filippi has more than 20 years of scouting experience. He previously worked for the Los Angeles Lakers before joining the Hornets.

Kudlacek, a native of the Czech Republic, played professionally in Europe for seven seasons and was a member of the Czech national team. Last season, he served as an international scout for the Los Angeles Clippers.

In his new role, Kaplan will provide basketball analytics to the coaching staff and front office. Previously, he served as a quantitative analyst for the Hornets.

The Charlotte Hornets have unveiled their Classic edition uniforms for the 2017-18 season, bringing back the design worn by the original Charlotte Hornets from their inception in 1988 through 1997. Like the previously released white Association and teal Icon editions, the uniform features the logo of Nike’s Jordan Brand. The Hornets – the only team in U.S. professional sports to have the iconic Jumpman logo on its uniforms – will feature five different uniforms in their 2017-18 uniform collection.

“Since we brought the Hornets name back in 2014, our fans have practically been begging for us to wear a version of the original Hornets uniform,” said Hornets President & COO Fred Whitfield. “We could not be more excited to give them what they want and to see the historic pinstriped, teal Charlotte uniform back on an NBA court.”

Based on the uniform worn during the Hornets’ first decade, the teal jersey includes the familiar crossover v-neck and mutli-colored pinstripes in royal blue, light blue, purple and green. The shorts feature the classic Hornets logo on the waist and the identical royal blue, teal and white trim as the original. The Hornets will wear the Classic edition uniforms for three home games during the 2017-18 season: November 15 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, December 23 against the Milwaukee Bucks and January 13 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Charlotte Hornets signed guard Julyan Stone today.

Stone (6-6, 200) has appeared in 47 career NBA games (two starts) over three seasons with Denver (2011-13) and Toronto (2013-14), averaging 1.3 points, 1.1 assists and 1.0 rebounds in 7.0 minutes per contest. He most recently joins Charlotte after a stint with Reyer Venezia Mestre of the Lega Basket Serie A in Italy, appearing in 26 games and helping the squad to a 2017 Serie A Championship. Prior to his time with Reyer Venezia Mestre, Stone played with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA G League last season, seeing action in 33 games (31 starts), averaging 7.9 points, 8.6 assists, 6.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 34.7 minutes per contest.

The 28-year-old has additional playing experience with Royal Hali Gazientep (2015-16) of the Turkish Basketball Super League, a first stretch with Reyer Venezia Mestre (2014-15) and G League experience with the Iowa Energy (2013) and Idaho Stampede (2012).

Stone was a four-year collegiate player at the University of Texas-El Paso (2007-11), earning 2010-11 All-Conference USA Second Team honors following his senior season, where he averaged 8.5 points, 7.5 boards, 5.3 assists and 1.5 steals in 36.5 minutes per contest.

Stone will wear No. 32 for the Hornets.

Charlotte Hornets General Manager Rich Cho announced today that the team has signed forward/center Mangok Mathiang (MANG-go MATH-ee-ang) and guard Marcus Paige to two-way contracts.

Mathiang (6-10, 230, Louisville) was a member of the Hornets entry at the 2017 Orlando Pro Summer League, where he saw action in five games, averaging 4.4 points on 53.3 percent from the field, 5.0 rebounds and 2.8 offensive rebounds in 17.1 minutes per game.

Born in Sudan, Africa, Mathiang lived in Melbourne, Australia for several years before moving to the United States where he spent four years at Louisville (2013-17), appearing in 114 career games (44 starts), owning averages of 4.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 18.0 minutes per contest, serving as team captain as a redshirt senior in 2016-17. In his final collegiate season, Mathiang averaged 7.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 20.8 minutes per contest, helping the Cardinals to a 25-9 record.

Paige (6-1, 164, North Carolina), was originally drafted with the 55th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft by the Brooklyn Nets, with his draft rights being traded to Utah the following day. The 23-year-old appeared in 46 games (40 starts) with the Salt Lake City Stars of the NBA G League last season, averaging 12.1 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 32.7 minutes per contest.

The Marion, Iowa native played four collegiate seasons at North Carolina (2012-16), owning career averages of 13.1 points on 40.7 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from beyond the arc, 4.3 assists and 2.8 rebounds in 141 games, helping the Tar Heels to a 2016 NCAA Championship Game appearance as a senior.

Paige was named to the 2014-15 All-ACC Third Team and 2013-14 All-ACC First Team, also earning the 2013-14 ACC Most Improved Player of the Year award. Additionally, he was recognized as an Academic All-American in three seasons, including First Team honors following his senior year.

Mathiang and Paige become the first Hornets players to ever sign a two-way contract. The 2017-18 season is the first year NBA teams can utilize two-way contracts, in which teams will be permitted to carry two such players on their roster in addition to their 15-man regular season roster. Charlotte’s two-way players will spend time with the team’s NBA G League squad, The Greensboro Swarm, as well as the main club, but are allowed no more than 45 days in the NBA, not including any time prior to the start of the Swarm’s training camp and at the conclusion of the season.

Charlotte Hornets General Manager Rich Cho announced today that the team has waived guard Briante Weber.

Weber (6-2, 165, Virginia Commonwealth) signed two consecutive 10-day contracts with the Hornets on Feb. 27, 2017, and March 9, 2017, before signing a multi-year deal on March 19, 2017. He appeared in 13 games for the Hornets, averaging 3.8 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 12.2 minutes per game.

Charlotte Hornets General Manager Rich Cho announced today that the team has signed guard Michael Carter-Williams.

The 2013-14 NBA Rookie of the Year, Carter-Williams was selected 11th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2013 NBA Draft and also earned All-Rookie First Team honors following his first season. In his first two seasons with Philadelphia and Milwaukee, he averaged 15.7 points, 6.5 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game, joining Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Grant Hill, Steve Francis and LeBron James as the only players to average at least 15.0 points, 6.0 assists and 5.0 rebounds through their first two NBA seasons.

The 6-6 guard appeared in 45 games (19 starts) with Chicago during the 2016-17 season, averaging 6.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 18.8 minutes per contest. He currently owns career averages of 13.0 points, 5.4 assists and 5.2 rebounds in 235 games (189 starts) over four seasons with Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Chicago.

The Syracuse product has totaled five career triple-doubles, 38 career double-doubles (20 point-assist, 18 point-rebound), 48 games with 20-plus points and four games with 30-plus points in his four-year NBA career.

Carter-Williams will wear No. 10 for the Hornets.